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

Alder Thicket And Stream

June 24, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small stream flows through the dense foliage of an alder thicket in Northern California redwood country

It was my first evening in redwood country, and I had only a few hours and little idea where to start, so I headed to Redwood National Park (part of the larger “State and National Parks” complex) and turned up a road toward a well-known grove of redwoods. I only stopped there briefly, deciding instead to explore further up the road even though I really had almost no idea what I would find up there. I finally broke out of the redwood forest at a couple of clearings from which I was able to get a broader overview of the surroundings. (It did occur to me that the larger one was likely there only because redwoods had been cleared from it many years ago.)

I now had a bit of a schedule to follow, as I hoped to find a place to photograph the last light of the day and then continue on to my lodgings in Crescent City. However, I often find it hard to resist a detour, especially when it looks like it might go somewhere interesting, so I turned off onto a side road that quickly dead-ended at the bottom of a canyon where a small creek flowed and the foliage grew very thickly. This was not actually a redwood forest location — at least not in this immediate spot — but the more open light among the alder trees supported lush undergrowth around this little creek.

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

Mouth of the Klamath

June 23, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening fog at the mouth of the Klamath River and the Northern California Coastline

The first day of my early June visit to the Redwood National and State Parks area was largely devoted to the very long drive up from the San Francisco Bay Area. I got an early start — always important to at least try to get out of the Bay Area early on commute days! — and was in Redding by late morning. While that is certainly far enough north it isn’t far enough west, and a three-hour drive to the coast was still ahead of me, plus perhaps another hour north along the coast to my lodgings in Crescent City.

After so much inland driving, it was a relief to finally reach the coast in the Eureka/Arcata area and to then turn north toward my destination. I lingered a bit in the Klamath River area. I feel a bit of a connection to this river as I have spent some time photographing birds in the area where it crosses the California-Oregon border. I didn’t know this area around the river’s mouth at all — I just knew that the low hills and coastal light were beautiful. I crossed the river on a long bridge, passed by various businesses clustered near its north end, and soon found a promising road out to the hills just to the north, from which there is a panoramic view back across the rivers itself and the hills and coast to the south.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Sea Stacks and Evening Light

June 22, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light from the setting sun reflects on surf along the Northern California coast

I posted another photograph of this scene earlier — more on that relationship in a moment. I was driving between Eureka, near where I had been photographing redwoods for a few days, and Fort Bragg, where I planned to make a stop midway on my drive back to the San Francisco Bay Area. I knew this location from previous visits, and when I left the redwood parks three or four hours to the north, I scheduled my departure with a sunset stop at this location in mind.

I had hopes for an interesting sunset here, but my initial hopes frustrated when I arrived to find high fog, basically a blah condition. However, since I was not far from my destination and since there wasn’t much time left to search for alternative locations I decided to make my stand here. At first I thought that perhaps I could produce something that would work in black and white, since the muted and somewhat odd colors weren’t that exciting. But things soon began to change, and over the next half hour or so the light went through an amazing series of transitions. I made this photograph while the sun was still above the edge of a fog bank that extended well off-shore. As the sun dropped the light on the water moved toward my position — you can see the area of greater illumination a bit further off in the distance. As the light approached the number and color of the close-in reflections increased, and the shadows of the sea stacks lengthened. I made a couple of landscape orientation exposures — this is one of them — before switching to portrait mode for the final images. Between the time I made this photograph and the time I made that switch — perhaps a minute or two later — the light had already changed.

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Events, Gallery, News, Shows, Site News

“Transitions: Winter Into Spring” — Yosemite Exhibit

June 21, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

This is a reminder that “Transitions: Winter Into Spring — Photographs by Yosemite Renaissance Artist-In-Residence G Dan Mitchell and Friends” continues though this month at Gallery 5 in Oakhurst, on the southern border of Yosemite National Park.

In addition to more than a dozen of my photographs, the show includes prints from a talented group of photographic artists and friends that I invited to collaborate on the project: Jerry Bosworth, Franka Mlikota Gabler, Charlotte Hamilton Gibb, David Hoffman, Vidya Kane, and Kerby Smith.

From the Yosemite Renaissance website:

Over the past two months, artist in residence G Dan Mitchell has been photographing Yosemite during the transition from winter into spring. It is an unpredictable time, rich in imagery for photographers as late winter storms challenge the new growth of spring. Wildflowers appear first, poppies and many others. Dogwoods come next, encouraged by warming temperatures and clearing snow. At the same time temperatures suddenly drop and snow falls in unpredictable ways. Daffodils and irises are suddenly covered in snow. G Dan and six other photographers have done their best to capture this magical time in and around Yosemite. The show will include over 40 works documenting the transition. Proceeds from the exhibit will benefit Yosemite Renaissance. Please join us!

Gallery 5
40982 Hwy 41, Suite 5, Oakhurst CA
559-683-5551

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Alder Thicket And Stream

Mouth of the Klamath

Sea Stacks and Evening Light

“Transitions: Winter Into Spring” — Yosemite Exhibit

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