Category Archives: Photographs: Nature

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

Mouth of the Klamath

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Mouth of the Klamath
Evening fog at the mouth of the Klamath River and the Northern California Coastline

Mouth of the Klamath. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening fog at the mouth of the Klamath River and the Northern California Coastline

The first day of my early June visit to the Redwood National and State Parks area was largely devoted to the very long drive up from the San Francisco Bay Area. I got an early start — always important to at least try to get out of the Bay Area early on commute days! — and was in Redding by late morning. While that is certainly far enough north it isn’t far enough west, and a three-hour drive to the coast was still ahead of me, plus perhaps another hour north along the coast to my lodgings in Crescent City.

After so much inland driving, it was a relief to finally reach the coast in the Eureka/Arcata area and to then turn north toward my destination. I lingered a bit in the Klamath River area. I feel a bit of a connection to this river as I have spent some time photographing birds in the area where it crosses the California-Oregon border. I didn’t know this area around the river’s mouth at all — I just knew that the low hills and coastal light were beautiful. I crossed the river on a long bridge, passed by various businesses clustered near its north end, and soon found a promising road out to the hills just to the north, from which there is a panoramic view back across the rivers itself and the hills and coast to the south.

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: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Sea Stacks and Evening Light

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Sea Stacks and Evening Light
Evening light from the setting sun reflects on surf along the Northern California coast

Sea Stacks and Evening Light. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light from the setting sun reflects on surf along the Northern California coast

I posted another photograph of this scene earlier — more on that relationship in a moment. I was driving between Eureka, near where I had been photographing redwoods for a few days, and Fort Bragg, where I planned to make a stop midway on my drive back to the San Francisco Bay Area. I knew this location from previous visits, and when I left the redwood parks three or four hours to the north, I scheduled my departure with a sunset stop at this location in mind.

I had hopes for an interesting sunset here, but my initial hopes frustrated when I arrived to find high fog, basically a blah condition. However, since I was not far from my destination and since there wasn’t much time left to search for alternative locations I decided to make my stand here. At first I thought that perhaps I could produce something that would work in black and white, since the muted and somewhat odd colors weren’t that exciting. But things soon began to change, and over the next half hour or so the light went through an amazing series of transitions. I made this photograph while the sun was still above the edge of a fog bank that extended well off-shore. As the sun dropped the light on the water moved toward my position — you can see the area of greater illumination a bit further off in the distance. As the light approached the number and color of the close-in reflections increased, and the shadows of the sea stacks lengthened. I made a couple of landscape orientation exposures — this is one of them — before switching to portrait mode for the final images. Between the time I made this photograph and the time I made that switch — perhaps a minute or two later — the light had already changed.

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, Photographs: Yosemite

Conifers, Snow, Cliff

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Conifers, Snow, Cliff
A group of conifer trees at the edge of a meadow during Yosemite Valley snow flurries

Conifers, Snow, Cliff. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of conifer trees at the edge of a meadow during Yosemite Valley snow flurries

During the two-plus months of my Yosemite Renaissance artist-in-residency in the park I made hundreds of photographs. Some of those made it into a show that is now going on at Gallery 5 in Oakhurst, on the southern park boundary: “Transitions: Winter Into Spring — Yosemite Renaissance Artist-In-Residence G Dan Mitchell And Friends.” (The show continues until the end of this month, and it features the work of several fellow artists I invited to join me: Jerry Bosworth, Franka Mlikota Gabler, Charlotte Hamilton Gib, David Hoffman, Vidya Kane, and Kerby Smith.) I mention this because I am still working on photographs from this project even now — and this is one of them.

I made this photograph on a mid-April day when winter seemed to want to hang on just a bit longer. Near the start of this visit a small but energetic weather front swept through, raising the wind, dropping the temperature, and leaving behind a layer of new snow. I made this photograph as the storm passed, with snow flurries muting the features of more distant trees and the huge granite cliffs beyond. The snow also mutes the colors, and unless you look closely you might mistake this for a monochromatic photograph.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Ferns, Creek, And Forest

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Ferns, Creek, And Forest
Ferns growing along the banks of a redwood forest creek.

Ferns, Creek, And Forest. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ferns growing along the banks of a redwood forest creek.

One of my goals on this trip to the Redwood National And State Parks region was scouting. I often arrive at a new location — and this are was new to me — without doing a whole lot of advance research. This means that I’ll engage in a bit of semi-blind wandering at first, but it also means that I get the thrill of discovery instead of going just to well-known spots. I knew that Jedediah Smith Redwoods Park was supposed to have rhododendron blooms and, of course, redwoods, but I wasn’t quite sure where to look. So I poked around a bit.

The first “poking” was unsuccessful, and I ended up at a locked gate on a gravel road. I could have walked further, but on this first visit I wanted to cover more ground than walking would allow, so I back down the road and wound around to the other side of this park. Before long I did find redwood groves with blooming rhododendrons, and I spent a bit of time photographing there in morning light. As the sun rose higher the light was less agreeable, so I began exploring again, eventually ending up at another dead-end road. This time I loaded up my pack and started walking, eventually arriving at a beautiful old-growth redwood grove. I passed this little vignette of creek, ferns, and light along the way.

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.