Tag Archives: monochrome

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Colorado River, Dead Horse Point

February 6, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The canyon of the Colorado River, from Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah

The light was a bit tricky when we drove out to Dead Horse Point to look at the famous view of the Colorado River as it loops below huge cliffs at the edge of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. It was nearing the middle of the day, so the soft morning and evening light was nowhere to be found. It was also hazy, with the slightly opaque air taking on distinctly blue colors. For all of these reasons, and also perhaps as a nod to old school landscape photography, I went with a black and white rendition of this photograph.

This is a truly remarkable bit of terrain. First, in the bottom of the canyon the Colorado River negotiates and abrupt horseshoe bend here beneath the tall cliffs leading up to the “Island in the Sky” portion of Canyonlands National Park. Above the river are a series of huge terraces form as the river eroded its way though the deep and old layers of sedimentary rock that characterize this area. Shooting with a slightly long focal length, I was able to eliminate most extraneous subjects and crop tightly around this area of massive cliffs and terraces.

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: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Coastal Bluffs, Clouds, Dusk

February 1, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Coastal bluffs along the Pacific coast near Davenport, California in dusk light

I made this photograph on a day when I had gone to the coast to try to meet up with a “photo walk” group that was photographing (and socializing) in various areas in and around Santa Cruz, California. I never did quite manage to connect up with them – it is a long story – but I did get to shoot along the coastal bluffs near Davenport in the afternoon and as the day came to an end.

In late afternoon the light was mostly gray, with high clouds from a passing weak weather front blocking the western sky. However, just minutes before sunset the sunlight managed to sneak through a gap along the horizon and momentarily suffuse the coast with beautiful and soft light. I made some photographs during that moment, but I was not done yet when that light faded. Some of the most interesting light can come after sunset, when there may still be a glow from the sky but when this light is more diffused and softer. As the evening came on, I continued shooting until it was almost too dark to find my way back to my car, making exposures that gradually lengthened until I was using a 30 second exposure! This is one of the long exposures, allowing the clouds to move a bit and the waves and surf to blend together into a sort of hazy mist.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Five Birds, Marsh

January 31, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Five birds take flight above a foggy marsh

I’ll be honest and admit that this photograph emerged from a group of exposures that resulted from operator error! While dealing with some complicated and varying exposure issues that I won’t explain here, I switched from photographing one sort of subject to photographing another… but left the settings for the former in place as I shot the latter. My first thought when I went through my files initially was that every one of these exposures would likely deserve to be deleted. But because I’ve been working with motion blur, longer exposures, camera motion, and so forth recently, I figured I might as well take a look and see what I could do with the images.

Essentially, I ended up using a shutter speed that was much lower than I intended and overexposing, creating very high key images. For these reasons and because I was panning to track the small group of birds, almost all distinct detail is gone from the scene with the exception of the birds. The tule-covered islands in the marsh above which the birds are flying barely hold their shape – enough, I think, to imply what they are but certainly not enough to provide any real detail.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Rat Rock Island, Hills

January 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Rat Rock Island and hills of the north San Francisco Bay

This remarkable little island sits just a short distance from the shoreline along the northern San Francisco Bay. Several things contribute to its visual appeal. It is unexpected, in that it is not exactly common to find such islands in this bay. It seems that what formed the island might have been a process similar to one found in coastal areas with much rougher seas, where rocky peninsulas are eventually cut off from the shoreline. The area is very quiet, in contrast to the busy north bay areas you typically might drive through to get here, and the main sounds are those of shore birds. The view beyond the island is expansive – the far side of the bay is distant enough that you the hills are little more than a think break along the horizon, and mostly you see sky and water. The shape of the island is almost but not quite symmetrical, and the little bonsai-like trees on the “summit” echo the curve of the island.

I used a nine-stop neutral density filter so that I could get a relatively long ten second exposure for this photograph. The idea was to let the slight motion of the water blur and create a smooth, glassy quality. (If the clouds had been moving faster, they might also have been blurred. Although it probably isn’t apparent in the photograph, this image is partially the result of quite a bit of work during the post-processing phase.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: monochrome

Colorado River, Dead Horse Point

Coastal Bluffs, Clouds, Dusk

Five Birds, Marsh

Rat Rock Island, Hills

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