Tag Archives: high key

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

Headlands, Surf, and Fog

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Headlands, Surf, and Fog
Headlands and coastal mountains obscured by winter fog along the Big Sur Coast.

Headlands, Surf, and Fog. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Headlands and coastal mountains obscured by winter fog along the Big Sur Coast.

This is a scene that I have tried to photograph many times. When I stop to make a photograph here, it always seems like it should be easy… but it inevitably ends up being very challenging if not impossible. The subject is quite a distance away, so it requires a very long focal length. However, the long focal length magnifies issues created by air movement across the great distance, and even with though I want to evoke that soft atmosphere, it is hard to get the right balance of detail where it is needed. I tried again this past week, and decided to interpret the subject in a bit of a different manner.

A challenge is that the hazy conditions that obscure and diffuse the subject in the way I hoped for also tend to be both gray and of quite low contrast. To address that I decided on a brighter, high key rendition of the scene in which the colors are extremely subtle and the darkest tones are, objectively speaking, still at the brighter end of the scale. In a sense, the object here is to “suggest” more than to “record.”

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: Central California, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature

Winter Plants

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Winter Plants
Winter plants growing in a wetland pond, Central Valley, California.

Winter Plants. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Winter plants growing in a wetland pond, Central Valley, California.

Moving away from the recent large-scale landscape photographs, this one focuses on a small group of plants standing in a shallow Central Valley wetland pond. It is my assumption that the plants grow on dry land, but then this particular area floods in the winter and these simple plants become magical against the smooth background of the water’s surface.

This photograph is not exactly a literal reproduction of the plants’ appearance. Of course, no photograph is exactly equivalent to the complex reality of the subject, but here I went a bit further than usual — though still trying to work within the constraints of believability.

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 | Twitter | 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.

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

Headlands and Fog

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Headlands and Fog
Thin fog and brilliant autumn sun along the Big Sur coast.

Headlands and Fog. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thin fog and brilliant autumn sun along the Big Sur coast.

Today’s photograph takes me even deeper into the high key and minimalist landscape frames of reference. For a long time I have been intrigued by the question of just how little detail could be present in a photograph, and the conditions on this morning gave me an opportunity to extend the experiment to the subject of the Big Sur coast.

The light, weather, and geography here often collaborate to produce some remarkable conditions. The potential for various sorts of fog is a given along the edge of the Pacific Ocean. In many sections of this coast the headland ridges descend toward the water repeatedly over huge distances. And because the coast curves a bit toward the east as you travel south, by late morning the sun may be almost directly ahead of you as you compose photographs that include the ocean. I think of this as “the light that is too intense to look at.” Imagine the sun in front of you, the haze glowing brightly, and the details of the scene becoming almost invisible, leaving only the light, atmosphere, and outlines of forms.

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.

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

Pacific Sky

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Pacific Sky
Pacific Ocean sky, California Coast.

Pacific Sky. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pacific Ocean sky, California Coast.

One of the things I miss most during this time of travel restrictions is the chance to be in the grand landscape, the landscape of deserts, mountains, ocean, and valleys that extends into the far distance. I do get outside daily, for neighborhood walks and to work in our garden, but all of these are landscapes on a much smaller scale.

I made this photograph last year on a foray down the California coast, where I can never get enough of the grand westward views out over the ocean and toward the distant horizon. On this day the scene was softened by big clouds and atmospheric haze over the ocean that glowed in the sunlight.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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