Tag Archives: tall

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Orvieto House

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Orvieto House
“Orvieto House” — A tall house at the intersection fo two narrow streets in the hill town of Orvieto, Italy.

This Orvieto house caught my attention during one of our walks around this lovely Italian hill town last summer. The town is on a high tableland surrounded by green hills and valleys. It is bounded by steep inclines, so steep that most visitors take a funicular from the railroad station. Because of the town’s geography, a walk of any distance involves some up and down. Here the road two splits around this house, with one route rising and the other descending.

Orvieto is a day trip from Rome, though we arrived from the opposite direction and stayed for a couple of nights. This meant that we got to enjoy diminished crowds in the evening and morning, and we saw few people on this walk away from the town center toward a spot with a view of the surrounding countryside.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Black Oaks, Autumn

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Black Oaks, Autumn
A row of tall black oak trees in autumn colors, Yosemite Valley.

Black Oaks, Autumn. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A row of tall black oak trees in autumn colors, Yosemite Valley.

These trees, located in an iconic Yosemite Valley Meadow, call to almost photographer. They are interesting at almost any time of year — whether skeletal silhouettes in winter snow, brilliantly green in the spring, or brightly colorful in autumn light. This specific line of trees has always challenged me — one of those “this should be easy” scenes in which it can be difficult to find effective compositions.

On this autumn day the conditions were a combination of the normal for fall — colorful leaves, golden-brown meadows — and something less common, namely smoke from a nearby management fire. At times the smoke was thick, as you’ll see in some other photographs I made during this visit. But midday breezes thinned the smoke, leaving the colors and shapes of the tall trees more clearly visible.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Black Oaks, Drifting Smoke

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Black Oaks, Drifting Smoke
Seasonal fire smoke drifts through a grove of Yosemite Valley black oak trees in morning light.

Black Oaks, Drifting Smoke. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Seasonal fire smoke drifts through a grove of Yosemite Valley black oak trees in morning light.

This photograph comes from my early-November one-day marathon up-and-back photography visit to Yosemite Valley, timed to photograph the fall colors. Since I start these trips hours before sunrise, I can never be sure of what conditions I’ll find in the Valley. I knew it would be clear weather with relatively warm temperatures… but I did realize until I arrived and saw the smoke that there would be management fires in the Valley. These fires are a good thing — they reduce the dead vegetation that can lead to extremely destructive fires — but they can make photograph difficult. As I arrived in the Valley it was obvious that I’d be dealing with smoke!

At this time of year the colors of backlit black oaks trees can glow, so I headed to a place where I know that there are some good specimens and excellent opportunities for that backlight. Arriving there, I discovered that the fire was right next to and almost surrounding the location. This could have been a very bad thing, but I soon realized that the light passing through the smoke was glowing beautifully and producing light beams. I found a spot with this composition and waited for the light to move across this spot.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Mono Lake, Photographs: Nature

Burned Pines, Morning Sky

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Burned Pines, Morning Sky
The skeletal remains of a stand of ponderosa pine trees under blue high desert sky, Mono Basin.

Burned Pines, Morning Sky. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

The skeletal remains of a stand of ponderosa pine trees under blue high desert sky, Mono Basin.

This photograph comes from my short trip to the area near Tioga Pass in Yosemite during the final days of summer — a trip to reacquaint myself with the Sierra after missing the entire summer up there. I camped near the crest where I could easily enter the park or head east and visit the eastern escarpment of the range and some of the nearby high desert terrain.

I made this photograph on a morning when I headed east, passing Mono Lake and continuing a bit further, then turning off the main road to drive along the edge of a huge ponderosa pine forest. At some point in the past a wildfire burned though here, and the skeletal burned trees have long fascinated me. These trees are right at the (former) edge of the grove, and Mono Lake and desert mountains are barely visible in the distance.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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