Tag Archives: blue

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

Rocks, Surf, and Dusk Horizon

August 7, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A curving rock shelf extends into the “blue hour” Pacific Ocean surf and toward the fog-darkened horizon as night approaches.

A short, evening visit to the California coast above Santa Cruz began with photography in golden hour light in areas where the fog bank hung just offshore with moist air over the coast creating a gentle, misty atmosphere and soft light. We photographed a few subjects in this light – and looked at others that we did not stop to shoot – and continued north as the sun dropped toward the horizon, where the fog waited to envelop it. We stopped at a beach where large groups of pelicans were resting and then resuming their flight along the coast, and noted that there was still a bit of light in the sky and, oddly, below the bottom of the fog bank along the horizon. As this light died, we turned briefly north, and I soon saw this rocky bench extending into the ocean waves.

Following the evening golden hour there is a time that some call the blue hour – when the warmer colors of sunset drain from the sky and we are left with soft, blue light. It might have seemed odd to anyone watching me photograph this rocky feature, but instead of hurrying to shoot it before the light faded, I took my time – I wanted the light to fade, both for the mysterious blue coloration and because this would make it easier for me to use extended exposure times to allow the water to soften and blur a bit. When I began shooting it was only dark enough to get exposures of perhaps a second or two – at least without adding a neutral density filter – but as I waited, making an occasional photograph in the interim, the light began to move toward a near-night state, and I was able to get exposures of 15 seconds or longer… and that blue light that I was looking for.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Ships and Morning Sky

July 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ships at anchor on San Francisco Bay under a hazy morning sky

San Francisco’s Embarcadero can be a busy, hectic, noisy traffic artery filled with cars, buses, trains, trucks and tourists – but very early in the morning it provides a beautiful and sometimes even quiet view of San Francisco Bay that is incomparable, especially on a morning when the water is calm and the haze over the water catches the light and produces a glowing, luminous effect.

I have a habit of traveling to The City on Caltrain to photograph, usually arriving between 6:00 AM and 7:00 AM when things haven’t quite woken up yet. When I go there to photograph I often have no specific plan, but I almost invariably end up along the Embarcadero waterfront, whether I go directly there, wander around urban streets first, or do a lot of photography elsewhere before arriving later in the morning. On this morning I took a short detour through some nearby back streets before catching a view of the light over the bay and heading to the east. With the view framed this way, so that only a bit of water, a few anchored ships, and lots of sky are visible, you can forget that you are along the edge of one very busy city.

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

Walking Man, Blue Building

July 23, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A man walks into the sun in front of a blue building, San Francisco, California

This building is, indeed, very blue. I passed it in the low angle morning light shortly after getting off the Caltrain and starting to walk up into the City. The area along Fourth Street seems to change each time I visit and the balance between very funky old businesses and so forth versus newer and slightly hipper stuff continues to shift toward the latter. I’m not sure what this building is, but I’m pretty certain that it is no longer some sort of garage or mechanical shop.

The first thing that caught my attention about this building was, no surprise, the blue color. I thought about how I could arrange the components of the shot to include only blue and white elements, but given the lens I was working with and a few other factors, that wasn’t possible – so there is a bit of brick wall at the upper right intruding into the blue sky. I’m starting to like it. Two other things that I saw here were the angled shadow and the trash collection bins. The two of them and the square shadow on the roll-up door seem to create a sort of pattern, and the walking person – also in a dark jacket and with a shadow, seems to bisect the space between the far right shadow and the middle bin. Without the figure, the shot didn’t seem all that interesting to me, so I employed a technique I often use when shooting urban subjects like this: compose and wait for something/someone to walk into the frame.

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

Three Ross’s Geese, Blue Sky

July 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three Ross’s geese directly overhead against blue morning sky

These Ross’s geese obligingly flew directly over head against a blue sky and in morning light… and, no, they did not drop any, uh, payload on me. (That has happened. It comes with the territory. Someone told me that somewhere in the world – Europe? – it is considered good luck to get “bombed” by a goose. I could write much more on this topic, but I’ll restrain myself. You may thank me later! ;-)

In any case…a difficulty when shooting birds passing overhead is that the light source is often higher than the bird, thus putting the parts of the bird facing the camera into shadow. But in very early or very late light – near sunrise or sunset – the sun is so low that it can cast light on the undersides of the birds, as in this photograph. When shooting this critters as they pass overhead in flight, while I can and do think about their positions in the frame and relative to one another, in the end I have to take what the birds give me. There is a lot that I cannot control about this kind of photography. It comes down to being observant, being able to work quickly and intuitively, and a whole bunch of luck regarding the birds, the light, and the weather.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: blue

Rocks, Surf, and Dusk Horizon

Ships and Morning Sky

Walking Man, Blue Building

Three Ross’s Geese, Blue Sky

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