Tag Archives: dense

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

Rocky Knoll with Monterey Cypress Trees

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Rocky Knoll with Monterey Cypress Trees
Rocky Knoll with Monterey Cypress Trees

Rocky Knoll with Monterey Cypress Trees. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 8, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of Monterey Cypress trees grows on top of a rocky ridge above the Pacific Ocean at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

In my continuing attempt to mine every bit of ore possible from this scene… this is a closer study of the same tree-covered knoll that I posted recently. The rocky hill is near the end of a thin peninsula between Whalers Cove and Bluefish Cove at Point Lobos. It is covered with a wild confusion of plants, Monterey cypress trees, and rocks and the whole thing drops suddenly to the edge of the Pacific Ocean right below.

This is another in a group of photographs that I sort of think of as “how much dense detail can I cram into one frame” photographs. For this reason, I’m pretty certain that this will have a better chance of making sense in a decent sized photograph in which the detail can be enjoyed a bit more than it can be in this small jpg.

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

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.


Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Forest Ferns

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Redwood Forest Ferns
Redwood Forest Ferns

Redwood Forest Ferns. Muir Woods National Monument, California. May 8, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dense growth of ferns grows beneath the coast redwood trees at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

I continue my year end (though it new extends into the new “year beginning”) review of all of the past year’s raw files with this photograph from May 2010. In this part of California, May is a time of transition. Although the calendar still says spring, in the moderate climate of coastal California the wild growth of early spring is over, and many annual plants have reached maturity. To see these ferns in growth mode you would have to visit the redwood forest earlier. But by May, especially here where the forest holds the moisture longer and keeps the temperatures cooler, many plants have reached their peak of growth. These ferns were growing alongside one of the trails through the main, popular section of the park – though I avoid the crowds of tourists coming across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco and get the soft and beautiful morning light by arriving at Muir Woods very early.

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, Dunderberg Road

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Aspen Grove, Dunderberg Road
Aspen Grove, Dunderberg Road

Aspen Grove, Dunderberg Road. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 10, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dense grove of thick and twisy aspens growing along Dunderberg Road in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

This just may be my final new aspen photograph from the 2010 season in the eastern Sierra. (Then again, I do go through all of my raw files during the final couple of weeks of the year, and who knows what might turn up!)

The photograph was made late in the day along the dirt track of Dunderberg Road in a grove of trees that I have visited in the past. Aspen trees can assume a seemingly infinite variety of forms, ranging from the groves of tall and slender trees growing in near perfect symmetry to stunted and twisted specimens that seem more like shrubs than trees. In this grove the trees seem to have endured some real stress – they have thick and strong trunks, but the trees are not tall and the trunks are gnarled and twisted in all sorts of crazy directions. Often when you see a trunk as thick as this one you would expect the tree to be quite tall… but not here.

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow Grasses, Autumn Rain

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Meadow Grasses, Autumn Rain
Meadow Grasses, Autumn Rain

Meadow Grasses, Autumn Rain. Yosemite Valley, California. October 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Meadow grasses made shiny by autumn rain, Yosemite Valley, California.

This fall I have been “playing around” with photographs of very dense and detailed vegetation. (Two other recent related photographs include one of aspen leaves and one of creek dogwood.) This is a difficult thing, especially with a subject whose colors seem somewhat muted, but if it works the largish prints can work both by revealing some form that might be difficult to see in all the detail and by presenting the detail itself. (As much as many of us rightfully point out that sharpness is not everything, sometimes it is pretty important!)

I noticed the subject of this photograph while shooting something quite different. I was standing in a meadow near Curry Village in light rain and using a very long lens to photograph mist and clouds drifting among trees and spires high on the Yosemite Valley rim when I happened to look down at my feet. (Always a good idea to look at the other stuff when shooting a specific subject that you came for.) I noticed the shapes of the grasses and the mixture of greens and browns with the “cool” light from the cloudy conditions. Since I couldn’t shoot this subject with the lens I was using at the moment, I went back to the other subject and made a mental note to switch lens and pay some attention to the grasses when I finished.

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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