Tag Archives: grove

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

Oak Trees, Winter Fog

August 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter fog drifts through a meadow to obscure oak trees, Yosemite Valley

The oak trees of Yosemite Valley always have a strong presence in my thoughts of the place. While coniferous trees are undoubtedly far more common, the individual oaks seem to have more character, and this character is strongly influenced by the changing seasons, weather, and light in their typical environments in and around the Valley’s meadows. In the spring they produce a brilliant green color, especially when lit from behind. In the fall their colors, while not as vivid as those of maples, bring a warm golden/brown color. In winter, as the leaves fall away, the structure of the trunks and branches becomes more visible.

In late winter I was in the Valley for a few days in conjunction with the opening of the Yosemite Renaissance exhibit. Often in the winter the Valley’s meadows will fill with ground fog, especially in the mornings, producing all sorts of photographable beauty. This fog is almost alive, often changing suddenly as barely felt breeze moves it to and fro and cause it to thicken and thin. When we arrived to photograph this meadow the fog was very shallow, but it silently thickened and before we knew it the trees were almost obscured, allowing me time for a “barely there” photograph of oak trees with a few leaves still remaining from the previous season — and just as quickly the fog dissipated.

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. 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.

Commentary, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Thinking Aloud

Is It Ever Too Early To Dream of Aspen Color?

July 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Small stands of aspens with autumn leaves stand in front of a talus slope, eastern Sierra Nevada.

Is it ever too early to dream of aspen color? In a word, no.

Every summer around this time I start to think about fall color, and for me that primarily means eastern Sierra Nevada aspen color. I’m not quite sure what triggers the thoughts. Sometimes when I’m in the Sierra — and I am not there right now — it can be some nearly imperceptible changes in the light, the atmosphere, the patterns of annual growth, or even the sound of the wind. It might also be something as simple as my now innate “tuning in” to annual cycles, something that I think we are all more able to do than we might imagine.

On hot northern California days like this one, it certainly does not feel at all like autumn. Yet, I know that the first real signs of the seasonally change will appear high in the Sierra in barely 8 weeks, and the aspen color will arrive only a few weeks after that.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Forest

July 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Redwood trees growing in a gully at Muir Woods National Monument

I had a couple of primary goals on this visit to Muir Woods National Monument: I thought it might be a good location to shoot on this overcast summer day since the high fog softens the light that can otherwise be quite challenging inside the redwood forest. I also wanted to play with a new ultra wide-angle zoom lens, and I figured that this would be a better place for that activity than spending time in an urban setting… even though the latter might allow for more objective lens testing.

I typically arrive at Muir Woods very early in the morning, partly for the quality of the light in the forest at that time of day and partly for the very practical reason that the hordes of tourists from San Francisco are still mostly having coffee back at their hotels! However, I did not get there quite as early this time, and as I entered the park I could tell that it would not be too long before those hordes finished their coffee and began arriving. So I took a side trail up out of the valley of Redwood Creek (the location of the popular nature hike loops) and climbed up towards higher ridges. I was not alone on this trail but there the number of other hikers was reasonable, and for reasons ranging from aesthetic to objective (e.g. – testing that lens) this turned out to be a good choice. As the trail climbed, the views opened both above and below my camera position, and it was possible to shoot straight toward the trees and show a bit more of their height. Here a group of younger redwoods grows closely together in a small valley.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Trees

June 4, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Closely spaced coast redwood trees at Butano State Park

Going to this spot was a special and unusual pleasure. Having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area almost all of my life (save my first four years in Minnesota) I know may way around much of the local outdoor scene quite well. From the time I was a small child my family spent weekends visiting the many area parks, often picnicking and then hiking extensively. Yet somehow I had never visited Butano Redwoods State Park, tucked into the coastal mountains between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz, and a very quite alternative to some of the more popular and busy redwood parks.

I’m not yet any sort of expert on this park, but the central feature appears to be an intimate little creek flowing down a small and quiet valley. It looks to me like the area must have been logged many years ago, as there are old stumps of huge long-gone trees, and most of the living trees are relatively slender. But they are big enough to give the feeling of the redwood forest, and even in this dry year the place is lush and full of vegetation. And during my short walk to photograph in this watershed I saw only a handful of other people. I spotted this tightly spaced group of trees across the canyon and positioned myself so that I could photograph a wall of redwood trunks with a few slender trunks breaking up the larger patterns. A few moments later the thing fog overhead began to clear and the bright shafts of light made the forest beautiful… but almost impossible to photograph!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: grove

Oak Trees, Winter Fog

Is It Ever Too Early To Dream of Aspen Color?

Redwood Forest

Redwood Trees

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