Tag Archives: blue

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Pelicans, Blue Sky

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Three Pelicans, Blue Sky
Three Pelicans, Blue Sky

Three Pelicans, Blue Sky. Pacific Coast, California. May 30, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three pelicans fly along the California Pacific coastline under clearing fog and blue sky.

To my surprise, I got to feed my pelican obsession on Memorial Day. As we drove up the coast north of Santa Cruz, where the road frequently follows the edges of coastal bluffs where they drop off into the Pacific, we started to notice larger than usual groups of pelicans heading north and riding the updrafts next to the cliffs. Having watched these birds many times before, I have learned a bit about their “traffic patterns,” so I suspected that if we went a bit further north to where the road comes down at a beach where a creek enters the ocean that we might encounter the same birds as they, too, dropped down to the water’s edge.

My hunch turned out to be right, and a few minutes after we arrived I caught a glimpse of the distant flock coming around the edge of the bluffs to the south and starting to descend toward the beach. They approached over the edge of the surf, but then turned toward the land as they started to climb again to rise above the next bluff to the north – and for a few seconds I was able to track and photograph them against the thinning fog and blue sky.

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

Sailboats, Pacific Ocean

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Sailboats, Pacific Ocean
Sailboats, Pacific Ocean

Sailboats, Pacific Ocean. Pacific Coast between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, California. May 30, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sailboats under spring skies along the Pacific Ocean coast south of San Francisco.

Memorial Day was a day of nearly perfect weather along the California coast between Santa Cruz and Point Reyes. (When we eventually got to Point Reyes it was nearly windless – and anyone who has been there knows how rare that is.) We started in Santa Cruz for breakfast and then headed north up Highway 1 along the coast. A ways north of Santa Cruz we came upon that zone where the high fog was just breaking up along a border with areas of blue sky. Everything, from the water to the clouds to the sky was some shade of luminous blue.

The photograph was made from a high bluff not far from Waddell Creek. We initially stopped to look for shore birds, since they fly very close to the edge of the bluff, using updrafts to travel along the coast. The high vantage point made the color of the ocean a bit deeper and made more of it visible between the near shore and the horizon. The sailboats were a surprise – I don’t usually see them along this section of the coast.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter (follow me) | Facebook (“Like” my page) | 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: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Mammoth Peak Reflected in Tioga Tarn

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Mammoth Peak Reflected in Tioga Tarn
Mammoth Peak Reflected in Tioga Tarn

Mammoth Peak Reflected in Tioga Tarn. Yosemite National Park, California. July 22, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mammoth Peak in sunset light, reflected in the still surface of Tioga Tarn, Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

This view of Mammoth Peak on Kuna Crest in the Yosemite High Country from the Tioga Tarns at the top of Tioga Pass is a classic Sierra Nevada scene. The foreground tarns are lush green in the early summer after the snow melts out and fall into shadow early in the evening as the sun drops behind the ridge between this area and Gaylor Lakes. Mammoth Peak, however, has an almost unobstructed line of sight to the west, so this peak continues to hold the sunset light until the last possible minute. (Don’t let the peaceful appearance of the scene fool you – I was being devoured by clouds of mosquitos as I made these exposures.)

In order to deal with the extremely large dynamic range between the Mammoth Peak snow fields in direct sun and the very dark shadows of the nearby forest I resorted to exposure blending and a few other post-processing techniques. With exposure blending, I make two exposures, one optimized for the brightest areas of the scene and the second a slightly longer exposure to capture a bit more of the shadow detail. In post I began with the darker frame, since that presented Mammoth Peak the way I remembered it. Then I placed to other exposure beneath it and used a mask layer to reveal some of the lighter areas from the lower layer.

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: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Shoreline Grasses and Subalpine Pond

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Shoreline Grasses and Subalpine Pond
“Shoreline Grasses and Subalpine Pond” — Passing clouds reflected in the surface of a subalpine pond with summer meadow grass, Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

I made this photograph on a special afternoon late last July. Although I had been across Tioga Pass earlier in the season when it was still very snowy, this was my first real visit to the summer high country of the season. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon with just a few fluffy clouds floating about when I came to the meadows near Tioga Pass. The color of the meadow grasses was at just that perfect point that we think of when we imagine summer subalpine meadows – the intense green just before the wildflowers bloom and the inevitable change toward fall begins. (Yes, after some summers in the high country this cycle becomes clearer and clearer.)

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