Tag Archives: dense

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Wall of Redwoods

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Wall of Redwoods
A dense grove of closely-spaced coast redwood trees, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Wall of Redwoods. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dense grove of closely-spaced coast redwood trees, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

This dense “wall”of redwood trees is part of a grove at Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California. Our experience of arriving in the grove was quite striking. We had just spent hours driving a long loop of small country roads out to part of the “Lost Coast” area, and after a somewhat steep descent the road dropped into this deep, dark, and quiet grove. We stepped out of the car into the cathedral-like experience of these incredibly large trees and paused here on our drive for some time, wandering slowly among the trees and making photographs.

I’ve written before about how photographing in the redwood forest presents a number of challenges. Some of them are objective — it is very dark here, even in the middle of the day in many cases, and one ends up using very long exposures, sometimes adding up to several seconds. And despite the sense of stillness, it seems that there is always a tiny bit of air movement that affects branches and leaves. But a more complex question is how to render photographs of these places. What the camera records here is quite different than what the eye and the mind see. For some technical reasons I’ve written about previously, while the eye sees rich and deep colors, the camera records something that can appear flatter and dimmer. So the post-processing question always becomes how to move things back toward the light and colors that we remember experiencing. When doing that it is easy to get carried away and perhaps create something that is a bit too much of a fantasy — there’s nothing objectively wrong with that, but the question of how far to go is never far away. I chose here to stick with a rather dark rendition, since I remember that this is how the scene felt to me at the time.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Young Forest

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Young Forest
A dense forest of small trees, likely in an old logging tract, Northern California.

Young Forest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dense forest of small trees, likely in an old logging tract, Northern California.

As I described in a previous post, in early June we spent a day driving a somewhat less-travelled loop in far Northern California, a route the took us west from US 101 and out to the “Lost Coast” before heading south along a stretch of lonely beach and then turning inland. From there the route took us through coastal hills and valleys, though small hamlets, and past the ubiquitous marijuana farms before climbing a tall ridge and then dropping steeply into a dark and quiet redwood forest not far from our return route along US 101.

The first portion of this look was quite varied and different from what I expected. I only knew that it was a narrow, winding road with a somewhat dubious surface, and that it would eventually take us to the coast. But I had no idea of what terrain we’d cover or what sorts of vegetation we would see. Although the route starts near a coastal plain featuring farmland, it soon climbed into tree-covered hills, occasionally emerging into open meadows that sometimes afforded expansive views. At times the road was quite steep — it is not the sort of gentle route that tries to avoid steep grades. At one point we descended from a high open area and were surprised to find ourselves in this forest of small trees, moss, and ferns.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Forest, White Trunks

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Forest, White Trunks
White trunks stand out from a background of dense vegetation, Redwood National Park.

Forest, White Trunks. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

White trunks stand out from a background of dense vegetation, Redwood National Park.

Several days ago I shared a similar photograph from this same location, a dense line of forest along a roadway in Northern California’s Redwood National Park. I noted that the previous photograph was of a location that I’m mildly obsessed with, a place where I stop every time I pass that way. And to prove it, here is a second photograph of the same subject — and, no, I’m not done yet!

Perhaps because the roadway opens the forest to the sky a bit more, unlike the towering redwood forests which block light very efficiently, these smaller trees seem to have really taken off. They form a dense and impenetrable wall of green that is really only broken by the vertical forms of the mostly-white trunks. Wandering along the edge of this forest, it almost seems like there are compositions everywhere I look.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Old Stump, Redwood Forest

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Old Stump, Redwood Forest
An old redwood stump stands among dense undergrowth in a Northern California coast redwood forest.

Old Stump, Redwood Forest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old redwood stump stands among dense undergrowth in a Northern California coast redwood forest.

The coast redwood forest can seem almost static — it is a place of quiet stillness, populated with many very, very old trees. On quiet days the only motion comes from an occasional bird and continuous slight movements of the air. But it is actually a place of continuous transition, as a scene like this reminds me. In the left foreground is a young tree that is extending toward the canopy to find light, but in the middle is a very old and worn stump of a long-gone redwood. And, of course, around the base of the trunk is a carpet of annual plants.

I photographed this on a slow walk through a section of redwood forest one morning when fog was intermittently moving in and out — one moment there would be a bit of sun and shortly after fog would move through the trees. I wanted to make a photograph that contained the complexity of this place and which caught the highlights of light on the edge of the trunk, so I waited for the light to intensify a bit before making the exposure.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.