Tag Archives: dusk

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Green Hills, Rose Light

April 28, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Subtle colors illuminate a ridge top and sunset clouds in the Sierra Nevada foothills, California.

This is yet another virtual “happy accident” photograph. I posted a different version of it earlier, but it may have been long enough that I can tell the story again. I had been in Yosemite Valley and surrounding areas for the day, and late in the afternoon I left The Valley to head into Merced Canyon where the redbud and California Golden Poppies were blooming. The plan was to get into the canyon while there was still sun in the sky but at a time when lengthening shadows would bring some soft light to various deeper/steeper sections of the canyon. So I shot there until a bit less than an hour before sunset and then decided to head on home, starting the long drive back to the San Francisco Bay Area.

I headed down the canyon, still unable to completely stop looking at the newly green grasses, the plants that were starting to leaf out, and the profusion of purple redbud blossoms and bright orange California Poppies spreading up some of the steep hillsides. But as beautiful as much of this was, I wasn’t seeing photographs in it, so I continued on. Soon I reached Briceburg, where the road leaves the Merced and climbs steeply as it heads toward Mariposa. Climbing this steep section I continued to glance back over my shoulder at the green, chaparral-coverd ridges behind me and the clouds above them that were beginning to pick up a bit of sunset color. As I neared the top of the climb I almost kept going – doing the internal debate between it might make an interesting photograph and I’m hungry and I want to start home! – I passed a photographer set up beside the road, and I quickly recognized him as a friend. Now I had no choice but to stop, so I did a u-turn at the first turnout and headed back down the hill to where he and his wife were. I grabbed my gear, said “hi” as I set up, and figured that I might as well make a few final exposures of the delicately colored sky and the subtle tones that the last light imparted to the upper ridges.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sierra Foothills, Evening

April 17, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Subtle evening light gently colors the chaparral-covered hills of the Sierra Nevada foothills on a spring evening, California.

I’m going to take a brief break from posting photographs from my early April week in Utah and post one or more recent photographs from here in California. This past weekend I found time (and the right weather, or so I thought) to make a very quick one-day run up to Yosemite and back. My main goal was to photograph wildflowers in the Merced River Canyon, where lots of interesting color starts to appear about this time each year. Although there was some real concern about how the wildflowers might develop this year, given the serious drought in much of California, some late-season rains and other factors seem to have jump-started some really interesting displays. In Merced Canyon there are lots of wonderful wildflowers and other things, but I was especially interested in California poppies (which, actually, are found throughout much of the state right now) and the blooming redbud plants.

My day didn’t go quite as planned. I was sort of hoping to run into a bunch of other photographs who were likely to be in the canyon as well, but a series of decisions on my part caused me to end up in different places than where they went. After shooting into mid-morning in the Merced Canyon I decided to make a quick trip into Yosemite Valley, but not too long after I arrived there some clouds began to roll in. Clouds can be wonderful in and around the Valley – and I actually managed to use them in some other photographs I’ll share later – but this was still not quite what I was originally looking for. Very late in the afternoon I did a bit of final shooting in and around the Valley, and then I decided to head back down into Merced Canyon before the light was completely gone. I made a few photographs of redbud and California poppies, but it seemed like my day for photography was coming to an end, so I packed up and started my long trek back to the Bay Area. Near the top of the steep climb out of Briceburg I started to notice some interesting light on the spring-green ridges to my right and behind me, and then I spotted a familiar-looking figure alongside the road with a tripod and camera. At this point I had to stop, to say “hi” to my friends if for no other reason! Then I saw this lovely and subtle light on the ridge – the cloud-muted light from the setting sun was washing the clouds with a gentle pink light, and its glow was adding warm colors to the green chaparral near the summit ridge… and a moment later this light was gone.

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

Ross’s Geese Take Flight, Dusk

March 3, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of Ross’s geese take flight at dusk above a Central Valley pond, California.

Yes, another photograph of geese taking flight above a California Central Valley pond. I can’t help myself! :-) After photographing the dwindling flock, as they left in large groups during the hour before sunset, at the point of most beautiful light there were only a few left. This group was among the very last to depart from this pond, and at this point it was dusk and the colors had gone from the crisp blues of an hour earlier to warm pinks and reds and purples. We were lucky enough to be very close to this large flock for at least an hour.

I’ll use this photograph to make another technical observation. I made what might seem like an odd choice regarding exposure for this shot. Here I wanted to try to stop the motion of the birds as they lifted off. (In other photographs of this subject I intentionally allow the motion to blur.) This meant that I needed a relatively short shutter speed. Even after raising the ISO to 400 and opening up the largest aperture on this long lens, the result was still going to be underexposure. for what I had in mind for this sequence of shots, I wanted to avoid using an ultra-high ISO with the attendant increase in noise. So I chose to deliberately underexpose these shots by perhaps a couple of stops, trusting that I’d be able to compensate for this in post since I shoot in raw mode. In other words, if you are the sort who scans EXIF data for exposure information and then tries to make sense out of it or even use it yourself… you have been warned! :-)

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

San Francisco, Winter Evening

February 29, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Downtown buildings of San Francisco, California stand beneath a winter sky at dusk.

On New Year’s Day 2012, we joined a group of “photo walkers” who were shooting some of the old military structures high in the Marin Headlands area across the Golden Gate and north of San Francisco. After meeting up with all of them and photographing these interesting old sites, we left them as they went off to photograph Rodeo Beach. (We realized that we would need to get back home a bit earlier since my plan was to leave for six days in Death Valley the next morning… and I had not yet packed!)

Since we were already in the area, we took a quick detour up to the Hawk Hill area high on Conzelman Road to check out that famous view across the Golden Gate Bridge toward San Francisco and points beyond. I don’t go here every time I’m in the area, but if I’m already there, it is about to be sunset, I have an extra half hour, and there is the potential for interesting light… what the heck! Once we got there I noticed that some winter haze was distinctly softening the light as the sun was just about to set, and this created a beautiful glowing gradient of colors in the sky and washed the City in pastel light. In this photograph I resisted the temptation to pump things (contrast and saturation) a lot, and intend tried to maintain the subtle coloration of the scene.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: dusk

San Francisco, Winter Evening

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.