Category Archives: Photographs: Northern California

Photographs from Northern California

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

Kelp, Weston Beach

February 26, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Black and white photograph of kelp tossed up by winter storm surf at Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

I have already worked up a couple of color photographs from this day shooting the kelp washed up on the rocks of Weston Beach by big Pacific winter storms – but earlier this week I was in a black and white frame of mind (it was Ansel Adams’ birthday on February 20!) and thought I’d see where this one might go as a monochrome print. There are several things that I like about this image – though I’ll admit that it may not be one that initially grabs a viewer!. First, although it starts out looking like a pretty amorphous mass of seaweed, kelp, and other detritus, eventually I think that an overall form starts to appear – there are some rough patters formed by sequences of lighter material, by some of the stringy “branches” of the kelp, and by way of some lighter ribbon-like material looping through the image. Second, the print ends up with a wide range of tonalities, ranging from pure black to pure paper-white.

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 at 105mm
ISO 200, f/16, 1/15 second

keywords: weston, beach, point, lobos, state, reserve, park, california, usa, north america, wrack, leaf, float, stem, branch, rock, texture, plant, foliage, sea, ocean, pacific, shore, storm, tossed, nature, black and white, monochrome, coast, monterey, carmel, twist, scenic, travel, stock

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

North Dome and Merced River Trees, Winter

February 25, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Black and white photograph of North Dome and bare winter trees reflected in the Merced River near the swinging bridge, Yosemite Valley, California.

After first getting distracted by dawn light on Yosemite Falls – and joining a small throng of other photographers shooting this exact same subject (he writes, somewhat embarrassed… ;-) – I pulled myself together and wandered off along the Merced on this frosty morning looking for scenes that were a bit less obvious. I’m not going to claim that this one is completely non-iconic – I can’t since North Dome, in the upper center of the frame, is a fairly well known feature of the Valley. However, the thing that mostly caught my attention here was the skeletal shapes of the dormant trees along the Merced River and the way they lined up across the scene creating some interesting symmetries and forms against the background of the upper end of The Valley.

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 35mm f/2
two blended images: ISO 100, f/11, 1/40 second and ISO 10, f/11, 1/10 second

keywords: yosemite, valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, meadow, swinging, bridge, cottonwood, silhouette, grass, sky, north, dome, royal, arches, snow, reflection, ripple, morning, light, black and white, monochrome, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, clouds rest, landscape, scenic, travel, nature, bare, forest, grove, stock

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Horsetail Fall, Sunset (#3)

February 24, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Photograph of Horsetail Fall – the “natural firefall” – along the eastern end of the face of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, California.

I made this photograph from “the other” vantage point for viewing the winter Horsetail Fall light show. I’ve shot this subject a few times in the past, but always from the general area of the picnic area at base of the east end of El Capitan. Since I thought the light might be good on this evening I decided to try the location along Southside Drive at a point between the crossover road near El Capitan and the start of the Four Mile Trail where many people photograph this scene. Yeah, it is an icon. What can I say? (Well, I can say that my favorite photograph from this particular trip to the Valley is actually a black and white image of a couple branches of a dormant fern plant – but that’s a different photo and a different story.)

This location – I’ll call it the “Merced River location” – is popular among Horsetail Fall photographers for several reason. For one it is very accessible. To be blunt, you can find a shot within a few seconds walk from your car! (Unless you arrive late and all the parking is gone, a distinct possibility in such a popular spot, especially if you go on a weekend when the sunset light hits the fall.) It also provides a different sort of view of the fall. While the view from right beneath El Capitan tends to provide a slightly wider and closer view of the upper fall, this one provides a clear view of a greater portion of the fall along with the little valley above the fall. And because it is a bit further east, you are looking at the fall more from the side. This means that when things work out just right the brilliantly lit fall becomes a very thin stream against the much darker background rock.

The light on this evening was perhaps not quite “classic” Horsetail light. There was some nice color, but the light faded before it became brilliantly colorful. It seemed like perhaps the sun (which is itself not visible to photographers from here) might have passed behind some distant clouds in the west just before reaching the horizon. The development of the brilliant sunset color was somewhat muted when this happened.

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 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 360mm
ISO 200, f/11, 1/50 second

keywords: yosemite, national, park, valley, california, usa, north america, nature, winter, horsetail, fall, waterfall, water, gold, molten, light, sunset, dusk, glow, fire, firefall, cliff, el, capitan, cap, face, crack, water, spray, mist, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, february, stock

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Nimitz Avenue Buildings and Tracks

February 23, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Night photography of Nimitz Avenue buildings and railroad tracks at the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

This row of old shipyard buildings is along Nimitz Avenue and directly faces the area where ships were apparently worked on. In the distance one of the large overhead structures used to move heavy ship components to the water is visible, and the railroad tracks run up the street in front of the buildings. A combination of high clouds and lower fog is blurred by the nearly five minute exposure time of this image.

This photograph illustrates some of the technical issues that come up when doing this sort of night photography and, in particular, when photographing at Mare Island at night. I love to shoot subjects illuminated by the wildly variable artificial lighting found here, which can include just about every kind of light imaginable: sodium vapor lights, tungsten lights, fluorescent lighting, light bleeding from the town of Vallejo across the water, the light of the moon (though not on this occasion). Here a large part of the lighting is very “hot” yellow/red toned artificial light, making it hard to control the red channel on my DSLR and still get enough light in the other channels. In addition we have the contrast between the very light colored paint on the close building (which is lit by closer lights) and the much darker and less reflective brick surfaces beyond. In front of that runs the road, which is crossed by some deep shadows that I don’t want to end up completely black. And overhead is the beautifully diffused bit of clouds and some star light, but if color adjustments are made to the foreground buildings the sky can end up looking quite strange. Although it isn’t apparent in the shot, a great deal of care is required to to get the composition you want and not place very bright light sources directly in the frame, and this adds a difficult element to creating a composition that you don’t usually deal with in the day time. (I try to keep them out of the frame, but I also sometimes place the camera so that a beam or pole or the edge of a building blocks the direct lights.) Finally, in this case, I had to work close to the buildings with a bit of a wide angle lens, introducing some obvious perspective effects, some of which I’ve modified a bit in post.

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.

keywords: mare. island. naval. ship. yard. historic. vallejo. california. usa. nocturnes. night. photography. structures. nimitz. avenue. street. track. railroad. curve. structure. building. industrial. old. dilapidated. abandoned. corrugated. metal. brick. window. door. wire. conduit. pipe. tower. roof. sky. star. trail. cloud. shadow. reflection. asphalt. water. puddle. north america. cyclone. fence. stock. 65. 99. 99A

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