Tag Archives: morning

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Forest, Sunbeams

November 2, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Beams of morning sunlight stream between the trees of the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

This is another photograph of the wonderful morning sunlight during my late October visit to Muir Woods National Monument. I usually visit and photograph Muir Woods in softer cloudy or foggy conditions which are, to be honest, easier to photograph. That diffused light lights the shadows and reduces the overall dynamic range of the scenes. However on this morning the sun was out and the light was magical, streaming through the forest canopy and between the giant trees to light up the air and the forest floor.

I perhaps mentioned that the previous photograph I posted from Muir Woods required me to merge two exposures to deal with this huge dynamic range – but this one required three exposures separated from each other by 2-stop brackets! The brightest exposure captured some detail in the trunks of the trees and the plants near the bottom of the frame, while the darkest exposure let me retain a bit of the branch detail in the very bright area where the light comes through between the trees.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Forest, Morning Light

November 1, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light in the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

On a late October weekend when I had intended to photograph in Yosemite Valley, I instead ended up shooting at Muir Woods National Monument in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area north of San Francisco. I shoot here frequently – in fact, some of my photos are sold in the gift shop at the monument – and I’m working on building up a body of work representing a lot of different subjects at different times of the year and in varying conditions.

I often prefer to shoot there when there is overcast or even in fog or rainy conditions. However, on this morning it was sunny! This poses a real challenge when shooting in the redwood groves, since the shaded areas can be quite dark but where a beam of light finds its way to the forest floor or hits plants or trees it can be extremely bright, creating some very wide dynamic range conditions. In order to capture this – and create a photograph that suggests the way I saw the scene at the time of the exposure – I often combine two (and sometimes more) exposures in order to deal with this, which is what I did in this photograph.

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: redwood, tree, grove, forest, tree, trunk, fern, green, morning, light, sun, lush, muir, woods, national, monument, golden, gate, recreation, area, nature, foliage, flora, landscape, travel, scenic, california, usa, burn, scar, dense, thick, stock, marin, county, pacific, coast, sequoia, sempervirens, big

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Treasure Island Harbor and Bay Bridge, Dawn

October 29, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunrise light on the new and old spans of the Bay Bridge at Treasure Island with foreground of boats moored at the Treasure Island harbor.

(It occurred to me yesterday that posting this right now might make sense given that the big news story here in the SF Bay Area is the structural failure of a part of the bridge and the subsequent bridge closure… and area-wide traffic meltdown.)

I had originally planned to be in Yosemite Valley today shooting fall color, but life intervened and there simply wasn’t enough time for a trip to the Valley. Instead I decided to take most of the day and head up towards Muir Woods to do a bit of shooting in the redwoods, hoping for some fall color there. Since I was on the road very early, I had time for a detour out to Treasure Island as I passed through San Francisco so I decided to go out there and try some stitched panoramas of dawn light on San Francisco over the water of the Bay.

I arrived there a good 10-15 minutes before sunrise and made a series of panorama exposures of that iconic scene – perhaps nothing astonishing, but worth the trip half way across the bridge. As I finished shooting this scene I looked back across the road toward the Bay Bridge and Oakland, a scene I’ve photographed before, and was struck by the forms of the backlit towers of the old and new spans of the Bay Bridge, the latter currently under construction. I quickly moved across the road to find a better vantage point and decided to come up with a composition that included the boats moored in the harbor in front of the view of the bridge.

A technical note about what you are seeing. A new, replacement eastern bridge span is under construction next to the old bridge. The structures in crossing the photograph include the old bridge, portions of the new bridge, temporary structures supporting the installation, and cranes. If you look closely (easier to do in a large version than in this small jpg) you can see the cranes at the port of Oakland in the distance beyond the bridge.

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: treasure, island, san, francisco, oakland, bay, bridge, construction, new, boat, moor, anchor, crane, morning, light, dawn, sunrise, reflection, california, usa, structure, urban, construction, equipment, port, harbor, mast, haze, mist, landscape, stock, eastern, span, new

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Snow and Morning Light on Wheeler Ridge

October 27, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light on the Buttermilks and the face of the eastern Sierra’s Wheeler Ridge as an early autumn storm brings snow flurries.

On both mornings during my early October trip to the Bishop Creek area to photograph aspens, I instead ended up spending at least some time shooting the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada in the area of the “Buttermilks,” an area of very interesting rock formations (and lots of rock climbers!) off of highway 168 above Bishop. On the first morning I drove a good distance up into the region and spent an hour or more shooting a particular scene. On the second morning, when this photograph was made, I only stopped briefly on my up to higher elevation areas, aspen groves, and snow flurries.

An early season storm was coming in – it had been tremendously windy the night before and I’d picked up a dusting of snow at my campsite the night before. While the sun streamed over the White Mountains to the east and managed to light up the high desert hills in this area it was snowing lightly but steadily up in the mountains. Here the light is sweeping across the low, rocky hills in the foreground and hitting the steep lower slopes of Wheeler ridge, while above the peaks are shrouded in mist and clouds and receiving a light but steady snow fall.

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