Tag Archives: old growth

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

The Forest Floor

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The Forest Floor
Ferns, redwood sorrel, other plants, and young redwoods deep inside the coastal redwood forest.

The Forest Floor. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ferns, redwood sorrel, other plants, and young redwoods deep inside the coastal redwood forest.

Here is another photograph from this year’s late-spring foray to the far Northern California redwood region — the National and State Redwood Parks. It may surprise you to find that this almost-native Californian didn’t really start to get his mind around this region until fairly recently. While I’ve know the redwoods closer to the San Francisco Bay Area nearly my whole life, the parks in the northern reaches of the state were not part of my experience aside from driving through a few of them. Over the past few years I have been exploring them and I am now starting to feel like I know that part of the state a bit better.

This scene comes from one of the state parks. Which park is perhaps not that important, given that you can find scenes like this one almost anywhere. One differentiating factor among the parks seems to be how far they are from the coast — wetter and lusher closer to the coast, warmer and a bit more open further inland. This scene is perhaps more representative of the near-coast forest, with extremely thick and lush undergrowth and green things growing everywhere. (That “green things” comment may seem odd to those who aren’t familiar with much of the rest of California, where things are distinctly not-green during most of the year.)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Wall of Redwoods

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Wall of Redwoods
A dense grove of closely-spaced coast redwood trees, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Wall of Redwoods. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dense grove of closely-spaced coast redwood trees, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

This dense “wall”of redwood trees is part of a grove at Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California. Our experience of arriving in the grove was quite striking. We had just spent hours driving a long loop of small country roads out to part of the “Lost Coast” area, and after a somewhat steep descent the road dropped into this deep, dark, and quiet grove. We stepped out of the car into the cathedral-like experience of these incredibly large trees and paused here on our drive for some time, wandering slowly among the trees and making photographs.

I’ve written before about how photographing in the redwood forest presents a number of challenges. Some of them are objective — it is very dark here, even in the middle of the day in many cases, and one ends up using very long exposures, sometimes adding up to several seconds. And despite the sense of stillness, it seems that there is always a tiny bit of air movement that affects branches and leaves. But a more complex question is how to render photographs of these places. What the camera records here is quite different than what the eye and the mind see. For some technical reasons I’ve written about previously, while the eye sees rich and deep colors, the camera records something that can appear flatter and dimmer. So the post-processing question always becomes how to move things back toward the light and colors that we remember experiencing. When doing that it is easy to get carried away and perhaps create something that is a bit too much of a fantasy — there’s nothing objectively wrong with that, but the question of how far to go is never far away. I chose here to stick with a rather dark rendition, since I remember that this is how the scene felt to me at the time.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Redwood Forest Ferns

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Redwood Forest Ferns
Interlocking ferns beneath old growth redwood trees along the Northern California coast.

Redwood Forest Ferns. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Interlocking ferns beneath old growth redwood trees along the Northern California coast.

This photograph continues with small things seen up close, in this case a bed of interlocking fern leaves on the forest floor beneath old growth redwood forest in coastal Northern California. When I make photographs like this one I typically start out thinking something like, “It should be easy to photograph ferns.” But it never is. As soon as I zero in on a composition I start to notice little flaws in the miniature scene — perhaps an empty void in a bad spot, a leaf that is deformed, a bright spot, you name it. And the photograph that seemed like it would be a quick thing… can end up occupying a substantial amount of my time.

But there is a lot more to photograph in redwood forests than must redwood trees. That subject most certainly is worth our attention, but with such monumental trees dominating the scene it is easy to overlook the smaller things. In order to see these things I tend to wander though the forest setting very slowly, sometimes spending more time standing and looking around than walking. (I’m pretty sure I drive some of my trail companions batty this way!) I found these ferns shortly after I crossed a rise and began to descend into a valley. I stopped and probably barely moved at all for 15 to 20 minutes as I photographed them and other nearby subjects.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Old Growth Redwood Bark

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Old Growth Redwood Bark
Detail of a section of the bark of an old-growth coast redwood tree.

Old Growth Redwood Bark. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a section of the bark of an old-growth coast redwood tree.

As I have posted photographs from our recent visit to the Northern California coast redwood groves I have commented at times about the various ways of seeing the redwood forest and its famous trees. In a place with a primary subject of such stupendous size it is important to remind myself to also look away from the obvious things and keep my eyes open for smaller details. (The notion that smaller details of a subject often characterize it as much as the larger things is an important idea in much of my photography.) Yes, there is a really (really!) big tree in this photograph, but you only get to see this small section.

Redwood trees, especially the ancient old-growth trees — can exhibit all kinds of individual quirks. Some lean, occasionally on other trees. Some split into more than one trunk. Some have missing crowns. Other plants infiltrate some of them. The bark patterns are among the individualizing features. While some trees have rather regular patterns, others have all kinds of unusual shapes and patterns and deformities. The patterns of this tree, which almost have a grotesque quality, caught my attention as I photographed in a quiet grove of big trees. At first I thought to include a fern growing at the base of the tree, almost treating the bark as background, but in the end I decide to exclude everything but the bark. If you are so inclined, you might have some fun making associations with some of the shapes.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.