Tag Archives: hill

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

Monterey Cypress Forest, Point Lobos

January 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter light on the Monterey Pine forest growing on a hillside at Point Lobos State Reserve.

The photograph is the color version of the same scene that I recently posted in a black and white rendition. My initial reaction to the image, and the idea I had in the back of my mind when I photographed it, was that it would be black and white. I wanted to “abstract” the dense shapes and textures of the trees and ground plants and rocks, and I sometimes think that the intrinsically unreal quality of black and white can work for that. However, when I worked up the photograph in color I started to like it, too, though in a different way. At least in the small versions that I looked at on the screen, the color version creates a bit more separation among objects in the scene and seems to have a bit more depth. I guess I won’t know until I make prints!

I have often looked at the straight and upright trees on this rocky prominence as I walked past on a trail that passes by just beyond the left side of the frame. This formation sits between two coves at Point Lobos and rises to a high point (to the right of the photograph) before dropping abruptly to steep rocks and then the sea. From the trail you look up the slope toward the high point and through these trees. But I could never quite see a composition. On this winter day the light was a bit unusual. There was a bit of haze and mist in the air, though not a lot – if I stood with the sun at my back I could not really see it, but if I faced into the sun it was apparent. In any case, even though this was photographed during the harsh light midday time period, the light was softened at least a bit, but still a bit stark from side lighting, the shadows among the trees, and the bright and cloudy sky beyond. It is difficult to find a clear line of sight to this grove that isn’t either very, very far away or else right inside of it. I looked around for a bit and finally found a place not far away along the trail from which I could shoot between tree branches.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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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: Ocean & Coast

Monterey Cypress Forest, Point Lobos

January 10, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Winter light on the Monterey Cypress forest growing on a hillside at Point Lobos State Reserve.

This is perhaps an absurdly complex photograph – I think it is going to have to end up as a large print at some point. This is a section of Monterey Cypress forest that I’ve walked through many times on the trail along the north shore at Point Lobos State Reserve near Carmel, California. These trees grow along the tops of rocky bluffs above the ocean and in some sheltered places can grow tall and straight.

I made this photograph in what almost amounted to midday sun, though there were a few fog clouds floating around to mute the harshest character of the light a bit. But I knew that the photograph was going to be tricky. The first challenge was finding a location from which to shoot it – most angles are blocked by closer trees or are inaccessible. I finally found a spot along the trail where I could shoot between trees using a longer focal length. Then there was the problem of the light, or more accurately the dynamic range between the clouds and a bit of blue sky and the much darker backlit and shadowed trees in the foreground. Finally, it is just a very complex scene, and making any kind of coherent composition out of it was tricky. I don’t know yet whether it succeeds or not, but the idea was to use the angled division between the darker and very complex lower right side and the lighter upper left side with its vertical tree trunks, and to let the darker foreground tree connect it all together. That was the idea, anyway!

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II (at B&H)
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 94mm (at B&H)
ISO 100, f/16, 1/40 second

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Urban Residential Buildings, Sidewalk and Street

January 2, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Facades of residential buildings along a hilly street in downtown San Francisco.

With all of the landscape and nature photography I’ve posted recently, I figured it was time for something different. This is a street scene in San Francisco I photographed on a quick walk on an early March day in 2010. Many of the other photographs I made in this area included people, but it this one I wanted to isolate the fronts of the buildings, especially the contrast between the relatively fixed-up one on the left and the more weathered one on the right.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)

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

Oaks and Hills, Winter Fog

December 24, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning winter fog clears from the oak forest and grassland of the Calero Hills, California.

This is a sort of scene that seems to me to be a prototypical California view. Almost anywhere you go west of the Sierra and away from either the redwoods or deserts, you won’t be too far from places like this that feature grassland, oak trees, and some sort of vertical relief in the landscape. This area happens to be a short drive from where I live. It is merely a local county park and not a place that most would regard as special. However, because it is so close, I have been able to spend a great deal of time here in all seasons, at all times of the day, and in all sorts of weather conditions. Eventually I found that there is an almost unending supply of potential photographic subjects even in this spot that would certainly not impress most people as being exceptional.

I made this photograph back near the beginning of 2010, and shortly after that a posted an early version here. That version was in a slightly wider format and it was in color. As part of my year-end review of all of my raw files from 2010, I saw this image again in its original form… and this time I saw it a bit differently, in black and white and with a more “traditional” 4:5 ratio format. Contrary to what I though originally, I now think that the narrower format does a more effective job of juxtaposing the stacked angles of close, middle and far ridges, and it also let me eliminate some stuff along the margins that now seems distracting to me.

To the extent that this version of the image works, I think it illustrates something that I’ve heard others say and which resonates with my own experience, namely that it is sometimes easier to “see” what is in a photograph when you get a bit more distance from the act of “capturing” it.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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