Category Archives: Photographs: Nature

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Grove Panorama

May 12, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A wide panoramic view of morning light in a dense redwood grove at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

Up next in the stitched panorama parade… a photograph make in the vicinity of Bohemian Grove at Muir Woods National Monument in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California. This grove is high on the list of popular places in the central and well-known section of the park, and the loop trail that many visitors hike travels right through it.

There are, it seems to me, a huge number of ways to photograph these very tall trees. Interesting effects of light filtering down from above are often a possibility. There are lots of small subjects that can be shot close up. But their sheer height is often difficult to capture. You can shoot straight up, but that creates some issues. You can (and I have) shoot in vertical format to try to include the vertical size. You can try to shoot from further back, but then the scale of the trees diminishes – plus it is very hard to get a clear line of site on these trees from any distance… unless, perhaps, you are at the edge of an area that has been logged.

So, I’ve been thinking about shooting very wide panoramas of groves of parallel vertical forms of the massive trunks. I think that this has two effects that work for me. First, when you stand before these trees and look around you mostly are seeing just the lower sections of the trees – so for me this depiction is true to the experience of being in the forest. Second, the fact that you cannot see the full height of the trees doesn’t mean that you aren’t aware of it! Focusing on these massive trunks might cause you to project the rest of the trees and the great height that isn’t included within the frame. (This isn’t the first time I’ve done this, and I’m certainly not the first person to do it.)

By the way, because the image is stitched from multiple high-resolution full-frame images, it has the potential to be printed very large at some point.

(More of my Muir Woods photographs)

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

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 200, f/116, .6 second
panorama stitched from multiple exposures

keywords: morning, light, tree, forest, grove, trunk, tall, giant, coast, sempervirens, redwood, muir, woods, national, monument, golden gate, recreation, area, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, san francisco, california, usa, north america, stock, panorama, large, dense, wide, bark

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Spring Oaks and Santa Cruz Mountains – Castle Rock State Park

May 11, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring Oaks and Santa Cruz Mountains. Castle Rock State Park, California. April 24. 2010.

Spring Oaks and Santa Cruz Mountains - Castle Rock State Park

Panoramic photograph of oak trees with new spring growth above the Santa Cruz Mountains descending towards Monterey Bay – Castle Rock State Park.

This is the first (in order of posting) of a few stitched panoramas I made last month. I’ve thought about this shot for a while. It is from at the top of a staircase section of trail at Castle Rock State Park in California, alongside Goat Rock. From this spot you can see all the way to Santa Cruz, the Monterey Bay, and the Monterey Peninsula hills beyond. On this early spring morning the oak trees were just getting their new leaves, so it was still possible to shoot between the branches and see the distant scene where fog filled the bay.

One idea I’m currently working with – among many others – is creating very wide panoramic stitched images of subjects that would usually be shot in a taller format – especially trees. Instead of photographing the entire tree, this feels to me more like looking through the trees at the scene beyond, closer to how I might actually look at this scene if I were there.

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

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 131mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/60 second
three image stitched panorama

keywords: oak, tree, grove, forest, trunk, branch, silhouette, spring, season, growth, new, leaves, santa cruz, monterey, mountains, hills, ridge, valley, summit, county, bay, distance, haze, goat, rock, castle, state, park, california, usa, red, green, nature, scenic, travel, stock, landscape, flora, foliage, plant, north america, west, coast, bay, area, stitched, panorama

Photographs: Nature

Beetle and Flowers

May 10, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Macro photograph of a beetle on spring California wildflowers.

I think I’m posting this one more or less because… I can! I was out last month trying to get to know a new piece of equipment, an extension tube. I’ve been experimenting to find out which of my lenses work most effectively with it, and trying to understand the best ways to use it in the field. On this day I figured out a few interesting and useful things. First, contrary to my expectations, the best way to shoot these subjects was to use manual focus and a 24-105 zoom lens. I would have thought that AF would have been more effective, but I found I could manually focus, then move slightly forward and backward with the shutter half depressed, and watch for the AF confirmation lights to come on. One of the biggest surprises was that this lens, which is not exactly known for its wonderful bokeh, turns out to produce really nice blurred backgrounds at large apertures with the extension tube. Who’d have guessed!?

So, a photograph of some anonymous beetle was one of the results.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Larkspur Blossoms

May 9, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

Spring larkspur flowers against a soft background of sunlit spring greenery, Almaden Quicksilver Park, California.

I made this photograph back in early April as spring flowers were just starting to really blossom in my favorite flower-filled gully at the Almaden Quicksilver Park near San Jose, California. The larkspur flowers often blossom early and pass quickly through their prime phase, and seem to be pretty delicate flowers to begin with – so I was glad to get there at the right time to photograph these specimens.

I photographed them against a background of grasses with the scene lit by sunlight filtered through high clouds. Using the maximum aperture of f/4 on the 24-105mm zoom (with an extension tube) made for very narrow depth of field and allowed me to throw almost everything in the frame other than the central flower out of focus.

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

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM with extension tubes at 105mm
ISO 400, f/4, 1/250 second

keywords: larkspur, flower, plant, flora, foliage, wildflower, bloom, blossom, stem, branch, leaf, bokeh, blur, soft, background, purple, green, nature, san jose, santa clara, county, park, almaden, quicksilver, california, usa, north america, stock

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.