Tag Archives: moss

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

Oak, Laurel, and Granite

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Oak, Laurel, and Granite
Oak, Laurel, and Granite

Oak, Laurel, and Granite. Yosemite Valley, California. May 7, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An oak tree and a laurel tree grow next to a granite face along the north side of Yosemite Valley, California.

I have visited this small, gnarled oak tree before. It grows right at the base of a granite face along the north side of Yosemite Valley, seems to face a pretty rugged life living beneath the shadow of the cliff and among fallen boulders. When I visited in early May the tree was just starting to get its new growth of leaves, though the laurel tree right next to it was already quite green.

The last time I photographed this tree it was autumn, and the leaves were also colorful then. It seems a bit odd that the leaves of this oak take on similar yellow and red colors at both the start and end of their season. (Though they do go more toward brown than yellow in the fall.)

The light was interesting on this day, which had started out clear. As the day wore on a weak Pacific weather front approached, and by evening things were pretty well socked in. But here, at perhaps 4:00 or 4:30, if I recall correctly, the incoming clouds were thing and broken enough to just soften the light without turning it completely gray.

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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

Trees and Brush, Levee

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Trees and Brush, Levee
Trees and Brush, Levee

Trees and Brush, Levee. Cosumnes River Wildlife Preserve, California. January 23, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Weak sunlight breaks through Central Valley tule fog to illuminate trees and brush growing on a levee near the Cosumnes River.

This morning started out with extremely dense Central Valley tule fog – at first so thick that I more or less gave up photographing. But eventually, as usually happens, the upper layers of the fog began to thin, and some light began to filter down through the fog. By late in the morning the fog was thinning enough that very pale sunlight began to show through and softly light the dense vegetation on this levee along the edges of the Cosumnes River. This is an incredibly rich environment in the winter, especially with all of the water from winter rains and the nearby river, and the vegetation grows very thick here.

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

Mushrooms, Redwood Log

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Winter mushrooms grow on a redwood log at Muir Woods National Monument.
Winter mushrooms grow on a redwood log at Muir Woods National Monument.

Mushrooms, Redwood Log. Muir Woods National Monument, California. December 16, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter mushrooms grow on a redwood log at Muir Woods National Monument.

Yesterday I decided to squeeze in a quick shoot in the Muir Woods area on a relatively nice day before what promises to be a week of substantial rain. So I was on the road early, stopping at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge to photograph the San Francisco Bay at sunrise before continuing on to Muir Woods. I arrived pretty early – I know I’m there early when I get the very first parking space closest to the entrance!

This is a beautiful time of year in the redwood forest, but there seems to be a smaller number of visitors. I suppose the wetness may keep them away – there is mud and water everywhere – and not everyone is willing to deal with the cold. The main grove at Muir Woods sits in the bottom of a canyon that doesn’t get a whole lot of sun this time of year, especially very early and late in the day. Combine wet with cold and low light… and you can understand why it was a fairly quiet morning there, with only a few other people wandering about.

I know that winter is the mushroom season in places like this, but I was very surprised by the number of mushrooms growing there yesterday and my the astonishing variety of types. There were the large curving brown ones (sorry, I’m not a mushroom ID expert, to say the least!) clustered in the upper area of this shot, the brightly colored yellow ones, tiny white ones, and many other shapes and colors and textures. I wish that I could have stayed longer to photograph more of them, but I think I’ll try to return after the current cycle of storms ends.

I’ll add a couple of photographic observations here, too. First, this is another shot that demonstrates, I think, the usefulness of the 70-200mm zoom lens. Working here at close to minimum focus distance, the longer focal length gave me a bit of working room and still provided a nice background blur. Second, the redwood forest is a very dark place! I don’t know how you could shoot these subjects handheld – this shot used a 6 second exposure!

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest, Upper Yosemite Valley

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Forest, Upper Yosemite Valley
Forest, Upper Yosemite Valley

Forest, Upper Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. October 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees recede into the distance in a quiet forest in the upper section of Yosemite Valley.

Late in the afternoon, after the light rain had mostly ended, I stopped to try to photograph some dogwood trees that were getting their fall colors. I started by looking at some trees very close to the road, but then saw more interesting trees a bit further into the grove so I wandered a bit farther from the road. Soon I saw a couple of trails leading into more open areas near the river, so I kept walking. This led to a trail that headed up the Valley – I followed it and soon crossed the Merced River. Continuing on (and now well beyond the grove that I originally stopped to photograph!) I crossed again on a second bridge and soon noticed an interesting section of more open forest off to one side. As I wandered down into this area I saw that there were quite a few rocks along the otherwise level forest floor here, and after making a couple of initial shots I also saw that nearby the level forest floor began to give way to more hilly and rounded terrain with occasional boulders and small rocky hills. I left the trail and began to walk about slowly, just watching for interesting arrangements of trees, colorful leaves, and places where the light glowed through the forest canopy.

When I stopped to make this photograph (and several other exposures in the same spot) I was attracted by the relatively open forest through which I could see the vertical forms of the trees receding, and by the interesting arrangement of the foreground trees. The soft forest light on this cloudy afternoon also gave the leaves and needles a luminous quality.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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