Tag Archives: park

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

Offshore Fog Bank, Marin Headlands

July 24, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Offshore fog lies beyond Point Bonita and Rodeo Beach and the Marin Headlands of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

I was surprised to find a clear view like this during my mid-July visit to the Marin Headlands of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) across the Bay from San Francisco. I had almost decided to stay home or go elsewhere based on weather reports that had the coast completely socked in my dense fog for most of the day. Indeed, it was foggy as I passed through San Francisco and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. The fog was high, and I could see some distance beneath it, but it was still a rather gray day.

Since the lower section of Conzelman Road, the normal quick and scenic route up into the headlands, was closed for construction, I took that alternate route that passes through a tunnel to come out near Rodeo Beach. I turned left up the hill to reach the upper section of the road. After photographing near Battery 129 for a while, the sun began to break through the fog, and I was surprised to find a fairly clear patch just outside the Golden Gate.

The photograph shows the last section of the headlands as the hills drop towards the historic fort and batteries near the Point Bonito light house, which is barely visible at the end of the peninsula on the left. The line of surf at the upper right is Rodeo Beach, a popular spot with Bay Area folks.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Alpenglow, Trees, and Granite

July 22, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 9 Comments

This is one of my favorite locations in the Yosemite back-country and, in fact, in the entire Sierra Nevada range. This beautiful sub-alpine basis contains three lovely lakes and is surrounded by varied terrain that includes distant views, peaks and ridges towering above, lodgepole pine forests, meadows small and large, and an open view to the west that often provides stunning light late in the day.

As is usually the case, I was camped at the of the three lakes – this time for several days of photography – and I had headed to the upper lake late in the day to do some evening photography. I have photographed there quite a few times, but I still haven’t come close to exhausting the photographic potential of the place. On this evening I knew that I wanted to be ready to photograph the golden hour light, but I was also interested in the smaller groups of trees that grow among the granite boulders and I wanted to see what might develop as alpenglow struck the glacial slopes above the lake.

There is a small, fun twist to the story of this visit. I took a semi-cross-country route to the upper lake from my camp at the lower lake, and because I knew that I’d be returning alone in deep twilight or after dark, on the hike up I was concentrating intensely on fixing a series of landmarks in my mind for the return hike. I was so single-minded about this that I made it all the way to the lake and my first intended subject (a small shoreline tree) without looking around much. It was only a moment after arriving that I got out of focus-on-the-route mode and looked around. I had walked right past the campsite of a couple of photographers without even seeing them, much less saying “hi.” Turns out that the photographers were John Sexton and Anne Larsen. After exchanging greetings and conversation, I went about my business of shooting along the edge of the lake. (If I recall correctly, John was shooting nearby as I made this exposure.)

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Boulders and Trees, Lower Young Lake

July 18, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Subalpine forest strewn with granite boulders in morning light, Lower Young Lake.

This photograph comes from late in last year’s backpacking season, on a mid-September trip to the Young Lakes Basin. As I have previously written, this area is a beautiful one to explore and is doubly beautiful for photographers since it is open to the western evening light. I made this photograph in the morning and not far from my campsite at the lower of the three Young Lakes. This sort of scene is no doubt familiar to anyone who has spent much time in the Sierra Nevada high country and has come to know these areas of mixed trees and meadows among fields of large granite boulders. I found this particular scene by leaving the trail behind and exploring more widely around the shoreline of the lake.

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

Parking Lot Near Pier 48, Morning

July 15, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning light on a large parking lot near Pier 48, San Francisco.

Continuing with the “urban landscape” theme, this is a photograph of a parking lot south of the bridge next to ATT Park and near the buildings of Pier 48 in San Francisco. After getting off the train that arrived in San Francisco at 7:00 a.m. and wandering over to Townsend Street, I decided to cross the what I think must be the Mission Bay inlet and take a look through this area which was rather deserted at this early hour. (Come back here before a Giants game, and the parking lot will be completely full of the cars of people who are willing to spend exorbitant amounts to park here.)

While there were cars in other portions of this parking lot that are closer to likely destinations, at this far end there was a single lonely car, and that seemed like it could be an anchor for a photograph of the lot, the tall streetlight poles, the industrial-looking buildings of Pier 48 and other assorted waterfront things. Because it was so early, the sun rising across the bay was filling the air with brilliant light that created a sky that was more white than blue.

In addition to the obvious crop, this image required other kinds of substantial work in post. The first issue was controlling the very brightest parts of the sky and a second was the follow-up need to then lighten a few other areas to get some detail back into the image. Color balance was a tricky thing – this isn’t that far from what the raw file contained, though I did warm the colors just a bit. I also did something in this image that I rarely do, namely use semi-opaque blurred and desaturated overlay layer of the original image to do, well, some stuff that is a bit hard to describe in written form. Suffice it to say that this had an effect on the parking lot and on the brightness of the sky.

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