Tag Archives: blue

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Textures

September Sky Number One

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September Sky Number One - Sky above the San Francisco Bay Area, September 21, 2012
Sky above the San Francisco Bay Area, September 21, 2012

September Sky Number One. Above the San Francisco Bay Area, California. September 21, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sky above the San Francisco Bay Area, September 21, 2012

There probably isn’t a lot to say about a photograph of a small section of the September sky above northern California. I made the photograph while waiting (for three hours!) for the Space Shuttle Endeavour flyover at the NASA/Ames Research Center Moffett Field. Fortunately, it was not a typical perfect blue sky California September day – instead there were some beautiful high clouds of various sorts that were probably connected to the passage of some tropical moisture. Standing around with a bit lens on the camera and nice clouds overhead – why not photograph a few of them? :-)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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.

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Textures

Cloud Forms #3 – September 16, 2012

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Cloud Forms #3 - September 16, 2012 - Evening sky above Olmsted Point in the Yosemite Sierra.
Evening sky above Olmsted Point in the Yosemite Sierra.

Cloud Forms #3 – September 16, 2012. Yosemite National Park, California. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening sky above Olmsted Point in the Yosemite Sierra.

On my return from a mid-September eastern Sierra backpack trip, I again passed through Yosemite National Park on the Tioga Pass Road. By a bit of luck combined with some planning, I managed to time of my passage so that I could be there during the last hour or so of the day, figuring I might try to grab a few last opportunistic photographs before driving back to the Bay Area after dark. With that long, dark drive ahead of me, I decided to aim for a stopping point a bit further west along the route, and I stopped about a half hour before sunset at Olmsted Point.

Although I have a number of photographs of the iconic image of the “backside” of Half Dome from this location, the lighting here can be interesting enough that I’ll stop and try “one more time” if I happen to be there. As is often the case, the lighting did not initially appear too promising. The typical autumn wildfire haze was in the air, lending a bit of a yellow/brown color to the hazy lower atmosphere, and the higher clouds seems thin. But if there is one thing that I (and just about any other landscape photographer!) have learned by now, it is that the last minutes of daylight {and the first moments after the sun sets} can be full of surprises. I began with the practical step of scoping out a composition of the iconic dome, but then I turned my attention to lots of other subjects that surround Olmsted Point: the sparse trees ascending the granite slabs across the roadway, higher ridges across Tenaya Canyon and in the opposite direction, the Sierra crest around Mount Conness, and the sky. For a brief moment after the sunlight had left Olmsted Point, the final rays passed through atmosphere near the western horizon and lit up the patterned layers of clouds and drifting wildfire smoke.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Point Arena Lighthouse

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Point Arena Lighthouse - The Point Arena Lighthouse stands atop rugged coastal bluffs along the northern California coast.
The Point Arena Lighthouse stands atop rugged coastal bluffs along the northern California coast.

Point Arena Lighthouse. Northern California. August 29, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Point Arena Lighthouse stands atop rugged coastal bluffs along the northern California coast.

I have only visited the Point Arena Lighthouse one other time. This is symptomatic of the fact that I have overlooked the far northern coast of California. I suppose I’ve been too busy with the Sierra and other areas in this state full of visual riches, but since “discovering” the northern coastal areas I have become much more interested in photographing there.

This visit was during the middle of the day and the sky was almost completely clear – not exactly stirring conditions for photographing such a scene. So I spent some time looking at locations and angles and possible composition, at least partly with an eye to returning yet again but during a time of more interesting lighting – this location might be spectacular in the right late day light, and dawn isn’t out of the question.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | 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: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Blue Water, Beach and Bluffs, Mendocino

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Blue Water, Beach and Bluffs, Mendocino - Beach and shoreline bluffs above the blue water of Mendocino Bay, California
Beach and shoreline bluffs above the blue water of Mendocino Bay, California

Blue Water, Beach and Bluffs, Mendocino. Mendocino, California. August 28, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Beach and shoreline bluffs above the blue water of Mendocino Bay, California.

This photograph was made on the beach along the shoreline of Mendocino Bay, beneath the tall bluffs that line the area. The land extends to the west and curves a bit to the south, allowing me to photograph back along the curving beach, toward the inlet of the river that drains into the bay and the forested hills beyond. The light was interesting – fog was coming in along the coast and was overhead at my camera position, but clear just inland of me. This created soft and somewhat gray light on the foreground water, but allowed the further hills and forest to be in the light. It also made the interesting reflection on the calm water more visible.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | 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.