Category Archives: Photographs: Northern California

Photographs from Northern California

Commentary, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

San Francisco Muni, Evening

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San Francisco Muni, Evening

San Francisco Muni, Evening. San Francisco, California. May 15, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A municipal railway train passes in front of AT&T Park in the early evening, San Francisco.

This is another of my “urban landscape” photographs, this time of a passing San Francisco MUNI trail passing in front of AT&T park in the waning light during a Giants game. As I wrote yesterday, I always take my camera to the games since this ballpark provides compelling opportunities to photograph not only “ball game stuff,” but also urban landscape elements of the SF Bay Area ranging from the Bay itself to views of the downtown San Francisco skyline to more intimate views. (The equivalent of street photography should also be do-able but I haven’t yet had the chance to go in that direction during the games.)

This photo appealed to me as a composition of several elements. Obviously the contrast between the warm interior light of the rail cars and everything else is one element, but another is the fellow behind the window in the left center. (In some way this brings to mind for me one of the famous Edward Hopper paintings of the coffee shop…) I like the curved arrow at lower right pointing toward the train and the counterbalancing curved shape of the bit of rooftop at the upper left – with all of this built around the diagonals of the train, the sidewalk and road, and the overhead wire – somewhat interrupted by a few verticals.

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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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Dusk, 2nd and King Streets, San Francisco

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Dusk, 2nd and King Streets, San Francisco

Dusk, 2nd and King Streets, San Francisco. San Francisco, California. May 15, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street scene at 2nd and King Streets with elements of the San Francisco skyline and Bay and the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge – photographed from AT&T Park.

Switching gears away from the natural landscapes I’ve been posting recently, here is an urban landscape. I was at a Giants-Mets game at AT&T Park in San Francisco (I’d rather not discuss the score, OK? ;-) on a beautiful mid-May Friday evening with my wife. While I do like the baseball (especially on those occasions when the Giants actually play well…) I also like all of the other stuff that makes the ballpark experience what it is: the view of San Francisco Bay (especially as the sun sets), ballpark food (but why oh why did they take away my lemon chicken sausages!?) and wandering around looking at the ball park and the crowd. I also like the great views from around the upper deck of the park.

About 15 minutes before sunset I told my (very understanding) wife that I was going to wander off for a while and do some photography as the last light fell on the City and the bay. There are really wonderful views toward downtown (especially if the fog is just starting to come in – which didn’t happen on this evening) and out toward the SF Oakland Bay Bridge and the rest of the bay. This photograph overlooks the intersection of 2nd and King Streets and, beyond, the Bay Bridge and Yerba Buena and Treasure Islands.

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

Andrew’s Clintonia

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Andrew's Clintonia

Andrew’s Clintonia. Muir Woods National Monument, California. April 11, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Newly emerging spring Andrew’s Clintonia (Clintonia andrewsiana) plant at Muir Woods National Monument, California with immature flowers.

I hope I have correctly identified this plant – with the help of a few people who contacted me after I posted the photo along with a request for plant ID help on my dan’s outside blog. The flowers are the tricky part. All of the photographs of this plant that I could find during my search for identification look different – but the plant apparently doesn’t actually blossom until a few weeks or a month after I made the photograph, so here we’re just seeing the early buds. The leaves look right. It grows in the right place – in the redwood forest and Muir Woods. And I found one online example with mature flowers that has the same single leaf near the top of the flower stalk. So I’s sticking with Andrew’s clintonia until someone comes up with a better idea!

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.

keywords: Andrew’s Clintonia, Clintonia andrewsiana, andrews, flower, plant, stem, leaf, green, stalk, forest, woods, grove, redwood, floor, bud, bloom, nature, foliage, spring, muir, national, monument, park, golden gate, recreation, area, travel, scenic, stock

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

Two Fairy Bell Flowers

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Two Fairy Bell Flowers

Two Fairy Bell Flowers. Muir Woods National Monument, California. April 11, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of a pair of fairy bell wildflowers at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

In this black and white photograph of two fairy bells flowers I decided to go with a very diffused rendition. The color and tonalities of this scene were fairly subtle in many ways – for example, the color of the flowers is only a bit more yellow than that of the leaves. The very soft light on the floor of the redwood forest and the very narrow depth of field created by the close distance, long lens, and large aperture contribute various types and amounts of soft and diffused character to the image. I thought it would be interesting, having done so many realistic wildflower photographs in recent weeks, to try something a bit more abstracted.

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.

keywords: fairy, bells, wildflower, flower, wild, leaf, light, bokeh, blur, branch, plant, foliage, redwood, forest, grove, woods, shade, muir, national, monument, park, golden gate, recreation area, marin, county, california, usa, black and white, monochrome, stock, nature, scenic, travel, petal, branch, Disporum hookerae, Disporum hookeri