A fern drapes across a redwood log littered with leaves and needles at Muir Woods National Monument.
I’m always a sucker for the interesting forms of the ferns in the redwood forest, here at Muir Woods National Monument and elsewhere. This curving example was lying across the surface of an old, dead fallen redwood trunk, and was accompanied by some brown ferns, a few odd redwood needles, and what I think may be a brown bay leaf.
Although this was shot near the very end of fall, the atmosphere at Muir Woods was very much that of winter. There was just a bit of thin fog floating around here and there, and on the forest floor beneath the giant trees it was very damp and quiet and dark. (If you want evidence of the low light… note that this was a 15 second exposure!)
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.
A tangle of dead branches along the banks of Bishop Creek, Sierra Nevada, California.
Another photographic irony, perhaps, but I made this photograph within sight of the gaudiest and flashiest brilliant autumn aspen leaves that I saw during the first week of October in the Bishop Creek area. I’m not exaggerating. I had earlier spotted the “gaudy, flashy” trees as I drove away from a nearby location and looked, almost in shock, at their intense red, gold, and orange colors. For various reasons, I did not stop, but I made a mental note to come back here later in the day. When I returned went straight to the color and spent some time photographing it. (A photo of those trees will show up here before long.)
As I finished shooting that obvious autumn subject, I slowed down a bit and walked along the side of the creek in the fading evening light. As I did so, I noticed these tangles of old, dead branches along the bank and wondered how I might photograph them. The interesting and apparently random juxtapositions of the gray branches intrigued me right away, as did the various textures and shapes and combinations of bright and shadowed features. As I looked closer the colors of the scene began to become more visible – the red-brown colors of the pine cone at lower left, the similar tones of the fallen needles, and the slender lines of green where a few blades of grass draped across the branches.
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.
Black and white panoramic format photograph of a moving rock at Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California.
This photograph probably belongs in the “trying to turn lemons into lemonade” file. I’ve had wonderful luck with great light on all of my previous visits to the remote Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, the site of the “moving rocks” that have left tracks in their wake across the playa surface. However, my string luck seemed to run out on this late March visit. Earlier in the day as I contemplated whether or not to head out there I noticed some budding lenticular clouds to the north and made the decision to go. My preference is to have some clouds at the Racetrack, as perfectly clear sky isn’t as interesting in my view. Plus I always have in mind a particular previous visit when I photographed the playa at dawn with beautiful lenticulars building over the mountains to the north of the playa, and I think I’m always hoping for similar conditions again.
The plan on this visit was to arrive in the mid-afternoon to shoot the Grandstand, a formation near where the road first arrives at the playa, and to then photograph the beautiful evening light, the full moon (in the evening and then again before dawn) and finally the dawn light. The conditions continued to look great as I did the long washboard drive to the playa, and I arrived and photographed the Grandstand as planned. However, as I finished up here a high band of clouds moved across the sky and flattened out the light. As evening came on I was out on the playa, but the clouds remained and the light was not remarkable. I finally wandered back off the playa after dark, hoping that the clouds would clear and allow full moon photography. This never happened, and when I returned to the playa early in the morning the overcast was still present, with only a thin area of blue sky far to the west.
But I photographed anyway. Softer, overcast light has its potential, and since I was there I was certainly not going to waste the opportunity. In the end, I wasn’t thrilled with what I brought back for the most part, though I do like the effect of the overcast and the softer light on this black and white photograph of one of the more recognizable rocks. (By the way, the rest of my Death Valley visit went much better than this one night!)
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.
Detail photograph of patterns of barren hills and gullies at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.
From my series of detail photographs of smaller elements of the landscape at Zabriskie, and another one shot during atypical times of day – in this case in very bright afternoon sunshine. Because of these lighting conditions – color, intensity, and angle, the quality of the image is less “dreamy” than the typical early morning soft-light photographs of this area. Here you see more clearly the rough texture of the material making up the folds and gullies of these interesting hills that drop into Gower Gulch.
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.
Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 330mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/50 second
keywords: zabriskie, point, detail, hills, gullies, barren, dry, earth, dirt, afternoon, light, diagonal, forms, abstract, geology, nature, landscape, patterns, death valley, national park, scenic, travel, california, usa, north america, stock, eroded
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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