Tag Archives: carmel

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Pines and Sandstone

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Pines and Sandstone - Sunlit pine trees against shaded sandstone, Zion National Park, Utah
Sunlit pine trees against shaded sandstone, Zion National Park, Utah

Pines and Sandstone. Zion National Park, Utah. April 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunlit pine trees against shaded sandstone, Zion National Park, Utah.

This was probably one of my first photographs on my recent trip to Zion National Park (and other Utah locations) in early April. After arriving in the general area of the park in the middle of the afternoon, we decided that we should see the “high country” along the Mt. Carmel Highway that heads up and east from the main Zion Canyon and Virgin River area. While almost everything in Zion is fascinating, I find this higher elevation terrain especially intriguing – with its combination of swirling and curving sandstone shapes, carved waterways, and various kinds of vegetation. At first it was hard for me to understand how I might photograph this country, but the more I looked the more I at least started to “see” it.

Of course, I like to photograph trees like these anywhere! Although when I stopped I first photographed some sandstone formations to the left of these trees, I had noticed the trees and thought about the possibility of shooting them with this backlight against the shaded sandstone cliffs, with their red tones altered a bit by the reflected blue light from the open sky.

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

Three Harbor Seals

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Three Harbor Seals
Three Harbor Seals

Three Harbor Seals. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. April 26, 2009. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three harbor seals resting on a rock at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

This is a photograph from a couple years back, made on one of my frequent visits to Point Lobos. If I recall correctly, there were two reasons that I focuses on these creatures on this visit: there were lots of them, and the light was less than wonderful for landscape/seascape photography!

During certain times of the year, it isn’t hard at all to find these large seals near the shoreline at Point Lobos and in many other locations along the coast. At Point Lobos you can often see them swimming around the kelp beds, with their large heads occasionally poking up from the water. They also spend time on some the half-submerged rocks near the shoreline (as this group is doing) or even hauled out on some of the more secluded beaches and coves.

When I first started photographing them seriously I was surprised to find that they pay attention to humans – sometimes a lot of attention. Sometimes it seems that they are regarding me as carefully as I am watching them! Note that two of the seals are staring straight up at my position in this photograph. This habit gives them the appearance of being very attentive creatures and suggests, to me at least, a degree of intelligence and self-possession.

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: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Surf, Rocks, and Horizon

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Surf, Rocks, and Horizon
Surf, Rocks, and Horizon

Surf, Rocks, and Horizon. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. April 26, 2009. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An imaginary landscape from surf, rocks and horizon at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

I refer to photographs like this one as “imaginary landscapes” – though I suppose that this one is actually an imaginary seascape. The boundary between these photographs and my Regular Old Garden Variety Landscapes is a bit nebulous, but it relates to how far and how intentionally the interpretation of the scene departs from what might be regarded as its objective reality. In this case, some things were done at the time of exposure and some other things were done in post that make this image more obviously a subjective interpretation of the scene than might be the case with many of my other photographs. But you could see that by looking at it, right?

In any case, this is a single photographic “capture” made with a long exposure time that was extended by the use of a nine-stop neutral density filter – and this is what creates the majority of the soft quality of the image. Some additional work was done in post to further manipulate the original image – work with saturation and certain ways of diffusing portions of the image and so forth. In the end, little of that matters beyond the fact that these techniques were ways of producing the image that I had in mind, and which I intend to evoke something about the nature of the real scene upon which it is based.

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

Kelp Bed and Fog, Pacific Ocean

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Kelp Bed and Fog, Pacific Ocean
Kelp Bed and Fog, Pacific Ocean

Kelp Bed and Fog, Pacific Ocean. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. July 21, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Kelp bed and fog off the coast of Point Lobos State Reserve.

I haven’t posted one of my “minimalist seascapes” in a while, so here is a new one. The photograph was made on a quiet day at Point Lobos a few weeks ago – at least it started out quiet with fog and somewhat gentle surf. A certain amount of post-processing was done on this image in order to get the particular misty effect and somewhat leaden quality of light and color.

While the photograph was made at Point Lobos, something similar could have been produced at many places along the California coast on a day like this one – the image is completely devoid of the typical elements of Point Lobos photography.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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