Cattail and Grasses, Morning Light

Cattail and Grasses, Morning Light

Cattail and Grasses, Morning Light. Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California. August 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cattail stands among dry summer grasses at Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California.

The next in the series – and, yes, there will likely be more! – of photographs of cattails and grasses from a recent morning shoot at Castillero Pond, not far from where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In these photographs I was playing with a whole series of ideas: the color and form of the late-season summer cattails in the warm morning side-lighting, the effect of blurring out the background of grasses and pond water, and the interesting color palette of yellow/gold, green, and blue. To a certain extent, I was also “going with the flow” since I had arrived at this pond with no strong preconceptions about what I would shoot- I had vague ideas concerning oak trees and open grassland and possibly photographing birds as I passed the pond – and then ended up being distracted by well over an hour by the subject of this series.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: calero, hills, santa clara, county, park, morning, summer, grass, flora, pond, castillero, plant, nature, california, usa, cat, tail, cattail, plant, blade, stem, branch, seed, bokeh, blur, blue, green, golden, central, northern, light, stock

4 thoughts on “Cattail and Grasses, Morning Light”

  1. Doug, as far as the watermarks (and frames) go, I just use photoshop. Once I create something that works for me I save it as an action including the initial placement location, the font (face, size, color), transparency level, and so forth. The same idea works for the frames where I have one action that creates a white mat and one that creates a black mat.

    Once I finish a print-ready version of the photo and save it, the steps to prepare for the web include the following:

    1. flatten the image
    2. resize to 600 pixels along either the horizontal or vertical dimension using an action.
    3. apply a simple unsharp mask (often 25,1,1) for the small jpg version.
    4. apply an action that creates the frame.
    5. apply an action that adds text to the framed image.
    6. manually tweak the positions of the text elements and manually adjust transparency of text if necessary.
    7. convert to sRGB and eight bits.
    8. save as jpg.

    All of this probably takes a minute or so per photo in most cases. With very complex images I may have to spend an additional minute getting the right text settings for the watermark and embedded copyright text.

    Dan

  2. This series is great, simple but so sharp and awesome backgrounds.

    BTW Dan, do you use a different software for your watermarks? I need to
    get something…..

    Doug

  3. Thanks, David. I almost literally go back and forth between these subjects and locations. During the past week and a a half or so I’ve photographed high in the Sabrina Basin of the eastern Sierra, at the coastal redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument, in San Francisco on foot, at my local trail where I shot the vegetation photos, and along the Pacific Coast at Point Lobos… and I’m hoping to be back in the Sierra tomorrow.

    Yes, I count myself very lucky to be in this part of the world! :-)

    Dan

  4. Dan… I have been enjoying this more minimalist series from you. I like how you have gone from the grandeur of Yosemite’s high country to the detail shown here in the grasses at Castillero Pond. Beautiful light, and there is something very pleasing about the complimentary colors found in the background. Very nice indeed.

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