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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Big Sur Coast Headlands

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Big Sur Coast Headlands
Thinning fog over the Big Sur coast beyond rugged headlands

Big Sur Coast Headlands. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thinning fog over the Big Sur coast beyond rugged headlands

This was a particularly “quiet” section of the coast on the day I visited. Elsewhere the wind was blowing, sometimes pushing fog across the roadway, and often making photography a bit of a challenge. But here there was shelter from the wind, and the ocean was relatively calm. A fog bank lay across the water in the distance, though it was nearly gone as the day warmed up.

There are impressive headlands all along this section of the Pacific Coast Highway through the Big Sur coast, but this area just south of the town of Big Sur has some of the tallest and steepest sections. I often take this landscape for granted, as I have lived nearby for almost my entire life — and then, every so often, it hits me that it must be one of the most monumental meetings of land and sea on the planet, both for the rugged landscape itself and for the distance across which it stretches.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Through the Scrim

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Through the Scrim
An urban scene viewed through a scrim

Through the Scrim. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An urban scene viewed through a scrim

This is intended to be a sort of playful photograph, though I think it might be read as having a bit of an ominous quality, too, depending upon how you look at it.

I made the photograph from inside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). We are members of the museum and we go there regularly — partly to see the collection and the temporary exhibits, and partly to photograph the architecture, the people, and the urban environment surrounding the building. I made the photograph through a sort of scrim that was covering some windows, presumably to mute the outside light a bit. It was rainy, and a bit of water is running on the fabric of the scrim, and the overall effect is to mute contrast and detail in the urban scene outside the window.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Water Plants

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Water Plants
Water plants growing in a wetland pond

Water Plants. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Water plants growing in a wetland pond

Reflecting water is endlessly fascinating, and it is hard to resist and opportunity to photograph it, especially when it serves to abstract the forms of other subjects. No two such photographs are ever quite alike, as the water is always in motion and the patterns of reflected light, clouds, and sky are constantly shifting.

These water plants, which you might think of as being almost objectively ugly in some conditions, become transformed by the reflections and by being positioned against the nearly featureless background of the water’s surface. Photographing this subject is, as I’ve observed among my photographer friends, both unavoidable and often a bit more difficult that you think it will be. These nearly random forms are appealing, but when you look at them closely it is easy to find compositional problems — overlaps, awkward shapes, unbalanced arrangements.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Wild Onion Flowers

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Wild Onion Flowers
Wild onion plants blossoming in a meadow below Sierra Nevada peaks

Wild Onion Flowers. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Wild onion plants blossoming in a meadow below Sierra Nevada peaks

This week-long (plus!) visit to the Sierra backcountry came during a summer following a record-setting wet season in California. This was more special than usual, as the five years before that had been a period of intense and historically unprecedented drought conditions. During those earlier years a visit to this location at this time of year would have seen dry meadows, almost no wildflowers, and missing snow fields. Given that backdrop, the lush green landscape was extra special.

Even at this late date the wildflowers were abundant and lush. By the end of our stay a few sections of some open meadows were showing just a bit of brown. In may seem surprising, but the purple swamp onion flowers are among my favorite in the Sierra. The plants are lush and green, they typically grow in wet areas, and the flowers are colorful. But more than that is the special surprise of coming upon the fragrance of fresh, wild onions in the backcountry.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.