Tag Archives: one

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: Sports

Lance Armstrong, Stage One, 2010 Amgen Tour of California

May 17, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Lance Armstrong riding to the starting line for stage one of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California professional bicycle road race.

The 2010 Amgen Tour of California started this weekend with a road stage traveling from Nevada City to Sacramento, California. I made the ridiculously long drive up and back to shoot the stage, starting in Nevada City perhaps three hours before the start of the race, later making an abortive attempt to intercept the peloton just south of the town of Auburn, and then making it to the finish in Sacramento, where I found a spot about 200 meters from the finish line.

Since I’m not photographing the race officially – now that would be a kick!* – I take my own idiosyncratic approach to photographing the event. I try to shoot the start of the race, an intermediate point (if possible), and then the finish. But shooting actual racing from the sidelines isn’t an easy thing. With this in mind I also photograph a lot of other “stuff” that surrounds the event of the race. Today I first shot some of the crowds in the middle of old Nevada City, then walked the portion of the course that looped through the downtown area before it heads out onto the open road. But my main plan was to spend the hour or so right before the race in the team area, where it is often possible to grab some good close shots of many of the riders. One of the strange and wonderful things about pro cycling, at least in the United States, is that you can more or less walk right up to some of the biggest names in the sport, and right before the race they usually ride through the crowd to get to the starting line.

I picked a few likely team vehicles and hung out, eventually getting a good series of photographs of sprinter Mark Cavendish, the eventual winner of the stage. (I’ll post some of these photos later.) Then I picked out a spot at the lower end of the team area, knowing the eventually just about all of the riders would have to pass by within feet of me… including Lance Armstrong.

I have a number of photographs from previous Tours and other cycling events posted in my gallery.

* Believe it or not, this landscape photographer (and ex-cyclist) sometimes fantasizes about photographing a stage from the back of a motorcycle. Yeah, hard to believe. :-)

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.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 400mm
ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/2000 second

keywords: amgen, tour, of, california, stage, one, 2010, bicycle, road, race, pro, professional, usa, north america, sports, nevada, city, lance, armstrong, radioshack, team, starting, riding, line, smile

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rugged Coastline, Big Sur

May 5, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Black and white photograph of rough surf and rugged coastal rocks and cliffs along the Big Sur Coastline of California at Garrapata State Park.

This is, to my mind, an astonishingly rugged and wild bit of coastline at Garrapata State Park, south of Carmel, California in the northern section of the Big Sur coastline. I made the photograph from the edge of a bluff above the rocky coast, at a spot where I could shoot south along the shoreline and toward a section of coastline where the contour headed back towards the west. While it was a clear morning with only a bit of fog along the tops of the nearby hills, the surf was big enough to fill the air with a thin mist which created the atmospheric recession effect in this photograph.

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.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 360mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/80 second

keywords: garrapata, state, beach, park, big, sur, rock, island, stack, cliff, outcropping, pacific, ocean, sea, shore, coast, shoreline, rugged, crashing, rough, surf, wave, foam, bird, atmospheric, recession, morning, light, black and white, monochrome, highway, one, seascape, landscape, nature, travel, scenic, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rocky Creek Bridge, Big Sur

May 4, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A natural bridge in front of manmade Rocky Creek Bridge along the Big Sur Coastline, California.

This scene is becoming a sort of personal icon in my photography of the California coastline. I have made a couple black and white photographs of the location that are among my very favorite photographs, but I’ve been meaning to work on a color photograph of this spot. There are at least three general conditions in which this spot gets what I regard as interesting light: fairly early morning when the light slants down toward the ocean from over the coastal Big Sur hills, late afternoon in warm light, and during various types of cloud and fog conditions. This version is from the first of these – photographed relatively early in the day when portions of the scene are backlit but some light hits parts of the scene directly after the sun rises above the tall mountains to the east.

Believe it or not, I still don’t think I’ve fully worked this scene – and I have several other ideas of how I would like to shoot it when the conditions are just right.

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.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 360mm
ISO 200, f/11, 1/250 second

keywords: natural, manmade, bridge, rocky, creek, pacific, ocean, sea, shore, shoreline, coast, highway, 1, one, rock, island, surf, wave, arch, beach, spring, morning, light, bird, gull, cliff, hill, steep, ridge, monterey, carmel, landscape, seascape, nature, scenic, travel, road, drive, stock

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Pelicans Skimming the Beach

January 28, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three pelicans skim just above Waddell Beach along the California Pacific coast.

Considering just how many of the motion-blur pelican shots I’ve posted, I should probably have titled this one “Three MORE Pelicans Skimming the Beach.” ;-)

Besides the in-motion quality from the blur from camera motion, bird motion, and flapping wings, one thing that really struck me about this set of three pelicans was just how close to the sand they were flying. The lead bird was about as close as it could come without touching the sand with its wingtips.

A sight like this often makes me recall other encounters with animals in which they seemed to be doing something for the sheer joy of it: a bear I once saw travel across alpine rock fields to a high point on a ridge, where it stopped to take in the view for a minute or two before racing back down into a valley; a coyote in a high canyon in the eastern Sierra singing duets with its echo at dawn; and more. Of course I have no proof of this, but I like to imagine that these birds must find this low level flight to be exciting.

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.

keywords: motion, blur, pacific, ocean, sea, coast, highway, one, coastal, california, usa, motion, blur, in, flight, pelican, bird, wildlife, nature, surf, wave, sand, reflection, wing, low, skim, beach, diagonal, silhouette, winter, waddell, beach, state, park, big, basin, shore, line, stock

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