Tag Archives: front

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

Sunset Virga

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Sunset Virga
Sunset Virga

Sunset Virga. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 11, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Falling virga drifts below sunset clouds of an incoming late-autumn Pacific storm front

First off, the word “virga” refers to streaks or columns of precipitation that fall from clouds but do not make it to the ground. Virga can often create beautiful, delicate, and gossamer atmospheric effects, especially when the light is just right. In this case the condition was back and top-lit by low sunset light flowing upwards toward the base of high clouds from an incoming winter Pacific storm front.

This evening was (yet another) of those on which earlier unpromising conditions exploded with color right at the end of the day. We had spent the morning photographing birds (mostly geese) at a Central Valley wildlife refuge, taken a short lunch break, and then returned to the refuge for late afternoon and evening photography. The geese were wonderful and we made a lot of photographs, but it seemed like the light was going to “die” before sunset as those high clouds began to drift in from the west. That’s OK, as there are ways to photograph in that more subdue light, but I think we may have been mildly disappointed that the clouds appeared to preclude special sunset colors. So we went about our business of photographing birds, not thinking too much about the sky. Speaking for myself, though, at some point I began to notice a bit of color in the clouds behind the birds. I stopped for a moment and looked to the east (where the sunset colors first are seen before the sweep across the sky toward the setting sun) and noticed that some color was developing. In short order, the underside of the clouds began to light up, and right at sunset we were treated to an absolutely brilliant display of intense color to the west. Since I was shooting with a long telephoto I decided to try a few detail shots of small sections of the sky. If you look very carefully, you might be able to spot a jetliner heading into the sunset.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Central Valley, Winter Dusk

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Central Valley, Winter Dusk
Central Valley, Winter Dusk

Central Valley, Winter Dusk. Merced National Wildlife Refuge, California. December 11, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A line of geese fly in front of the first clouds of an approaching winter storm front above California’s Central Valley.

This photograph was made at a late enough time in the evening that it was becoming hard to see in the same detail that the camera has. The sun had gone down and the light reflected up into the clouds was beginning to fade, and Central Valley haze filled the air, partially obscuring the details on anything more than a few hundred feet away.

We were surprised and pleased to have a spectacular sunset as the clouds of an incoming weather system that had early blocked the light were now lit up from below as the sun dropped to the horizon. The intense colors of the red clouds were almost too bright to photograph. Here I used a long lens to isolate a small section of the terrain to the west that held a group of silhouetted trees, with the Coast Range mountains beyond, and the sky turning all shades of purple, orange, and red. Although it may be difficult to see in this small jpg, a long line of geese is traveling from right to left high in the sky.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Arizona, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Approaching Storm, Monument Valley

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Approaching Storm, Monument Valley - A storm front approaches the iconic towers of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park
A storm front approaches the iconic towers of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

Approaching Storm, Monument Valley. Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona. October 12, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A storm front approaches the iconic towers of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

Considering that we only passed through Monument Valley on a drive between two other locations and that we happened to arrive when a storm front was passing through, I have to consider myself lucky to have made any photographs of the location at all on this visit. We were on the long drive between Moab and Springdale, so we unfortunately could not afford to hang around long waiting for idea conditions – so I went ahead and shot in the “weather.”

Quite a few of the photographs were made in actual rain – as in, it was raining where I was shooting, or I was shooting into or through curtains for rain. However, the nature of this storm was that a line of weather would come through, there would be a bit of clearing, and then the next squall line would arrive. So between the bouts of rain there were some moments of sunshine, and the sunshine not only dried things out a bit but it also made the clouds more visible Here a very large cell was building over some of the iconic Monument Valley formations. I chose the vertical format and only included a bit of the solid ground so as to emphasize the size and height of the clouds.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Exterior, One Maritime Plaza

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Exterior, One Maritime Plaza - Exterior detail of the One Maritime Plaza building, San Francisco.
Exterior detail of the One Maritime Plaza building, San Francisco.

Exterior, One Maritime Plaza. San Francisco, California. August 4, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Exterior detail of the One Maritime Plaza building, San Francisco.

This photograph focuses on details of the exterior frame of Maritime Plaza Building, in the general area of the financial district and not far from the Embarcadero and San Francisco’s waterfront. I photographed in “interesting” light – the weather provided a combination of high clouds, lower clouds that were dropping sprinkles of rain, and incoming ocean fog. Oddly, even with tall these sources of atmospheric opacity, there was still some light. Some came through the clouds, while some came from nearby areas that were a bit more clear.

As I have been doing a bit more recently, I chose to shoot towards a corner of the building, allowing the darker side on the right to seem to recede a bit. Meanwhile, the strongest ambient light fell on the “front” of the building facing to the left. I chose a black and white rendition of this photograph partly because, frankly, there wasn’t much interesting color in this subject, but also because I felt that black and white abstracted the image a bit more.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.