Tag Archives: area

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sports

Francesco Chicchi of Team Liquigas

May 23, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Francesco Chicchi of team Liquigas in the team area before the start of stage one of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California in Nevada City.

Another pre-race photograph from stage one of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California professional bicycle stage race. (This year, all of my photographs from the Tour will almost certainly come from stage one. Ah, well!) In past years I’ve managed to have my son along – and he is a real cycling fan who recognizes many of the riders. This has helped as he has been my “spotter,” pointing out riders that I didn’t recognize. This time he wasn’t with me, so in addition to shooting the riders that I did recognize I also photographed any who looked like the might be important, hoping to get his help later on with identifications. We finally had a chance to look through the images together today, and he identified this rider for me. Coincidentally, on this same day (May 19) Chicchi was the winner of stage four!

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.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 310mm
ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/500 second

keywords: amgen, tour, of, california, stage, one, 2010, bicycle, road, race, pro, professional, usa, north america, sports, nevada, city, francesco, chicchi, liquigas, team, area, winner, stage, sprint, four, stock

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

Spring Ferns, Muir Woods

May 16, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Black and white photograph of spring ferns growing in the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

I barely caught this bunch of ferns alongside Redwood Creek as the morning sun was approaching them. As I set up and started to shoot the ferns were in shade but picking up some diffused light starting to come through the forest canopy. I probably got no more than a minute of shooting time before a beam of sun poked through and illuminated the right part of the scene… far too brightly!

I considered sharing this as a color image – it is full of rich green from the deep forest light on the spring leaves in this moist place. However, the more I worked with it the more I felt that the textures and patterns of the fern leaves and the gradations of light and shadow would be overpowered by the intense green of the color rendition.

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.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 149mm
ISO 400, f/16, .6 second

keywords: spring, fern, frond, plant, leaf, branch, nature, foliage, flora, muir, woods, national, monument, golden, gate, recreation, area, park, forest, grove, redwood, sequoia, sempervirens, coastal, black and white, monochrome, light, shadow, overlap, scenic, travel, marin, county, california, usa, north america, stock

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

Redwood Grove Panorama

May 15, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Panoramic photograph of light transitioning to deep shade in a redwood grove near Hillside Trail at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

I just had the morning free on this day so I was up early to head to Muir Woods National Monument in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area north of San Francisco. I got there so early that I snagged the first parking space closest to the park center. (Those who know the park and the crowds it draws, understand the significance of that achievement!)

I walked up the usual trail into the main grove with several photo ideas in mind. One of them was to do a bit more work on my idea of creating very wide and high quality panoramas that include the redwood groves, and I was thinking about trying at least one from an elevated location where I could shoot straight on at the sections of the tree trunks some yard above the ground. With this in mind I eventually headed up the “Hillside Trail” just beyond the old Bohemian Grove location, where I found several places that would give me the perspective I was looking for.

This photograph was made not far from the start of the trail, and I was perhaps 20-30 feet higher than the bottom of Redwood Creek Canyon. One thing I like about this scene is the transition from a bit of open, sunlit forest at the very far left, through the grove of redwood trees and the massive vertical forms of their trunks, and on to the softer and darker area of deciduous trees on the right side.

The photograph is a stitch of six 21mp photographs shot in vertical format. The resulting image has a tremendous amount of detail (which is obviously not visible in small web jpg) and should be printable with good results at very large sizes – at least ten feet wide.

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.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 118mm
ISO 200, f/16, .5 second
stitched from six portrait-orientation 21mp images

keywords: redwood, sequoia, sempervirens, coast, grove, tree, trunk, creek, forest, maple, leaf, branch, silhouette, light, shade, shadow, deep, panorama, stitched, muir, woods, national, monument, golden gate, recreation, area, morning, nature, flora, foliage, plants, landscape, marin, county, california, usa, north america, stock

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

Redwood Grove Panorama

May 12, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A wide panoramic view of morning light in a dense redwood grove at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

Up next in the stitched panorama parade… a photograph make in the vicinity of Bohemian Grove at Muir Woods National Monument in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California. This grove is high on the list of popular places in the central and well-known section of the park, and the loop trail that many visitors hike travels right through it.

There are, it seems to me, a huge number of ways to photograph these very tall trees. Interesting effects of light filtering down from above are often a possibility. There are lots of small subjects that can be shot close up. But their sheer height is often difficult to capture. You can shoot straight up, but that creates some issues. You can (and I have) shoot in vertical format to try to include the vertical size. You can try to shoot from further back, but then the scale of the trees diminishes – plus it is very hard to get a clear line of site on these trees from any distance… unless, perhaps, you are at the edge of an area that has been logged.

So, I’ve been thinking about shooting very wide panoramas of groves of parallel vertical forms of the massive trunks. I think that this has two effects that work for me. First, when you stand before these trees and look around you mostly are seeing just the lower sections of the trees – so for me this depiction is true to the experience of being in the forest. Second, the fact that you cannot see the full height of the trees doesn’t mean that you aren’t aware of it! Focusing on these massive trunks might cause you to project the rest of the trees and the great height that isn’t included within the frame. (This isn’t the first time I’ve done this, and I’m certainly not the first person to do it.)

By the way, because the image is stitched from multiple high-resolution full-frame images, it has the potential to be printed very large at some point.

(More of my Muir Woods photographs)

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.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 200, f/116, .6 second
panorama stitched from multiple exposures

keywords: morning, light, tree, forest, grove, trunk, tall, giant, coast, sempervirens, redwood, muir, woods, national, monument, golden gate, recreation, area, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, san francisco, california, usa, north america, stock, panorama, large, dense, wide, bark

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