Tag Archives: area

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Trillium Flower, Fern Tips

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Trillium Flower, Fern Tips - A trillium flower blooms among ferns beneath the canopy of the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, California.
A trillium flower blooms among ferns beneath the canopy of the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

Trillium Flower, Fern Tips. Muir Woods National Monument, California. March 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A trillium flower blooms among ferns beneath the canopy of the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

This was one of the nicer “classic” trillium flowers I found in Muir Woods this season. The petals and leaves were in good shape and almost perfectly aligned with the flower’s petals lined up with the larger, lower leaves. The photograph was made very close to the beginning of March when the first good flowers were appearing in large numbers. Over the next few weeks, more and more of the flowers blossomed at Muir Woods. Other than some of the unusual winter flowers, the trillium flowers here sort of mark the beginning of the Central/Northern California wildflower season for me, and now that the days are lengthening more and more wildflowers will appear in the these areas.

Along the lines of technical information about this photograph… I used a 70-200mm lens on a full frame camera for this shot. This turns out to be the setup I use most often for this subject, though sometimes I’ll photograph them with a prime (ranging from 24mm to 135mm) or even a wider zoom, and every so often I use an extension tube and get in extra close. This photograph was shot at 200mm and cropped a bit, both to tighten the frame around the flower a bit and to get the taller and narrower aspect ratio that I usual prefer. For many flowers I find that 70-200mm zoom to be a great tool. Even though mine only opens to f/4, at 200mm this can create a very nicely blurred background when shooting such subjects, and the long focal length lets me work a bit further back from the flowers.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Trillium Unfolding

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Trillium Unfolding - A new trillium plant emerges and begins to blossom beneath the redwood forest canopy.
A new trillium plant emerges and begins to blossom beneath the redwood forest canopy.

Trillium Unfolding. Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California. March 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A new trillium plant emerges and begins to blossom beneath the redwood forest canopy.

With enough time to observe these plants – and a few return visits to fill in observational gaps – it is possible to see the full process of their unfolding. Though I still haven’t spotted the very earliest sprouts – probably because I didn’t look quite closely enough – I can spot the newly emerging plants that are about to open up and blossom. The leaves wrap around the incipient flower, and when they begin to open the appearance of the flower itself isn’t far behind.

On this visit to Muir Woods National Monument I found trillium plants in all stages from tiny plants with small leaves to those that had already blossomed and even lost the flowers. A few were at this wonderful stage when the cradling outside leaves are just opening to reveal the new flower. Soon the leaves will drop and flatten to produce the familiar three-part shape and the flower will stand (or droop!) above the leaves.

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

Abandoned Turnstiles

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Abandoned Turnstiles - Night photograph of abandoned turnstiles in the industrial area of the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.
Night photograph of abandoned turnstiles in the industrial area of the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

Abandoned Turnstiles. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California. March 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of abandoned turnstiles in the industrial area of the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

Early this month I had the opportunity to join my friends from The Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group, for (yet another) return visit to the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard for an evening of nocturnal photography, along with a chance to share work and pizza! I have been photographing Mare Island at night for something like a half dozen years now, yet I still find new and interesting subjects every time I go there.

These turnstile structures are found throughout the facility, and they are a frequent topic of conversation and subject of photography among the night photographers I know. They are intriguing features and there is something compelling about them as potential subjects. Standing along at night they seem forlorn, perhaps in contrast to the knowledge that thousands of ship yard employees must have passed through them at one point. They also seem almost disconnected from the rest of the industrial landscape here. While it is obvious that they must have once been the only entry way to certain areas of the facility, not it is quite possible to simply walk around them. In addition, some mysterious electrical “stuff” has clearly been removed – time card readers? Something else?

It also turns out that they are a surprisingly difficult photographic subject, and I have had many discussions with other night photographers about this. Up close they present an amazing density of interlocking metal features… that are very difficult to assemble into a good composition. I’ve managed once or twice. Oddly, one of my favorite photographs of the turnstiles is almost the very first photograph I made at Mare Island, a black and white close-up photograph of a gate by the island’s museum. For this shot I decided to work from a bit of elevation, setting up on a raised landing in front of a nearby building so that I could look down on the structure and create a sort of surround out of the background area and further buildings.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Two Trillium Blossoms

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Two Trillium Blossoms - Two trillium blossoms in the redwood forests of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California
Two trillium blossoms in the redwood forests of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California

Two Trillium Blossoms. Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California. March 10, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two trillium blossoms in the redwood forests of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California.

It is probably obvious by now that I’m a trillium fanatic. Early March is “trillium season” in the redwood forests around the San Francisco Bay Area, so I have been out photographing these flowers during the past couple of weeks. I was originally concerned that this might be a very poor year for them since we are in the midst of a serious drought in California, but some early March rain seems to have provided enough water to get them to sprout. In fact, this past weekend I saw lots of new plants just starting to emerge, so it seems to me that there may be some life left in the this year’s bloom. (And now we are looking hopefully at an upcoming week of much-needed rain.)

I photographed this pair along a trail that traverses a hillside above a valley filled with coast redwoods. I arrived in this spot just as morning light was beginning to filter down through the tall canopy of this forest and, in spots, hit the ground and the new plants. The trick is is to get some of the brighter color of this sunlight but to avoid the direct sun – the latter is far too harsh for photographing these flowers. So I worked in the shaded areas or, at times, in those spots that were right on the sun/shade boundary. I probably most often photograph single flowers, but when I can find a group I like to see how I can make a composition out of them. It is a bit trickier than it might seem, as there are a bunch of elements that must work together. First, the two flowers need to be fairly close together, and they both need to be at roughly the same point in their development – it isn’t so wonderful to get one beautiful flower and one half-dead, dried hulk. Then they must both be illuminated in roughly the same way – it won’t work so well if one is in brighter light than the other. The background is a tricky thing, too. If it is too bright or too busy (or too well focused) it can easily distract from the flowers themselves, so I usually look for something in shadow and without any very bright objects. While I may be able to find a camera position that accomplishes this, sometimes I need to move a small, bright leaf or twig. And once all of this is worked out, the flowers must be roughly in a plane parallel to the camera’s sensor so that both will be in focus – and this must happen while shooting at the large apertures necessary to throw the background out of focus. And last, but not least, exposure can be slightly tricky – it is very easy to over-expose the bright but delicate form of the flower’s petals, and end up losing detail.

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.