Tag Archives: low

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Hills and Sunrise Haze, Death Valley

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Hills and Sunrise Haze, Death Valley
Hills and Sunrise Haze, Death Valley

Hills and Sunrise Haze. Death Valley National Park, California. March 31, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise light shines through morning haze to silhouette low hills in central Death Valley.

On the last morning of my late-March Death Valley shoot, I was on top of a low hill in roughly the middle of the Valley, not far from the “Devils Cornfield” area, mainly to photograph the Mesquite Dunes and the nearby transverse dunes against the backdrop of the Cottonwood Mountains. But this spot gave me a 360 degree panoramic view of a huge section of the central Valley, so while I waited for “just right” light on my intended subjects I also had time to see and photograph other subjects.

These low hills, mostly bare but sprinkled here and there with a few small plants or even a creosote bush or possibly a mesquite tree, were in the morning haze that sometimes settles in the bottom of the Valley before the daytime winds clear it out. The sun had just come over the Funeral Mountains to the east and was shining at a very low angle through this haze, so I pointed the camera (with a 400mm focal length lens!) almost straight into the sun (shading the lens with my hand) and made a few shots of these hills receding into the hazy distance across the Valley

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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: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge

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North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge
North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge

North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. San Francisco, California. February 5, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge silhouetted against San Francisco Bay morning haze and the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge.

A week ago I posted a few other photographs from this early morning winter visit to the upper reaches of the Marin Headlands, from which I photographed the bridges of the San Francisco Bay, backlit by early sun and partially obscured by a low layer of fog and haze. Since I am not fond of adding poetic (or pseudo-poetic) titles to my photographs, preferring to let them say whatever they have to say on their own, I have resisted the temptation to call this one “The Three Towers.” ;-)

The dark shape in the foreground that dominates the frame is, of course, the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Shooting it in this light is trickier than it might seem like it should be. The light coming from beyond, reflected and amplified by water and haze, is very bright – almost hard to look at directly. So the west side of the bridge is deeply shadowed. I like the dark and stark shape of the tower here – as opposed to the more familiar photographs front or side lit by late afternoon or evening light – but the trick is to keep just a bit of detail in that nearly black tower.

The scene posed another technical issue, though it probably isn’t visible in this small version. As the sun comes up and heats the atmosphere, and as wind blows (and it was windy on this morning!) there is a lot of atmospheric turbulence. Normally you wouldn’t notice this at all, but when you shoot with a long lens and enlarge the image you quickly see that sharp edges and fine lines take on an almost “painterly” quality as the atmosphere shimmers, much in the manner of a mirage.

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

Three Pelicans Skimming the Beach

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Three Pelicans Skimming the Beach
Three Pelicans Skimming the Beach

Three Pelicans Skimming the Beach. Waddell Beach, California. December 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three pelicans skim just above Waddell Beach along the California Pacific coast.

Considering just how many of the motion-blur pelican shots I’ve posted, I should probably have titled this one “Three MORE Pelicans Skimming the Beach.” ;-)

Besides the in-motion quality from the blur from camera motion, bird motion, and flapping wings, one thing that really struck me about this set of three pelicans was just how close to the sand they were flying. The lead bird was about as close as it could come without touching the sand with its wingtips.

A sight like this often makes me recall other encounters with animals in which they seemed to be doing something for the sheer joy of it: a bear I once saw travel across alpine rock fields to a high point on a ridge, where it stopped to take in the view for a minute or two before racing back down into a valley; a coyote in a high canyon in the eastern Sierra singing duets with its echo at dawn; and more. Of course I have no proof of this, but I like to imagine that these birds must find this low level flight to be exciting.

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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keywords: motion, blur, pacific, ocean, sea, coast, highway, one, coastal, california, usa, motion, blur, in, flight, pelican, bird, wildlife, nature, surf, wave, sand, reflection, wing, low, skim, beach, diagonal, silhouette, winter, waddell, beach, state, park, big, basin, shore, line, stock

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

Three Pelicans In Low-Level Flight

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Three Pelicans In Low-Level Flight
Three Pelicans In Low-Level Flight

Three Pelicans In Low-Level Flight. Waddell Beach, California. December 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three Pelicans fly just above the beach and surf near Waddell Beach along the California Pacific Ocean coastline.

I hope you don’t mind if I indulge – yet again – in my pelican obsession! I’m endlessly fascinated by these wonderful birds found, among other places, along the California Pacific Ocean coastline. (Note: This morning I read the unfortunate news that the pelicans may be undergoing some sort of stress this winter and some fear one of the periodic pelican “die-offs.”)

I photographed these birds on a dark and cloudy early December day. A bit earlier I had spotted a first group of them descending from above bluffs to the south to land at the delta of Waddell Creek along this beach. Gradually a few more groups of them arrived until there were a good number collected in a group. After a few moments, and for no reason that I could discern, they all lifted off at the same moment and flew across the beach in front of me, at first mere inches off the surface of the sand, and then turning out to sea and rising above waves before disappearing.

Trust me, I can make sharp photographs of pelicans. But here I like the obvious blur from the camera motion and from the motion of the birds through the air as well as from their moving wings – to me this image more strongly suggest their nearly constant motion than the sharper photographs I’ve made of them.

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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keywords: pacific, ocean, sea, coast, highway, one, coastal, california, usa, pelican, bird, wildlife, fly, flight, low, beach, sand, water, surf, wave, motion, blur, wing, beak, shadow, feather, nature, waddell, creek, beach, big basin, state, park, shore, shorline, stock