Tag Archives: forest

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature

Redwood Forest Flowers

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Redwood Forest Flowers
“Redwood Forest Flowers” — White flowers growing amongst redwood sorrel in Redwood National Park. (Possibly columbia windflower?)

As I frequently report, I’m fairly weak when it comes to identifying wildflowers. I know a few obvious ones instantly, at least by their common names. (Latin names? Let’s not go there!) But there are many more that simply cannot name. In many cases I “know” the flowers, and I’m familiar with when and where they appear and how they grow. It is the naming that has always challenged me.

All of that is a preface to the experience of photographing these lowers. I know that I’ve seen them before in the redwood forests, deep beneath the shadows of the big trees. In fact, I recognized them from a previous visit when we photographed at this location. But when I wanted to go behind “white flower on forest floor” I had to start searching. I finally came up with “Columbia windflower,” and my family botanist (thanks, Ruth Ann!) confirms that identification. What attracted me was their white blossoms standing above the bed of darker greenery, including some redwood sorrel.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

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

Old Growth Forest

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Old Growth Forest
Immense coast redwood trees in an old growth forest, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

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

Immense coast redwood trees in an old growth forest, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

On an early June day our long driving loop took us out to the Lost Coast on a narrow, winding, somewhat lonely, and very scenic road. After dropping precipitously from coastal mountains to an isolated beach it followed to coast south for several miles before again turning inland. The route eventually passed though small hamlets (with the tell-tale plastic covered greenhouses in abundance) and began to climb drier, inland ridges. Finally it once again dropped steeply, entering one of the quietest and most still redwood forest groves I have been in.

After the long drive it was time to stop and this seemed a perfect place. Before long we decided to get out camera equipment and simply wander for a while in the still forest of giant old-growth trees. Even after years of visiting the coastal redwoods, it still surprised me to see how dark it is along the forest floor — little light makes it down from the crowns of the trees hundreds of feet above. This photograph looks off into the forest, and if you inspect it closely you may notice that, aside from the foreground ferns, the entire scene is comprised of the trees.

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.