Tag Archives: haze

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

Shoreline Fences, San Francisco Bay

May 6, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shoreline fences along the edge of the San Francisco Bay with moored boats and, in the distance, the Oakland shoreline and East Bay hills.

This photograph was made from a spot that many San Francisco Giants fans know rather well – the Third Street Bridge that is right next to AT&T Park. There were few Giants fans around when I made this photograph though, since it was quite early in he morning on a weekday. The camera is pointing almost but not quite directly into the early morning sun, which shines through a luminous morning haze over the bay on a very still morning.

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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Sandstone Canyon and Forest

April 26, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A winding sandstone canyon willed with trees, Zion National Park, Utah.

This photograph was definitely not shot in “golden hour” light! Although it was afternoon, the sun was still high in the sky, and that sky was a somewhat unattractive washed out light blue color. In order to not allow that quality to take over the image, I composed this scene to completely exclude sky and also to minimize the inclusion of more distant features that would show the effect of the haze. I did include a bit of it at the upper right, since that serves to give the image some amount of depth.

The area is in the “high country” of Zion National Park along the Mt. Carmel highway. This road passes to the east across and then out of the park, climbing (through an exciting but, in some ways, unfortunate tunnel in the sandstone) out of the Virgin River area of the main Zion Canyon to pass through the dome-filled, river cut highlands. I shot toward the sun here, to be able to include the beautiful shaded cliff walls, and I tried to find a composition that would show the twisting course of the creek that winds down this canyon.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Towers, Morning Light

April 25, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning light silhouettes towers and ridges, Arches National Park, Utah.

On my last morning at Arches National Park in early April, I made one final quick trip back up into the park before hitting the road back to California. I was up very early, arriving in the park before sunrise. I had a string of possible subjects in mind, all of which depended to some extent on how the morning light played out. They include the possibility of photographing the setting full moon against some arch or tower that I might be able to put in the right spot relative to the moon, a strong intention to photograph the Tower of Babel and The Organ in very early light, balanced against a desire to shoot some other arch or tower in similar light, the thought that there might be some chances to shoot details of the Park Avenue area a bit later, and as always the potential to shoot straight into the morning sun and haze – a favorite habit of mine.

After getting to a couple of these subjects, the series of receding ridges, buttes, and towers to the east seemed interesting. I used a long lens to photograph this in order to edit down the portion of the landscape that I would work with and to compress the distances. The scene was trickier than it might appear – because I was using the long lens I had very limited options to move from side to side and still keep an interesting composition. In addition it was windy – always a tricky thing when working with very long focal lengths. And, of course, I was shooting in to the light and the backlit atmospheric haze of the early morning – not that I’m complaining about that, since it is some of my favorite light. In the end, I came up with this composition which includes a bunch of features that I can’t even identify! ;-)

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Sports

Sail Boat, San Francisco Bay

April 21, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A sailboat in morning light on the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, California.

Taking a momentary break from the continuing stream of photographs from Utah, here is a photograph from San Francisco. On one of the first spring-warm days of the year, I took the train to San Francisco very early and then spent the morning wandering around with my camera and a few lenses. In many ways, this is my preferred approach to shooting in San Francisco – to travel light and walk – since there so many instantaneous and surprising subjects that come and go so quickly. This is sort of my own brand of “Photo Walk” for one.

On this morning I got of the train just after sun rise and first wandered through the China Basin area, taking time to photograph a large construction site before heading back over toward the Embarcadero to walk along the waterfront. As I walked past AT&T Park, I noticed the bright backlit and slightly hazy sky over the Bay and began to look for ways to photograph it. A moment later I found a gap in the shoreline “stuff” where I could get a clear shot of the water, and I stopped to put a longer lens on the camera. Right at that moment – lucky me! – I noticed this solitary sailboat coming into the scene from the right and by working quickly I had time to get about a half dozen shots of it against the minimalist backdrop of the bay before another boat joined it and cluttered up the image.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: haze

Shoreline Fences, San Francisco Bay

Sandstone Canyon and Forest

Towers, Morning Light

Sail Boat, San Francisco Bay

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