Tag Archives: blue

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

Surf, Weston Beach

March 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Long exposure photograph of surf and boulders, Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve

This part of a small series of photographs I made at Weston Beach, Point Lobos on a mid-January day. The location is very familiar to me, to the point that I recognize many specific rocks and formations here. I have photographed quite a few times, but I continue to find new things to see here. Part of that is from visiting in different seasons and conditions of weather and light, part from looking more closely, and part from thinking of different ways to photograph the familiar subject. More than once I’ve had a feeling that I was “done” with the location, only to go back and find a new way of seeing it to investigate.

I was playing with several ideas when I made this series of photographs. Obviously, I was working with long exposures that allowed the motion of the waves to blur in various ways, smoothing out the surface of the otherwise-rough water and turning shoreline waves into transparent mist. I was also working with a different sort of light than that which I would usually seek out here. More often I look for soft light, produced by some overcast, an early/late hour, or even fog. But it was very clear on this mid-morning visit and the light falling on the rocks was somewhat stark and harsh, especially when I shot almost into the sunlight. It seemed to me that the edginess of the brightly lit rock might be a counterpoint to the softness of the long-exposure blurring of the water. Obviously, I also went with black and white here. Also, a bit unusual for me, I worked with an ultra-wide angle focal length, getting quite close to the foreground but letting the distant subjects be small and accentuating that by placing the horizon very close to the top of the frame.

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture

March 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lone great blue heron overlooks a pasture in clearing fog, San Joaquin Valley, California

I photographed this critter on my first bird photography trip of the season in the Central Valley of California, during which I visited several wildlife refuges in the Merced area. In typical Central Valley form, the day started out very foggy – tule fog hugged the valley floor and obscured the view in many places. By late morning most of the fog had dissipated, and hazy light came through the still-humid cool-season atmosphere.

When I first arrived at this refuge, the fog was so thick that it was more or less impossible to photograph the birds – though I tried! Eventually I reconsidered and did some landscape photography in the mysterious atmosphere of the thick fog. As it finally began to clear, I turned my attention back to the migratory birds. I found this solitary blue heron in a pasture at the far corner of the refuge, and I used my car as a “blind” to eventually pull almost parallel to it on the gravel access road, then stopping to make a series of telephoto shots with the foggy pasture as the backdrop.

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

Tree, Fog, Dawn Sky

March 14, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light on a solitary tree in a foggy pasture under morning clouds, San Joaquin Valley, California

Spring seemed to arrive too soon (for me, anyway) this year in California. I like spring, but I think I like winter more, and I would be fine if spring took its time arriving. However, what started out as a wetter and colder winter than usual here, ended seeming like a very short and mostly mild season as our winter rains more or less stopped in January and February and the hoped-for “March Miracle” of late season rain never came. Instead, as I write this in mid-March, we are experiencing beautiful, sunny weather with temperatures more typical of April than of March.

Against this backdrop I decided to make at least one more trip to some of my favorite San Joaquin Valley migratory bird refuges to photograph geese, cranes, herons, ibises, white pelicans, egrets, and whatever else I could find. Arriving in the Valley very early, in the first dim light I could see that it was a clear morning. I prefer a bit of fog, but dawn light is good light in any case. But as I got closer to the refuge, I was surprised but pleased to see some fog forming over this very wet and marshy area, and before long there was some quite nice fog filling in as the sun began to light the high clouds above. The effects of early morning light in fog can be quite subtle, but a favorite sort of light is that which comes faintly through partially clearing mist, casting a bit of light on features like this tree and parting enough to reveal the sky overhead. Because this light and atmosphere were so appealing – and because it can be darned hard to photograph birds in fog! – I took a break from bird photography and spent a bit of time shooting elements in this foggy landscape.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Mesquite Dunes, Cottonwood Mountains

March 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Mesquite Dunes and the Cottonwood Mountains late on a hazy afternoon, Death Valley National Park, California

The Mesquite Dunes are a well-known icon of Death Valley and are often photographed in the early morning or around sunset. I made this photograph at a somewhat different time – late in the afternoon but well before the golden hour light of evening. The sun was still high enough to illuminate the tops of the dunes and even the sides away from the sun, and the afternoon haze made the atmosphere blue and obscured the rugged features of the Cottonwood Mountains beyond the dunes and across the Valley.

If you look closely enough, you can find a number of features that characterize this area of the valley. The foreground flats are “filled” with plants that grow a good distance apart from one another, apparently due to the limited water. The edge of the dunes spills over slightly into the gravelly flat but then rises quite high. Beyond the dunes, and faintly seen through the haze, a giant alluvial fan slants down from higher mountains to the left. (It sometimes surprises visitors to see how much the terrain in this very dry place has been shaped by water.) Beyond the sloping fan, the rugged Cottonwood Mountains, part of the Panamint Range, begin to rise to quite high peaks.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: blue

Surf, Weston Beach

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture

Tree, Fog, Dawn Sky

Mesquite Dunes, Cottonwood Mountains

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