Tag Archives: brown

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

Kitchen Windows, Fort Mason

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Kitchen Windows, Fort Mason

Kitchen Windows, Fort Mason. San Francisco, California. August 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Kitchen windows of a Fort Mason restaurant, San Francisco, California.

A few weeks ago I was at Fort Mason, along the waterfront of San Francisco Bay between the Marina and the Fishermans Wharf area, and I had a few hours to wander around and make photographs. Near the end of my wandering I passed by this window on the side of Greens Restaurant and was attracted by a bunch of features: the basic geometric pattern, the barely visible “stuff” inside the window, the superimposition of subjects reflected from the building behind me, and the wonderful mess coming from the upper left part of the window.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: kitchen, window, restaurant, greens, reflection, pane, frame, pattern, form, texture, architecture, urban, city, fort, mason, vent, light, book, utensil, bowl, pot, roof, corrugated, red, brown, rust, vent, building, street, sill, wall, san francisco, california, usa, travel, landscape, detail, bay, waterfront, pier, public, park, stock, screen, distort, historic, landmark

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

Summer Grass, Calero Hills

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Summer Grass, Calero Hills

Summer Grass, Calero Hills. Calero Hills, California. August 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dry summer grasses growing near Castillero Pond at the Calero Hills, California.

In this photograph – yes, from the same series from Castillero Pond – I wanted to isolate the light colored grass seeds from the background, and try to reveal the very delicate stems of the grass and other dry plants. The background was essentially the same color as these subjects and was also terribly detailed – so I used a very narrow depth of field to reduce the background detail to an amorphous blur. Although it might not seem like your typical macro lens, I photographed this with a 100-400mm zoom at 400mm!

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: calero, hills, santa clara, county, park, morning, summer, grass, flora, pond, castillero, plant, nature, california, usa, plant, dry, brown, golden, yellow, twig, stick, stem, seed, pod, bokeh, blur, background, tall, thin, stock

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Summer Grasses, Morning

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Summer Grasses, Morning

Summer Grasses, Morning. Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California. August 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dry summer grasses in morning light along the shore of Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California.

Yes, another in this series of morning photographs of summer grasses and similar flora. Again, this was photographed at Castillero Pond in the Calero Hills not far from where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. After a few recent trips to the high, alpine terrain near the Sierra Nevada crest, I thought it would be fun to photograph a more local and familiar subject. Although the grasses and cattails were not necessarily what I had on my mind when I went to this location, they quickly become my focus as I explored the shore of this small pond.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
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keywords: calero, hills, santa clara, county, park, morning, summer, grass, flora, pond, castillero, plant, nature, california, usa, brown, golden, twig, stem, seed, dry, warm, bokeh, castillero, pond, shore, stock, blur, sharp, pattern

Photographs: Nature

Detail, Summer Grasses

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Detail, Summer Grasses

Detail, Summer Grasses. Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California. August 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Close-up photograph of summer grasses growing at Castillero Pond, California.

A second photo in the sequence I made on this morning at Castillero Pond in the Calero Hills oak/grassland in northern California. (The terrain and plants are typical of vast areas of central California as well.) These large grasses were growing along the edge of the pond. Unlike most of the grasses, which by now have gone completely dry in California, there were still mostly green since they had the pond as a source of moisture.

I made what might strike some as an odd lens choice for this series. Virtually all of them were shot with a 100-400mm zoom at 400mm. The idea was to get a very narrow depth of field and then throw both foreground and background way out of focus. Sometimes people think that the only way to do this is by using lenses with very large aperture, but an equally (and in some cases more) effective method is to use a very long focal length. This can provide even nicer bokeh than the large aperture approach in many cases.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gdanmitchell
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/gdanmitchell
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keywords: calero, hills, santa clara, county, park, morning, summer, grass, flora, pond, castillero, plant, nature, california, usa, macro, close-up, stem, twig, blade, green, brown, yellow, shadow, bokeh, dense, texture, curve, pattern, dry, stock