Tag Archives: bed

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

A Small Wave

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A Small Wave
On a day of quiet seas, a small wave crosses a kelp bed along the California coast.

A Small Wave. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

On a day of quiet seas, a small wave crosses a kelp bed along the California coast.

My recent photographs from Point Lobos have mostly used the grand landscape as the subject, focusing on central subjects set in expansive surroundings. If you are familiar with those locations you might have been able to identify the specific places where I photographed, and you might have recognized the actual subjects of the images. This is not one of those photographs.

This photograph could be from any of an uncounted number of places along the coast of California — or any other coastal zone for that matter. I think this photograph can work in at least two ways. On one level it is a “capture” of a real thing that happens in these places: we see the submerged sand and kelp through clear water, while the more turbulent water that follows the little wave reflects more sky color. But I like the fact that it also woks as an abstraction of shape, color, and form.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature

Fallen Flower

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Fallen Flower
A fallen flower rests lies on a bed of old leaves and sticks.

Fallen Flower. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A fallen flower rests lies on a bed of old leaves and sticks.

Special Note: Patty and I are presenting a Silicon Valley Open Studios event on May 21 and 22. Look us up there or contact us for more information. Come and see our prints!

As I have written previously, as I photograph one subject I often am also on the lookout for other things that might make a photograph. As we fixate on our primary subject — quite important! — we risk missing other subjects lurking in the neighborhood. The old advice was “always look behind, too” — that’s a reminder look up, look down, look over, look under, look everywhere. You will probably find something interesting.

We were at a large public garden full of spectacularly beautiful spring flower displays. I mostly photographed colorful flowers, but I also poked around a bit. Some time ago I began looking underneath the plants that provide the main show, especially in gardens like this one where interesting things fall to the ground and lie unnoticed in the soft shadows. This flower had reached a poignant stage — it retained its color and shape but had been discarded in the litter beneath the bushes where it was beginning to decay.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

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

Rhododendron And Ferns

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Rhododendron And Ferns
A single rhododendron flower, fallen onto a bed or redwood forest ferns

Rhododendron And Ferns. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single rhododendron flower, fallen onto a bed or redwood forest ferns

On this evening we headed to a place where I knew there would be rhododendrons, a spot on a high bluff above the ocean, where light comes in from the west late in the day. If you are lucky, it is filtered by clouds and provides just enough of a glow to illuminate the dark floor of the redwood forest. If you a doubly lucky, there is no wind, and the plants are still enough for the long exposures necessary in this low light.

Since we already had visited this spot, we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to photograph and where to look for it — and most of our targets were not far from the trailhead. On the way in we walked past many blooming rhododendrons, but we decided we could come back to those a bit later. We crossed a low ridge and descended a bit into a valley. Here we photographed a bit, and then we began to retrace our steps along the trail through ferns and redwoods. I happened to spot this solitary fallen rhododendron blossom. It seemed like it had only recently come to rest on these ferns as the flower was still fresh.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Pelicans and Cormorants – Point Lobos

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Three Pelicans, Shadows
Three Pelicans, Shadows

Three Pelicans, Shadows. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. September 2, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three Pelicans, Reflections
Three Pelicans, Reflections

Point Lobos State Reserve, California. September 2, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cormorant, Reflected Clouds
Cormorant, Reflected Clouds

Cormorant, Reflected Clouds. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. September 2, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Something a bit different today – I’m bundling three wildlife photographs into a single post. As I queue this message in advance on an early September morning, it appears that I have enough photographs ready for posting to carry me through October! I think I can afford to put three in this post!

All three were made from the same point on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean at Point Lobos, where I had gone – on Labor Day! – primarily to do landscape/seascape photography. It was an interesting and slightly unusual day. Tropical monsoonal moisture had been streaming over the area for a few days, which is not quite a typical pattern in this area, and the morning started out cloudy. Although it was Labor Day, a bit day for travel and tourism, I arrived early enough that things were still quiet.

On a more typical Point Lobos shooting day, at least one without fog, I would likely complete my work and leave by or well before noon. But the broken overcast allowed interesting and filtered light to continue well into the early afternoon, so I stuck around. After shooting in the forest along the north shore – much easier in filtered than in direct light – I decided I would make a loop along the high bluffs on my way back to my car. I came to this spot just as a very large flock of pelicans floated past below, barely skimming the tops of the almost glassy-calm ocean. With filtered top-light and a good vantage point, I decided to put on the long lens and see what might fly by. Here are a couple of photographs of pelicans and cormorants flying right above the water.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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.