Category Archives: Photographs: Northern California

Photographs from Northern California

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

Overlapping Ferns

June 16, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Overlapping ferns grow close together in the springtime redwood forest

Late in the day, a bit early for golden hour but late enough to start thinking about it, I visited a short trail in Del Norte State Park, along which there was the promise of a few rhododendron blossoms and many, many redwood trees. It was an easy trail, gradually ascending and traversing a low ridge through the forest, and then beginning a descent that led to the beach. Since I was interested in the redwoods and not the beach, I stopped just past the beginning of the descent.

The lighting conditions were just about perfect — thin clouds muted and diffused the light, and it came into the forest from the west at a low angle, side-lighting the redwood trees. While I mostly was there to photograph big, obvious things like blooming rhododendrons and the redwood trees, this forest was full of smaller details, too. As I started back up the trail to return to where I started I saw some thick groups of ferns and I stopped to take a look. This little scene immediately caught my attention, with its nearly symmetrical layers of fern fronds leading down toward the forest floor.

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

Klamath Coastline

June 15, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mist and fog along the rugged Northern California shoreline near the Klamath River

On the final day of my recent photography trip to Redwood National and State Parks I spent the morning photographing at Prairie Creek Redwood State Park before packing up and starting my drive south. My plan was to split the long drive back to the San Francisco Bay Area into two parts. On this first day of the return trip I would head south through more redwood country, drop to the coast above Fort Bragg, and then spend the night there before heading home the next morning.

I left Prairie Creek – somewhat reluctantly, since it deserved more time — and heading south on highway one. If you have driven almost any part of this remarkable route you know that there are photographs everywhere, not just in the parks, so I planned to stop along the way to make photographs. The route often alternately rises to cross coastal bluffs and ridges and then drops right down to the shoreline. At or just below the high points I can often find panoramic views up and down the coast, and this was one of the first such views that I stopped for. The light was subdued — hence the decision to go with a monochrome rendition — but the atmosphere was remarkable, with the surf throwing up low mist clouds right along the shoreline and the remnants of fog muting the distant features.

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

Sea Stacks, Cliffs, Sunset

June 14, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Coastal cliffs, sea stacks, and beach reflecting the light of a Northern California Pacific Ocean sunset

This photograph illustrates — as do so many others! — the many situations in which a photograph is the result of some combination of planning, experience, patience, “seeing,” and just plain good luck. In the morning I had photographed a few hours north of here at Prairie Creek Redwood State Park. As I worked that area, in the back of my mind I was calculating the driving time (plus eating and photographing time) that would put me at a particular spot along the coastline above Fort Bragg a bit before sunset. It is a spot that I have photographed before and one that both challenges and appeals to me. I knew the features of the spot, but there was no way to know what the conditions might be — in fact, I thought there was a pretty good chance that it might be fogged in.

As I approached this area, passing through inland mountains, it was apparent that fog was going to be an issue. Even inland the coastal fog was obscuring the upper slopes. Arriving at the coast I found “blah,” gray light. But there I was, knowing that this would be my last stop of the day, so I thought I might make something work in black and white. Then I noticed something interesting — the fog bank ended in the distance to the northwest right along the coastline, and right along the horizon there was a thin band of glowing, reflecting water. It occurred to me that this thin band would likely expand toward my position as the sun dropped toward the horizon, and that there could be a short period of special light. Before long the glow on the water came closer and the nearby waves began to pick up some sunset color. Then, as the bottom of the sun started to emerge below the edge of the cloud shield, the mist began to glow and the sun’s light came directly at me between the shadows of sea stacks, something can happen only for a few days during a brief interval or two each year… and only on days when the coastal weather conditions permit it.

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

Redwood Forest Trail

June 13, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A quiet trail though old-growth redwood groves.

One of my loose goals on this trip to the Redwood National and State Parks was to scout a bit. This was such a new area to me that I did not have illusions about finding the very best subjects right away, and I regard a first visit like this one as being the start of a longer photographic relationship with the place. In other words, I wanted to photographer then and there, but I also wanted to start to know the place, with an eye to future return visits.

With that in mind I visited four of the parks that comprise the larger state and national park collective. Time will tell if my initial impressions are correct, but each park seems to have a different and somewhat individual character. My last stop in the area, on the morning when I began my drive to a locations further south, was the Prairie Creek State Park. The great old-growth redwood trees are impressive wherever you find them, but it seemed to me that here they were even more so. After photographing some alder trees along a roadway, I moved on and selected a trail to hike, making the choice based more on hunch than anything else. I wandered slowly up a canyon filled with the giant trees as broken clouds moved changing light across the scene.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Northern California

Overlapping Ferns

Klamath Coastline

Sea Stacks, Cliffs, Sunset

Redwood Forest Trail

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