Tag Archives: california

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

Cattail and Grasses, Morning Light

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Cattail and Grasses, Morning Light

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

A cattail stands among dry summer grasses at Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California.

The next in the series – and, yes, there will likely be more! – of photographs of cattails and grasses from a recent morning shoot at Castillero Pond, not far from where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In these photographs I was playing with a whole series of ideas: the color and form of the late-season summer cattails in the warm morning side-lighting, the effect of blurring out the background of grasses and pond water, and the interesting color palette of yellow/gold, green, and blue. To a certain extent, I was also “going with the flow” since I had arrived at this pond with no strong preconceptions about what I would shoot- I had vague ideas concerning oak trees and open grassland and possibly photographing birds as I passed the pond – and then ended up being distracted by well over an hour by the subject of this series.

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, cat, tail, cattail, plant, blade, stem, branch, seed, bokeh, blur, blue, green, golden, central, northern, light, stock

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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gdanmitchell

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Cattails, Morning Light

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Cattails, Morning Light

Cattails, Morning Light. Calero Hills, California. August 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Summer cattails in morning light at Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California.

OK, this time no alpine scene from high meadows near the crest of the Sierra – instead a cattail growing along the bank of a small pond perhaps ten miles from my home at a place where I frequently hike. This morning I decided to get up early and head out here with no particular photographic goal in mind. When I arrived at the pond I thought I might photograph some birds – in fact, I just missed photographing my local egret, which flew away just as I was getting out my camera. So, instead of photographing the birds – and instead of continuing on for a longer morning hike – I spent more than an hour here photographing the cattails and patterns of summer grasses in the morning light.

Yesterday I visited SF MOMA to see two photographic shows – the photographs of Richard Avedon in one and the photographs of Ansel Adams and paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe in the other. As I looked at the out of focuse patterns of grasses, such as those in the background of this photograph, I thought about the colors and patterns of the O’Keeffe paintings.

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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gdanmitchell

keywords: calero, hills, santa clara, county, park, morning, summer, grass, flora, pond, castillero, plant, nature, california, usa, light, blue, gold, brown, yellow, green, bokeh, stalk, seed, stock

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lower Slopes of Picture Peak, Hungry Packer Lake

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Lower Slopes of Picture Peak, Hungry Packer Lake
Lower Slopes of Picture Peak, Hungry Packer Lake

Lower Slopes of Picture Peak, Hungry Packer Lake. John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California. August 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The snow fields, cliffs, and talus fields of Picture Peak tower above the upper end of Hungry Packer Lake, John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California.

Hungry Packer Lake is a short walk up the valley from Topsy Turvy Lake, where we camped during our recent visit to upper Sabrina Basin in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Hungry Packer is a classic, high alpine Sierra Lake with glacier polished rocks, meadows, and a some trees at the bench where the outlet stream leaves the lake and rugged rocks and talus slopes around the upper portion of the lake – with the towering mass of Picture Peak overhead. It is “my Sierra” – the sort of place that first comes to mind for me when I think of this mountain range.

We only visited for a short time, as we were on a circuit hike to visit about four of these high lakes, and the light was a bit tough during this midday period. Consequently I decided to go for a tighter shot of the lake surface and the tremendous talus slope, rock faces, and snowfields at the upper end of the lake – all with a plan to render the photo in black and white.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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