Tag Archives: america

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

Monterey Cypress Trunks

March 27, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The trunks of Monterey Cypress trees along the north shore of Point Lobos State Reserve, California

In mid-January I made my first trip back to Point Lobos in quite a few months. This is a place that I know well, having visited since my parents took me when I was a child. I’ve photographed all over the park – though I certainly have not done everything there that can be done, and I’ll continue to photograph the place. On this visit I went without any real preconceived ideas about what I wanted to shoot. Often when I go to such a place I have at least some such ideas – perhaps I’m thinking about wildlife, or maybe I want to photograph in fog, or there might be a forecast of high surf. But this time? I think I just wanted to go there and be in the old familiar landscape of sun and waves and birds and all the rest.

I arrived early, just after the park opened, and when I drove it there were few others there yet. (Point Lobos can become very busy later in the day as tourists from the popular Monterey and Carmel areas show up.) More or less by chance I ended up down at iconic Weston Beach, where I stopped when I saw some arrangements of shoreline boulders that seemed to present some possibilities and because the early morning light was glancing off of sea stacks and islands to the south. I shot here for perhaps a couple of hours and then decided to head back over the Whalers Cove, where I can sometimes photograph interesting birds. When I didn’t see the birds there that I hoped for, I decided to shoulder my gear and take the trail along the dramatic north shore, hoping for some soft light. This little scene caught my attention along the trail, at first because of the interesting back-light, but I soon saw a lot more potential here, especially with the trees tilting at wild angles.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Alcatraz, Sunrise

March 25, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Alcatraz Island silhouetted against reflected sunrise light on San Francisco Bay

On this morning I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge heading north around dawn, on my way to redwoods and the coast. As I cross the bridge I’m always on the lookout for potentially interesting conditions of light or atmosphere or interesting things happening on the bay. Having heard a weather forecast of “no fog,” I was a bit surprised to find… fog in the hills on the north side of the bridge, along with a slightly opaque atmosphere over the bay. I wouldn’t call that “fog” exactly – more like “could have been fog if the wind had blown a different direction or the temperature had been a bit colder.” In any case, it was an interesting development – more interesting to me than the potential for perfectly clear air.

So I left highway 101 on the north side of the bridge and detoured briefly up into the Marin Headlands, not sure what my subject might be but certain that the light looked interesting. I started to wander out to a spot where a view across the “Gate” is found, but didn’t get that far. Instead, I found interesting light in other directions – down toward Sausalito, across the Bay toward the Embarcadero and the Bay Bridge and, as in this photograph, Alcatraz. By good fortune it happened that on this morning the reflection of the rising sun was just in line with the left edge of the island. This light is almost too bright to look at, but with a long lens and the right exposure the camera can look at it just fine! The water tower on the island casts a shadow on the reflections in front of Alcatraz, and beyond the flat area of Treasure Island is visible, with even more reflective bay water beyond that. Oakland and the East Bay hills and shoreline are completely lost in the golden haze.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture

March 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lone great blue heron overlooks a pasture in clearing fog, San Joaquin Valley, California

I photographed this critter on my first bird photography trip of the season in the Central Valley of California, during which I visited several wildlife refuges in the Merced area. In typical Central Valley form, the day started out very foggy – tule fog hugged the valley floor and obscured the view in many places. By late morning most of the fog had dissipated, and hazy light came through the still-humid cool-season atmosphere.

When I first arrived at this refuge, the fog was so thick that it was more or less impossible to photograph the birds – though I tried! Eventually I reconsidered and did some landscape photography in the mysterious atmosphere of the thick fog. As it finally began to clear, I turned my attention back to the migratory birds. I found this solitary blue heron in a pasture at the far corner of the refuge, and I used my car as a “blind” to eventually pull almost parallel to it on the gravel access road, then stopping to make a series of telephoto shots with the foggy pasture as the backdrop.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Slot Canyon Tree

March 22, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A box elder tree stands against the vertical sandstone walls of a Utah slot canyon

Near the beginning of this late-October photographic trip in Utah, we visited a long canyon, slot-like in places, in the southern reaches of Utah in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Although I had been is small sections of little slot canyons before, this was actually the first time I ventured up a desert canyon like this one (with the exception of some in Death Vally) that had a creek running up the bottom, steep sandstone walls, and plenty of cottonwoods, box elders, and other typical plants. We started in a more or less flat area outside the canyon, waded up a section of the creek to enter the canyon, and spent the next few hours exploring and making photographs.

I have a thing about trees standing in front of rock walls, and among the mental images I was carrying as we went to the Southwest were several with that theme. I was actually thinking more about trees with fall colors, but in this particular canyon there was a still a lot of green foliage – and I liked the somewhat unusual combination of the leaves’ lime green and the pinkish, almost purple coloration of the rock in the soft reflected canyon light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: america

Monterey Cypress Trunks

Alcatraz, Sunrise

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture

Slot Canyon Tree

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