Tag Archives: distance

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

Soberanes Canyon, Morning Light

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Soberanes Canyon, Morning Light
Soberanes Canyon, Morning Light

Soberanes Canyon, Morning Light. Garrapata State Park, Big Sur, California. May 1, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light and morning fog fill the upper reaches of Soberanes Canyon, Big Sur, California.

I’ve driven past the trailhead for Soberanes Canyon many times. The trail starts at a curve in the Coast Highway above a popular portion of the rugged beach at Garrapata State Park. This time, as I came past heading south I noticed brilliant light in the steep canyon above the trailhead caused by light shining down from the tops of the peaks through the slightly foggy atmosphere. I didn’t stop right away – I had a different objective further down the coast in mind – but I made a mental note to take a look on my way back north, thinking that I’d probably be back within a half hour or so.

I did return shortly. I parked, loaded up the photo gear, and headed up the trail towards the canyon. I wanted to try to make a photograph that captures the intensity of the light-filled atmosphere created when a steep canyon like this is filled with slightly hazy air – the light is so bright that you almost cannot look at it, but when you do look the light seems almost palpable and the receding ridges of the canyon form interesting patterns before the furthest of them virtually disappear into the light. My first stop was at a small footbridge crossing a creek. This might have made a beautiful photograph – with lush green plants and wildflowers lining the small, rushing creek and the mountains beyond – but I couldn’t find a composition that would work, do so I continued on a bit. Soon I came to a more open area where the trail curved above the floor of the canyon near a cactus-covered slope, and from here the view into the upper reaches of the canyon was unobstructed.

As I framed up several compositions of the ridge patterns of the canyon the light continued to change – one moment it was smooth and undifferentiated, but the next a bit of fog would come through and brilliant clouds would sit on top of the ridge. In the end I wasn’t completely satisfied with the result – but I’m going to think of this as work in progress, and I’ll be back to try to photograph this canyon and these conditions again.

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.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 84mm
ISO 125, f/11, 1/400 second

keywords: ridge, atmospheric, recession, distance, canyon, mountain, hill, steep, fog, mist, haze, morning, light, back light, upper, reaches, brush, chaparral, garrapata, state, park, california, usa, north america, big sur, coast, pacific, ocean, highway, trail, scenic, travel, landscape, nature, valley, stock

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Sutro Tower and Golden Gate Bridge South Tower, Morning

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Sutro Tower and Golden Gate Bridge South Tower, Morning
Sutro Tower and Golden Gate Bridge South Tower, Morning

Sutro Tower and Golden Gate Bridge South Tower, Morning. San Francisco, California. December 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning traffic crosses the Golden Gate Bridge approaching the south tower with haze-shrouded San Francisco hills and Sutro Tower beyond.

I’ve played around with photographs of the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge from this iconic location above the north end of the Bridge before, including some night photography, but I’ve never quite been happy with the composition. On this morning I got lucky with the thin fog muting the colors and creating atmospheric recession into the distant hills and the warm morning light on the upper surface of the bridge. In addition I tried a different composition – instead of trying to fit the whole bridge into the frame I centered the photo on the curve of the distant ridge and then selected a focal length that included a bit of water, a bit of the area to the right of the bridge, and a good portion of the span with just enough morning traffic. The distant structure is Sutro Tower, the site of a number of San Francisco radio and television broadcast antennas.

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.

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keywords: california, usa, travel, scenic, san francisco, bay, area, golden, gate, national, recreation, area, park, stock, sutro, south, tower, cable, suspension, bridge, traffic, cars, morning, haze, fog, distance, hills, trees, water, waves, highway, 101, 1, clouds, atmosphere, recession, silhouette, urban, landscape, commute, span, shore, fort, mason, stock

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Morning, Manley Beacon

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Morning, Manley Beacon

Morning, Manley Beacon. Death Valley National Park, California. April 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The iconic view of the morning sun striking Manley Beacon at Zabriskie Point with the Panamint Range in the distance – Death Valley National Park, California.

Yeah, it’s an icon… :-)

But I don’t think I’ve posted any photographs of similar landscape icons recently, so what the heck.

I shot this on the final morning of my early April, 2009 trip to Death Valley. I really didn’t go there to shoot this icon precisely – I originally thought that there might be some interesting clouds that morning (there weren’t) and my main goal was shooting detail photographs of the eroded landscape below and to the left of the camera position – actually more than 90 degrees to the left. But if you are at Zabriskie, there is a moment when the sun light finally makes its way across the valley and suddenly washes across Manley Beacon that is hard to resist – you’d have to be a stronger photographer than I am to not swing your camera in that direction.

In the end it is a pretty “vanilla” photograph of Manley Beacon – pretty much straight ahead lighting, no dramatic clouds in the sky, and I did not crank the contrast or saturation as you often see in photographs of this mountain. This is really pretty much what it looks like.

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.

keywords: manley, beacon, zabriskie, point, icon, mountain, hill, ridge, sunrise, dawn, morning, distance, death valley, national park, california, usa, scenic, travel, landscape, shadow, light, folds, eroded, gully, color, wash, stock

Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Point Reyes

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Point Reyes
Point Reyes. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. June 1, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Color photograph of Point Reyes and the Pacific Ocean with afternoon reflections. This photograph was made in extraordinarily windy conditions from a high point a bit further along the bluffs of the point with late afternoon sunlit brightly illuminating the ocean surface. (There is also a black and white version of this photograph.)

keywords: california, national, seashore, coast, cliff, bluff, mountain, park, pacific ocean, spring, point reyes, sea, shore, wild, nature, sky, haze, distance, travel, landscape, seascape, stock