Tag Archives: black

Pier at China Camp

June 1, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The old fishing pier at China Camp, California

This is another photograph from my first visit to the China Camp site along the northern San Francisco Bay, a place I had thought about visiting and photographing for several years. It was a Chinese immigrant settlement in the 1800s and apparently there was a thriving shrimp harvesting operation there. Today it is essentially ghost town, though one that has been stabilized and fixed up and which incorporates some “interpretive” facilities. I ended up there in conjunction with a “long-exposure photo walk” weekend that photographed a number of Bay Area locations over the course of three days. Though I did not participate in the entire event, I did join up with them on one morning to photograph dawn at the Golden Gate and then to travel up to China Camp.

This pier was the subject of several of my photographs on this day. It is an interesting and compelling subject in a bunch of ways. Its historical context of course makes it interesting, but there are several interesting visual aspects to it, too, and the overall feelings are of quiet and space and perhaps a bit of desolation. The pier itself is unlike most that I’ve seen. Power poles with utility lines run along its length. Ladders descend to the waterline for entry into small boats. Birds sit on top of high points along the pier. The water in the China Camp lagoon is almost completely still, and there is a great expanse of open water beyond with only low hills on the far horizon. (This quality reminded me just a bit of some views of Mono Lake.) For this photograph I used a 9-stop neutral density filter so that I could extend the exposure to last many seconds, further smoothing the surface of the water. I made about a half-dozen exposures, trying to get on in which the darned birds would hold relatively still for 5-10 seconds… and they finally cooperated on the last shot.

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

Red-Winged Blackbirds in Flight

May 22, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large flock of red-winged blackbirds flushes from the brush and takes flight over the San Joaquin Valley, California

I first started traveling to and photographing these areas in the California Central Valley because I was looking for sandhill cranes. I quickly discovered the other large migratory birds, especially the geese. But as I go back more often I see more and more things that are worth photographing. On this visit I had a bit of midday time to kill so I decided to go look at a new (to me) wildlife area.

The area is not far from another wildlife area, where I have most often photographed in this part of the valley. My initial thinking was that it might be an alternative location in which to look for the same flocks of Ross’s geese that I find nearby, but the staff people at the visitor center suggested otherwise. They did mention one area further north in the reserve where people had reported good bird viewing, so I decided to take a look. I didn’t see any geese there during my short visit, but I did see a bunch of other interesting birds, including this large and active flock of red-winged blackbirds, who obligingly lined themselves up to display the bright red areas along the base of their wings.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

High Country Desert Canyon

April 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A back-country gravel road twists through the upper reaches of a colorful mountain canyon, Death Valley National Park

The gravel back-country road might be hard to spot in this photograph, but if you look closely near the lower right you may see it twisting around a bend before crossing the canyon behind the rocky prominence at the bottom of the frame. The road begins in desert sagebrush country, then rises to cross the Amargosa Range before descending, sometimes precipitously, down toward the main Death Valley.

Some things about photographing this subject are easy and obvious, but others are a bit challenging and require some attention and then some resistance to trying to turn the scene into something it isn’t. What is easy about this subject? I am endlessly fascinated by winding canyons with overlapping ridges that descend toward the bottom of the canyon, creating a back and forth weave of form. Here the canyon winds from right (at the top) to left to right to left to right to left and, finally, back to the left. And the colors and textures are remarkable, ranging from the very dark rocks at the bottom, through the much lighter slopes right above to the rather reddish rock in the far, upper portion of the canyon. What is hard about it? In many ways, it is easy to pass right through such an area and overlook what it offers, since there really is not single, central, and iconic “thing” to focus the attention. Instead, I almost have to remind myself to slow down, to stop, and to just look… and finally the way to photograph such subjects begins to reveal itself. In addition, because the color palette of this land is so subtle, including mostly pastel shades that subtly contrast with one another, it is important, I think, to resist the ever-present temptation to hype it up into something it isn’t.

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

Calero Oaks, Fog

April 27, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

This is an older photograph that I sort of “rediscovered” while going through older files recently. It was due for a bit of additional work, reformatting to fit my current preferred 4:3 print ratio, and the updated web border and text that you see in the online versions of my photographs. (And, to answer the question that comes up from time to time, my fine art prints do not include the text found in the online photographs!)

Although I no longer visit there quite as often, this area became a favorite location of mine a few years ago, especially during the winter months when morning fog frequently burns off and reveals the newly-green winter landscape of the California grassland and oak forests. The photograph was made on one of these very mornings, as I had hiked the familiar trail along the top of this ridge, to find myself on the border between fog in the valleys and clearing on the ridge, with the edge of the fog drifting through these trees and the sun backlighting this misty atmosphere.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: black

Pier at China Camp

High Country Desert Canyon

Calero Oaks, Fog

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