Tag Archives: morning

Photographs: Nature

Detail, Summer Grasses

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Detail, Summer Grasses

Detail, Summer Grasses. Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California. August 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Close-up photograph of summer grasses growing at Castillero Pond, California.

A second photo in the sequence I made on this morning at Castillero Pond in the Calero Hills oak/grassland in northern California. (The terrain and plants are typical of vast areas of central California as well.) These large grasses were growing along the edge of the pond. Unlike most of the grasses, which by now have gone completely dry in California, there were still mostly green since they had the pond as a source of moisture.

I made what might strike some as an odd lens choice for this series. Virtually all of them were shot with a 100-400mm zoom at 400mm. The idea was to get a very narrow depth of field and then throw both foreground and background way out of focus. Sometimes people think that the only way to do this is by using lenses with very large aperture, but an equally (and in some cases more) effective method is to use a very long focal length. This can provide even nicer bokeh than the large aperture approach in many cases.

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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keywords: calero, hills, santa clara, county, park, morning, summer, grass, flora, pond, castillero, plant, nature, california, usa, macro, close-up, stem, twig, blade, green, brown, yellow, shadow, bokeh, dense, texture, curve, pattern, dry, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Cattails, Morning Light

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Cattails, Morning Light

Cattails, Morning Light. Calero Hills, California. August 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Summer cattails in morning light at Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California.

OK, this time no alpine scene from high meadows near the crest of the Sierra – instead a cattail growing along the bank of a small pond perhaps ten miles from my home at a place where I frequently hike. This morning I decided to get up early and head out here with no particular photographic goal in mind. When I arrived at the pond I thought I might photograph some birds – in fact, I just missed photographing my local egret, which flew away just as I was getting out my camera. So, instead of photographing the birds – and instead of continuing on for a longer morning hike – I spent more than an hour here photographing the cattails and patterns of summer grasses in the morning light.

Yesterday I visited SF MOMA to see two photographic shows – the photographs of Richard Avedon in one and the photographs of Ansel Adams and paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe in the other. As I looked at the out of focuse patterns of grasses, such as those in the background of this photograph, I thought about the colors and patterns of the O’Keeffe paintings.

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.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gdanmitchell
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gdanmitchell

keywords: calero, hills, santa clara, county, park, morning, summer, grass, flora, pond, castillero, plant, nature, california, usa, light, blue, gold, brown, yellow, green, bokeh, stalk, seed, stock

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Lodgepole Pine Forest, Morning, Lower Young Lake

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Lodgepole Pine Forest, Morning, Lower Young Lake

Lodgepole Pine Forest, Morning, Lower Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. July 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell all rights reserved.

Morning light illuminates dense lodgepole pine forest near the edge of Lower Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

As hard as it is to crawl out of a warm sleeping bag on a cool morning, I managed to do it on this morning. Just as the sun was coming up I was wandering along the shoreline of Lower Young Lake. While I made some photographs of the lake itself, I ended up becoming most interested in the area around the outflow stream. It features a rocky trail crossing of the stream, a small open area of meadow, and very thick surrounding forest. I thought I’d try another in my recent series of very dense and detailed composition here, this one including a thick stand of lodgepole pines just as the sun rose high enough to begin to cast some light on the forest floor.

(To be honest, I’m pretty certain that this one is going to work far better as a large print than as a small jpg… but there you go! )

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: pinus contorta, lodgepole, tamarack, pine, forest, tree, boulder, rock, log, branch, needle, trunk, twist, flora, grass, flower, plant, morning, light, dense, vegetation, lower, young, lake, yosemite, national park, california, usa, intimate, landscape, scenic, travel, nature, hike, backpack, camp, stock

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

South Tufa, Morning

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South Tufa, Morning

South Tufa, Morning. Mono Lake, California. June 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of early morning at South Tufa, Mono Lake, California.

This black and white panorama was photographed on my early June, 2009 visit to the South Tufa area of Mono Lake. Earlier that morning I had photographed the more typical early morning golden light of dawn on the tufa towers from a closer position. This photograph was more or less a last-minute afterthought, as I had completed the photography I had in mind on this morning and had pack up. I was actually leaving the shoreline when I happened to look back at this view that includes many tufa towers and I noticed the two small clouds (remnants of more extensive dawn clouds) centered over the towers.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

keywords: south, tufa, towers, mono, lake, water, reflection, black and white, beach, rock, geology, formation, ripple, dawn, day, break, morning, light, cloud, mountains, distant, atmosphere, silhouette, shore, waterline, foam, nature, landscape, scenic, travel, stock, sand, stark, panorama, pano