Tag Archives: landscape

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Big Sur Coastline Near Rocky Creek

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Big Sur Coastline Near Rocky Creek
Big Sur Coastline Near Rocky Creek. Big Sur, California. February 9, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Big Sur Coastline Near Rocky Creek with giant winter surf and low fog.

The conditions were a bit unusual on this winter day. The “fog” is not the usual coastal fog drifting in from the ocean. Rather, it was the result of tremendous amounts of spray being thrown up by the huge winter surf that was rolling in.

keywords: big sur, california, cloud, fog, landscape, morning, nature, ocean, pacific ocean, seascape, seashore, usa, waves, winter, mist, haze, sea stack, fence, rocky creek, highway, one, coast, shoreline

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

Winter Surf – Point Lobos

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Winter Surf - Point Lobos
Winter Surf – Point Lobos. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. February, 9, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of huge winter surf crashing over Point Lobos rocks.

In February of 2008 I visited the Big Sur area and then stopped at Point Lobos on the way home. The Pacific coast is often at its most impressive in winter and this was an exceptional day, with absolutely huge waves rolling in from the winter Pacific Ocean. At the actual Point Lobos (an area of rocks extending a good distance out from the shoreline) we were able to get very close to the roiling surf and huge crashing waves.

keywords: california, landscape, nature, ocean, pacific ocean, point lobos, rock, seascape, seashore, travel, usa, water, waves, winter, surf, crash, punta, lobos, marinos, monterey, peninsula, stock, spray, foam

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

July Sky and Fence

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July Sky and Fence
July Sky and Fence. Central California. July 4, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cloudy July sky over a hilltop fence line in Central California. While it might make a better story if I had made this photograph is some exotic place, I’m afraid that I saw this scene on an afternoon at a nearby place where I frequently hike. This is why I always carry my camera when I hike…

keywords: california, usa, santa clara county, grassland, grass, meadow, sky, cloud, hill, pasture, fence, skyline, ridge, range, landscape, scenic, stock, nature, west, quicksilver, park

Equipment, Ideas, Technique

Wide Angle Lenses and Image Stabilization

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I often hear people claim that image-stabilization is only of value on normal to long focal length lenses, and is not useful on wide angle and ultra wide angle lenses.

The photograph posted earlier today was shot handheld on a full frame DSLR at 1/25 second at ISO 800 and 32mm. (32mm on full frame is equivalent to using a 20mm focal length on a 1.6x cropped sensor body.)

I had just finished a session of tripod-based landscape shooting on the summit of this dome, had packed up, and was heading down when the lone hiker crossed the ridgeline below me just as some lovely post-sunset light gently illuminated the landscape. Having no time to set up a tripod – hiker and light would have been gone by then – I dropped everything, pulled the camera with image-stabilized 24-105mm lens from the pack, made some quick seat-of-the-pants exposure calculations, and got of three quick frames before the scene was gone. Without IS I simply would not have gotten a usable version of this photograph – a photograph that has since been licensed for use in a print journal.

Even as one who often shoots from a tripod – and almost always carries one – I have found the notion that IS has no value at shorter focal lengths to be a myth not born out in actual practice.