Soft morning light on spring meadow and pasture as fog burns off in the Calero Hills.
I made this photograph on my Saturday morning hike as the fog began to break up over these rolling hills in the Calero Park of southern Santa Clara County. I walk past this scene frequently as it is on a trail that I hike quite often – but this soft light on spring plants is special since it only lasts a few weeks each year.
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: calero, hills, park, county, santa clara, morning, light, fog, mist, cloud, fold, rolling, flower, grass, fence, meadow, pasture, tree, oak, ridge, mountain, gully, creek, bottom, california, usa, scenic, landscape, nature, stock, spring
Night reflection of building B-150 in a rainwater puddle at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.
This is a more or less a photograph that I had thought about for the past year or so. On a previous visit to Mare Island Naval Shipyard I attempted another photograph using this little rainwater pool to create reflections, but that photograph was not really a success. (It included a different subject, some old trucks and trailers parked nearby.) In any case, as odd as it may sound, a visit to this little puddle was on my agenda for the early March night photography shoot at Mare Island with The Nocturnes, and after I had shot in the more central area of the historic site I wandered down Nimitz Avenue toward this spot where I found “Building B-150” nicely reflected in the water and illuminated by nearby artificial light.
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.
Steps ascend a steep hill through the redwoods near the start of the Ocean View Trail, Muir Woods National Monument, California.
This is a scene that I have photographed before – in particular I recall photographing these steps early in the evening before one of the winter solstice events at Muir Woods, when the trails through the grove are lit by candles. On the last day of February this year I visited again, but this time very early in the morning before many other visitors had arrived. I was thinking “color” when I made this photograph (and I may still post the color version eventually) but I ended up liking this black and white version quite a bit. I like the diagonal division between the upper left half which mostly includes the vertical forms of the redwood trees and the lower right section which includes the steps leading in to the trees.
This was actually a somewhat tricky scene to photograph. While the dynamic range was quite huge, ranging from the deep shadows on the sides of the trees at the left to the almost sunlit foliage beyond the trees, overall the scene was quite dim. Because I needed great depth of field I shot at f/16. Because I wanted the cleanest image possible I shot at ISO 100. All of this meant that I ended up making a 2.5 second exposure! Still there were post-processing challenges, including bringing up a bit of detail in the darker areas of the scene while at the same time being careful to not increase the brightness in the bright spots. And after paying attention to the extremes some work had to be done on the middle tones to get some life back there.
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: muir, woods, national, monument, park, marin, forest, nature, california, usa, steps, stairs, railing, fence, trail, ocean, view, redwood, grove, trees, ferns, clover, oregon oxalis, redwood sorrell, green, canopy, light, filtered, trunk, landscape, scenic, travel, outdoor, hike, stock
Late afternoon winter light illuminates a parking lot beneath highway 87 in downtown San Jose, California.
Urban landscape photograph of a downtown San Jose, California empty parking lot beneath the highway 87 freeway in late afternoon light. Late on a Sunday afternoon during the weekend after New Years Day there was almost no one downtown, and clearly there were no cars in this parking lot.
(There is also a black and white version of this photograph that I may post here eventually.)
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.
