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

Hills and Trees Near Limantour, Drakes Bay

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Hills and Trees Near Limantour, Drakes Bay - Soft sun light on trees and hills above Limantour Beach, as fog bank hovers over Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore.
Soft sun light on trees and hills above Limantour Beach, as fog bank hovers over Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore.

Hills and Trees Near Limantour, Drakes Bay. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. August 18,2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft sun light on trees and hills above Limantour Beach, as fog bank hovers over Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore.

Limantour Beach sits along the inner curve of Drakes Bay at the Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco, California, and the area is one of the best-known and most visited in the park. On certain days, the air is clear and the sun is bright and the beach can be warm, and the view includes not only the nearby wildlife and the surf, but the peninsula leading to the tip of Point Reyes and the coast stretching south towards the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate. One of the first times I visited this place to make photographs it was one of those clear days, and I recall photographing the curve of the Bay leading to the right with the beach and some birds in the foreground. I’ve carried a mental images of how I would like to improve that photograph, and it was with that in mind that I went to Limantour this time.

The weather did not cooperate with that plan. After crossing the ridge between Tomales Bay and Limantour, I could see right away that there was going to be fog along the beach. The shoreline edge of the water still reflected blue sky in a few spots a bit to the south, but at Limantour the fog came a good distance inland from the beach. So as I drove down toward the end of the road, I started looking for some spot that would let me photograph the rounded, grass-covered hills and the bits of forest in sunlight, with the Bay and its fog in the distance. Finding a spot that included all of these things and which made some visual sense was not easy, but with a bit of back-tracking I finally found this spot and made a few exposures.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

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

Gated Doorway, Wall

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Gated Doorway, Wall - Gated entryways and exterior walls, San Francisco.
Gated entryways and exterior walls, San Francisco.

Gated Doorway, Wall. San Francisco, California. July 15, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Gated entryways and exterior walls, San Francisco.

As an Official Aficionado of Geometry, I found this more or less nondescript front of some San Francisco housing fascinating. The location is nothing special, being perhaps a few blocks up from the touristy Fishermans Wharf are and down an anonymous side street that I happened to turn onto for reasons that I can no longer recall. At street level, the walls are less walls than places to contain other things: gated entry-ways to apartments, garage doors, windows and so on. Little space is left empty.

The shapes include lots of vertical and horizontal lines and almost nothing (aside from the edges of the metal “thing” above the central gate and a bit of the concrete next to the garage door) that isn’t moving in one of those two directions. The central gate of rust colored metal dominates the scene. While I imagine that behind the gate is someone’s nice, comfortable home, the gate itself reminds me of something I might expect to see in a prison! To the left is another security gate, thought its bars are horizontal. There are a couple of surprising bits of color, too. The red at the bottom of the main gate, which I assume is there for the safety of people who might trip on that bit of a step, is matched by the bright red of the small extended window that is just barely intruding into the upper left corner of the frame.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.

Deals and Sales, Equipment

Instant Rebates on Canon Lenses and Speedlites – Up to $300

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Canon is offering an Instant Rebate on Canon Lenses and Speedlites of up to $300 through September 29 1, 2012. The promotion includes a large selection of lenses (zooms, primes, L, non-L, EFS, wide to telephoto, macro, tilt/shift), tele-extenders (1.4x and 2x), and electronic flashes including the most recent models. If you have been considering any of this gear, there is a good chance that you can save a bit on your purchase.

The following list includes links that you can use to purchase from site-sponsor B&H Photo. Your purchases through these links are appreciated as they help support this site – thanks! Expires soon – on September 29 1, 2012)

As always, I post offers like these on the Deals page, and not just for Canon. Similar deals are listed there on products from Adobe, Nikon, and more. Updated earlier today, and several expire very soon – including a very low price on Photoshop CS6 for Windows and additional discounts on Adobe Lightroom 4, Photoshop Elements 10, and a Photoshop Elements 10/Premier Elements 10 bundle.

Telephoto Zooms

Wide and Ultra-Wide Zooms
EFS Lenses (for cropped sensor only – includes ultra-wide, normal zoom, macro)
Macro Lenses
Tilt/Shift Lenses
Teleconverters
Speedlite/Flash

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.

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

Drakes Bay, Fog

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Drakes Bay, Fog - Fog bank suspended above the surface of Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore
Fog bank suspended above the surface of Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore

Drakes Bay, Fog. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. August 18, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fog bank suspended above the surface of Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore.

What could possibly go together more naturally than fog and Point Reyes? Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Point Reyes National Seashore is one of those treasures that is close enough that I can manage to visit frequently and throughout the year. However, I’m still trying to “get my mind around” the place as a photographic subject. Some aspects of it are relatively easy to see in photographic terms – these include some of the wildlife (such as elephant seals and tule elk), the tall and rocky coastal bluffs and the beaches often found below them, and certain beaches. Others are not, at least for me, so obvious. I find that some very beautiful things, such as the dense forests of short trees, hills covered with dry grasses and scattered bushes, and fog shrouded valleys, are not always easy subjects from which to make effective photographs.

This scene (if “scene” is the word for it) could be almost anywhere in along the hundreds of miles of the California Pacific coast, and it belongs to my “minimalist seascape” thread, something I’ve been attracted to for a while now. On this afternoon I had decided to go to Limantour Beach, hoping for sun and enough clarity in the air that I could make some photographs across Drakes Bay that I’ve been thinking about. Earlier in the day, things looked promising for that, but when I arrived the fog bank was hovering just along the shoreline and making its way inland nearby. Looking a bit more to the south, the sky was clear – and in between these areas there was a wonderful play of light between the areas covered by fog and the occasional gaps where more light still shone through.

I have been there a couple of times this month and on both occasions I had… fog!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.

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