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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Trillium, Flower and Stem

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Trillium, Flower and Stem

Trillium, Flower and Stem. Muir Woods National Monument, California. March 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single trillium flower and leaves atop its slender stem in the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

I think I hit the peak of the “trillium season” when I visited Muir Woods near the beginning of March on a cloudy and damp late winter day on which the sun only occasionally broke through to light the forest floor. I probably spent an hour and a half photographing these flowers along a little section of trail that would usually take perhaps 10 minutes to hike – the flowers were everywhere. Some, like this one, were growing alone, while in other places there were small gardens of trillium flowers.

It may seem odd, but many of these close-ups of flowers were made using a 70-200mm zoom on a full-frame camera – no close-up lenses, no macro lens, and no close-up “filters.” The longer lens lets me work from a greater distance, simplifying tripod placement a lot, and also giving me a lot more flexibility in terms of composition. If there is are downsides to this approach they might include the potential for very narrow depth of field and the need to pay extra attention to camera stability. I used the “live view” feature to focus on many of these flowers. If the usual autofocus feature works I’ll use it, but sometimes it can be hard to get clean focus on these subjects. “Live view” on the Canon EOS 5D II raises the mirror and displays the image on the rear LCD. While the standard projected image can be useful for composition, it is not detailed enough for focusing. However, you can select a 10X zoom setting and see a very large and detailed image of the subject, and in this way you can do very precise manual focusing on any point in the frame.

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

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Redwood Grove and Ferns in Morning Light

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Redwood Grove and Ferns in Morning Light

Redwood Grove and Ferns in Morning Light. Muir Woods National Monument, California. March 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light streams through a redwood grove to illuminate ferns on the sloping forest floor below at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

Yes, another photo of a redwood grove at Muir Woods National Monument. As I think I wrote earlier, I’m working on creating a collection of photographs of this location and obviously the trees themselves need to have a large place in all of this work. This is a bit different – really, trust me! – than some of the other recent redwood grove shots in that it was made during sunny conditions rather than the more gloomy (but no less interesting) rainiy and cloudy conditions I had photographed earlier.

And, yes, there will be more… :-)

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

keywords: forest, woods, trees, redwoods, grove, trunks, vertical, muir woods, national monument, park, california, usa, marin, county, floor, hill, slope, ferns, illuminate, nature, frond, branch, dense, light, morning, shadow, green, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Oregon Oxalis

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Oregon Oxalis

Oregon Oxalis. Muir Woods National Monument, California. February 28, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Bright leaves of Oregon oxalis carpet the forest floor under the redwood trees at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

I suppose this might more accurately be titled “More Oregon Oxalis” since I posted similar photograph in landscape orientation earlier. When I make a photograph like this one I often try to get versions in both portrait (vertical) and landscape (horizontal) orientation – partly because I think the subject looks interesting both way and partly for more practical reasons. By the way, I understand that the plant is also known as “redwood sorrell.”

Earlier today someone posted a comment on another of my photographs of this subject and pointed out that the plant also produces very pretty little pink flowers. I think they were just beginning to appear when I shot this – I saw a few of them, and a bud is barely visible near the center of this photo. I may return to Muir Woods soon, and the next time I’ll keep an eye out specifically for the flowers.

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

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Four Redwoods, Muir Woods

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Four Redwoods, Muir Woods. Muir Woods National Monument, California. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.

Four Redwoods, Muir Woods. Muir Woods National Monument, California. February 28, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A detail of the weathered and burn-scarred trunks of four old redwood trees at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

Although I find it a very hard subject to photograph, I’m always intrigued by the textures and shapes of redwood tree trunks, especially when they are as rugged and time-worn as these are. There are four trees in this photo with the most distant picking up a bit more light than those in the foreground. This grouping is, I’m almost embarrassed to admit, right next to a very popular section of the most popular trail at Muir Woods.

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

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