Category Archives: Photographs: Textures

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

Point Lobos Rock Patterns #1 – July 10, 2010

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Point Lobos Rock Patterns #1 – July 10, 2010
Point Lobos Rock Patterns #1 – July 10, 2010

Point Lobos Rock Patterns #1 – July 10, 2010. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. © Copyright 2010 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of abstract rock patterns near Weston Beach at Point Lobos State Reserve.

This detail of the Point Lobos shoreline rocks was also photographed in an area just a bit north of Weston Cove where large rocks are lifted up at striking angles and the surf has worn away successive layers of sedimentary rock to reveal wild patterns. Some of the colors in this bit of rock were quite intense – the rock on the left is intensely reddish-brown in the original capture – and seemed to overwhelm the subtle patterns, especially those on the right side of the image.

I don’t know if it is apparent but this is a highly post-processed image. I don’t think it is necessary to spoil the fun by going into all of the gory details, but this image depends quite a bit on work in post.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Sidewalk and Steel Plates

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Sidewalk and Steel Plates
Sidewalk and Steel Plates

Sidewalk and Steel Plates San Francisco, California. July 12, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patterned steel plates criss-cross a sidewalk in San Francisco, California.

This pattern caught my attention as I walked behind the Ferry Building toward the waterfront – the plates apparently cover underground utilities of some sort. The odd angles and the glow of the diffused light from overhead fog created interesting patterns and texture. At first I thought of keeping this as a color image, but in the end the colors were so soft and so close to monochromatic that I decided to go with this version.

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.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 200, f/16, 1/125 second

keywords: san francisco, california, usa, north america, city, urban, sidewalk, driveway, cement, concrete, steel, texture, plate, reflection, glow, criss-cross, diagonal, minimalism, ferry, building, the, embarcadero, stock, abstract, black and white, monochrome

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

Point Lobos Rock Patterns #1 – July 10, 2010

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Point Lobos Rock Patterns #1 - July 10, 2010
Point Lobos Rock Patterns #1 - July 10, 2010

Point Lobos Rock Patterns #1 – July 10, 2010. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. July 19, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of patterns in eroded shoreline rocks, Point Lobos State Reserve.

I was at Point Lobos twice on July 10. I arrived fairly early in the morning just after the park opened. (It opens late – not until 9:00 a.m.) It was foggy so I spent a few hours wandering along a trail that follows along the north shore of the park, mostly traveling through open forest along the tops of cliffs. I have some photographs from this activity that I’ll post later.

In the middle of the day – still foggy! – I suspended my photograph so that I could go into Carmel and see a talk by John Sexton sponsored by the Center for Photographic Art and attend the opening of his show afterwards. (If you are in the Monterey Peninsula area you should visit this show and the Ansel Adams show at the Monterey Museum of Art.)

Following the show I headed back to Point Lobos. I had heard a weather forecast suggesting some clearing later in the day, and hope springs eternal when it comes to the hope that the coastal fog will lift! It didn’t happen. However, this meant that I had lots of soft, diffused light to work with, so I headed out to these remarkably patterned rocks just north of Weston Cove to see what I could come up with.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 100, f/16, 1/5 second

keywords: point. lobos. state. reserve. park. california. usa. north america. carmel. big. sur. monterey. peninsula. coast. shore. sea. ocean. pacific. scenic. travel. nature. geology. texture. form. shape. rock. erosion. sand. stone. sedimentary. landscape. detail. pattern. red. brown. stock

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

Blue Ice, Alpine Lake

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Blue Ice, Alpine Lake
Blue Ice, Alpine Lake

Blue Ice, Alpine Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patterns of blue and white ice emerge as the frozen surface of an alpine lake begins to melt, Yosemite National Park.

Yes, I’m still working the series of photographs from my late June visit to a frozen alpine lake in the Tioga Pass area of Yosemite National Park – and there still may be one or two more to come. This is a tightly cropped detail of a section of the ice on the surface of this lake that was still mostly frozen, albeit in a somewhat slushy form. (Other photographs in this series play with the juxtaposition of ices and meltwater floating on the surface of the ice.) The very blue tone comes from the fact that the illumination was entirely from the very blue sky, with no direct sunlight hitting the ice at all.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 100, f/18, 1/8 second

keywords: gaylor, lake, basin, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, north america, tioga, pass, road, sierra, nevada, crest, mountain, range, alpine, blue, white, ice, frozen, melt, pattern, surface, landscape, nature, scenic, stock, tuolumne, evening, late, afternoon