Tag Archives: redwood

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

Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods (Black and White)

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Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods (Black and White)
Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods (Black and White)

Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods (Black and White). Muir Woods National Monument, California. April 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of lush leaves of late winter ferns in the redwood forest of Muir Woods National Monument, California.

On this late-winter visit to Muir Woods National Monument – a place I photograph often – I noticed the combination of lush growth for recent heavy rains and somewhat warmer temperatures indicating the approach of spring. Many of the forest floor plants were coming back to life and there was lots of greenery everywhere. (There were also plenty of wildflowers, though it seems that I missed the trillium bloom this season.)

Ferns grow throughout the groves in the bottom of the Redwood Creek canyon and there is a mixture of lush green ferns and the older dead growth underneath. One of my objectives was to shoot the older brown and gray ferns, but I couldn’t resist this pattern of the interlocking and overlapping leaves of these very green ferns – not that you can tell in this black and white rendition of the subject! (There is a color version of this photograph coming soon.)

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.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 200, f/16, 4 seconds

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

Redwood Creek, Muir Woods

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Redwood Creek, Muir Woods
Redwood Creek, Muir Woods

Redwood Creek, Muir Woods. Muir Woods National Monument, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California. December 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Water cascades over moss covered rocks along Redwood Creek at Muir Woods National Monument.

I made this photograph on a low-light end-of-autumn day at Muir Woods where the first bridge on the main trail loop crosses over Redwood Creek. It was no problem getting a long enough exposure in this low light – in fact, the main technical issue here involved waiting for a break in the tourist hiker traffic across the bridge, since the bridge is small and tends to bounce!

I love Muir Woods during the dark and damp season of late fall and early winter. The direct sunlight does not often make it down into the bottom of this cold canyon at this time of year. The light is almost always soft and diffused and when everything is a bit wet – e.g. most of the time – the colors becomes intense and saturated.

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.

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

Autumn Leaves, Muir Woods

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Autumn Leaves, Muir Woods
Autumn Leaves, Muir Woods

Autumn Leaves, Muir Woods. Muir Woods National Monument, California. December 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful late autumn leaves in the redwood forest of Muir Woods National Monument, California.

These leaves represent more or less the last gasp of autumn color at Muir Woods – the photograph was taken just a few days before the winter solstice. Although I’ve visited Muir Woods a number of times of a period of many years, during this past year I have done quite a bit of photography there, and with this series of photographs I feel like I’ve gone through a full season with the park. As I wandered through the main groves twice during the last half of December I really had a strong feeling of concluding a year of growth in the forest… and of shooting this subject. It was fitting that on this visit I saw for the first time one of the first flowers to come up as a new cycle begins, the fetid adders’ tongue and its subtle but beautiful flower. This got me thinking about and looking forward to the cycle of renewal that will soon begin again in this park.

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.

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

Redwood Grove, Muir Woods

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Redwood Grove, Muir Woods. Muir Woods National Monument, California. December 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Redwood grove close to the start of winter at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

This grove of redwoods is in a a very accessible part of Muir Woods National Monument, along the mail trail along the creek that passes by the main entrance to the park. Probably just about everyone who at least hikes past the gift shop gets to this spot! This area near one of bridges across the creek (the second bridge, if I recall correctly) has a lot of interesting photographic subjects, some of which I’ve posted here before.

At this time of the year – late fall by the calendar, but early winter by climate – the forest is very wet, at least in a year like this one that seems like it may have more or less normal rainfall. The mosses begin to grow on exposed surfaces and tree trunks and some of the ferns that live through the winter are very green and lush – and it is wet everywhere.

The feeling of this scene, I think, incorporates all of that “wintery” stuff, but also captures the stillness and quiet found in the denser sections of the redwood forest. The red-brown straight and severe trunks of the redwoods are broken up a bit by the twisting and leaning shapes of some of the other trees, and everything is lit by soft diffused light from cloudy skies.

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 | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

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