Tag Archives: head

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Estero de Limantour

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Estero de Limantour
A foggy day at Estero de Limantour, as viewed from Drakes Head, Point Reyes National Seashore

Estero de Limantour. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. July 23, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A foggy day at Estero de Limantour, as viewed from Drakes Head, Point Reyes National Seashore

This post is a bit about this photograph and a bit about the experiences that such photographs are embedded in. The location is a somewhat remote location at Point Reyes National Seashore — the hike out and back runs about 13 miles or so. I have wanted to visit this spot for a number of years, but every time I have started the hike it has been too late in the day to complete the round-trip, or else I was distracted by other photographic opportunities along the way and I did not get all the way to the destination. This time I arrived early enough and got on the trail right away, and I did not stop too much along the way.

What did I find at the end of this long walk? The trail ends dramatically with a slight rise to a high point on a promontory overlooking Estero de Limantour far below, and the expanse of Drakes Bay beyond that. Or so I imagine. When I got there it was very foggy and extremely windy, and at times the water in this photograph was obscured by fog. Because the clouds had been breaking up further inland I decided to wait here in anticipation that the clearing would make it all the way to the coast. After waiting for an hour and a half (!) the fog began to lift and I could start to make out the water beyond the sandy island running along the shoreline. I jumped up and made preparations for the glorious breakup of the clouds… and then the wind picked up, the fog closed in, and it began to drizzle! I made this photograph during a slightly clearer moment. Before I loaded up the pack for the hike back I remembered that great light doesn’t always arrive, that you must be out there a lot if you expect to see it when it happens, if you are out there a lot you will experience lots of “failures,” and that even on a day that might not be optimally photographic there is nothing at all wrong with spending and hour and a half on a windswept bluff engulfed by ocean fog.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Mixed Forest, Brian Head

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Mixed Forest, Brian Head
Mixed aspen and conifer forest, autumn

Mixed Forest, Brian Head. Brian Head, Utah. October 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mixed aspen and conifer forest, autumn

Back in 2012 we made our first serious autumn photography foray into Utah, spending several October weeks traveling around the southern part of the state. Among other things, this was the first time I started to understand the differences between the patterns of California fall color that I know so well and the patterns in Utah and similar places. For me the biggest annual fall color event is the turning of the eastern Sierra aspens, which typically reaches is peak by or perhaps a bit before the middle of October. We began this trip with a much earlier than usual visit to those California mountains and, sure enough, we arrived for the very beginning of the serious color in the locations I would typically visit a week or more later. After spending just a couple of days there — I did not want to completely miss the California aspen season! — we headed east across Nevada to Utah.

Our first stop in Utah was in the Brian Head vicinity. (One draw was that the off-season lodging prices were extremely good.) I had not been here before and did not really know what to expect, though I knew that Cedar Breaks National Monument was nearby. We soon discovered that here, unlike in the Sierra Nevada, the big, high elevations aspen trees had already reached and passed their color peak, perhaps even by the end of September. Lesson learned! (We subsequently did learn that there are plenty of other fall color opportunities in the state at lower elevations, and that they can extend all the way into November.) This ridge of mixed conifers and aspens is just outside of the Brian Head area.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Deals and Sales

B&H Updates: Canon, Sigma, Fujifilm, More

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Here is an update with some additional holiday pricing from site-affiliate B&H on Canon Rebel Bodies/kits, Sigma Lens, Fujifilm X10, and tripods/heads. Click links for full information and see the Deals Page on this blog for more updates.

Canon Rebel T4i Packages

Canon Rebel T4i body
Canon EFS 18-135mm IS lens
Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens
Value $1497.00, but add to cart and pay only $899

Canon Rebel T4i body
Canon EFS 18-135mm IS lens
Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens
Canon EFS 55-250mm IS II lens
Value $1797.00, but add to cart and pay only $999
(B&H instructions: “Click Add to Cart & click Buy Together & Save & Add”)

Canon Rebel T3i
Canon T3i body-only
16 GB memory card
Price when added to cart will be only $499

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens for Canon DSLRs
$140 “instant savings” price is $349
(30mm is a good “normal prime” focal length on cropped sensor cameras)

Fujifilm X10 kit – $100 off and now $499

Tripods and Heads

Manfrotto 701HDV Head & MVT502AM Tripod System – $70.00 off
Manfrotto Mvh502A Head, 546B Tripod With Carry Bag – $110.00 off
Oben AC-2310 3-Section Tripod with BA-1 Ball Head Kit – $110.00 off

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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Aspens in Transition

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Aspens in Transition - Aspen forest in autumn color transition near Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah
Aspen forest in autumn color transition near Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

Aspens in Transition. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah. October 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Aspen forest in autumn color transition near Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

During the several days we spent in the Cedar Breaks area (with forays out to further surrounding destinations and back) I was looking for high elevation aspen color, which had, for the most part, passed its prime before we arrived. Many of the higher elevation aspen trees were bare of leaves, though a few sparse delicate leaves remained and in places there were a few trees here and there that somehow managed to retain all of their golden leaves. The rolling terrain of the National Monument along the thru-road, which I traveled several times, was not turning out to be a great spot to find the color I was looking for.

One morning, returning from Cedar Breaks to Brian Head, I saw the gravel road to Brian Head Peak (or Mountain?) and headed up there, to find an expansive 360-degree panorama visible from the summit of the 11,000+ peak. From this high vantage point I was able to spot where those colorful trees had been hiding out on the other side of the ridge west of Brian Head! I could also see that there were some ways to get back into that area, so on the final morning of our visit to this area I found another small gravel road, crossed that ridge, and was able to see vast groves of aspens beyond. While this photograph doesn’t quite show those trees, it does include an interesting feature of this area, the mixed conifer and aspen forest with very tall aspen trees reaching as high or higher than the conifers. Here there were a few brilliantly colorful clumps of aspens left among the other trees, with interesting texture provided by the many bare trunks – and all of this seems a bit more visible due to the soft, diffused light from the high, thin overcast.

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.