Tag Archives: redwood

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

Redwood Forest Floor Foliage

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Redwood Forest Floor Foliage
Broadleaf starflower and redwood sorrel in the deep shade of a Northern California redwood forest.

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

Broadleaf starflower and redwood sorrel in the deep shade of a Northern California redwood forest.

There is a route in Redwood National Park that surprises me — because there is hardly ever anyone there, even though it dead-ends in a beautiful forest of old growth trees near an intersection of several trails, in a place with many interesting things to see. I visit the spot every time I go there. Perhaps the small number of visitors is due to a lack of named icons, the out of the way location, and not a whole lot of publicity. My first visit was an accident — a moment of “I wonder what is up that way?”

The last time I was there it was midday, not necessarily the ideal time to photograph in the forest. The redwood forest is often quite a dark place, and little sun manages to find an angling path through the trees to reach the ground. But in the middle of the day the sun does make it to the forest floor, and the great contrasts between shadow and light are a challenge. On this visit there were scattered clouds passing above the forest, so I found my compositions and then waited patiently, eyeing the sky for the next cloud that might soften the light.

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

Edge of the Forest

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Edge of the Forest
Deciduous trees at the edge of a forest, Redwood National Park.

Edge of the Forest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Deciduous trees at the edge of a forest, Redwood National Park.

This photograph comes from a section of forest that always surprises and pleases me when I visit Redwood National Park. In a place where the giant coast redwoods are everywhere… here there aren’t any! Instead these densely-spaced deciduous trees with their thick green foliage line both sides of the road. Although the spot is not marked as an iconic location, there are always others stopped there when I arrive.

Part of the attraction of subjects like this is the challenge of finding some sort of logical composition in all of the extremely complex detail of trunks, branches, and leaves. It is there, but I often have to look for it. Typically I spot something that seems like it might anchor the photograph… and then as I look over the scene I discover some element that doesn’t fit or a spot that is too dark or otherwise seems empty. At the same time, I don’t want it to be too perfect — without some formal tension the scene can easily become completely static.

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

Old Stump, Redwood Forest

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Old Stump, Redwood Forest
An old redwood stump stands among dense undergrowth in a Northern California coast redwood forest.

Old Stump, Redwood Forest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old redwood stump stands among dense undergrowth in a Northern California coast redwood forest.

The coast redwood forest can seem almost static — it is a place of quiet stillness, populated with many very, very old trees. On quiet days the only motion comes from an occasional bird and continuous slight movements of the air. But it is actually a place of continuous transition, as a scene like this reminds me. In the left foreground is a young tree that is extending toward the canopy to find light, but in the middle is a very old and worn stump of a long-gone redwood. And, of course, around the base of the trunk is a carpet of annual plants.

I photographed this on a slow walk through a section of redwood forest one morning when fog was intermittently moving in and out — one moment there would be a bit of sun and shortly after fog would move through the trees. I wanted to make a photograph that contained the complexity of this place and which caught the highlights of light on the edge of the trunk, so I waited for the light to intensify a bit before making the exposure.

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.

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

Redwood Trail, Spring Morning

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Redwood Trail, Spring Morning
Lush spring vegetation along a trail through coastal redwood forest, Northern California.

Redwood Trail, Spring Morning. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lush spring vegetation along a trail through coastal redwood forest, Northern California.

Early one June morning this year we parked the car and strolled along a trail into a coast redwood grove that is close enough to the Pacific that you pass people hiking to the water and you encounter fog forming over the coast hills. Not all redwood forests are this moist, but here the conditions create especially lush growth, and on this morning the drifting fog softened the light and muted more distant subjects, though it still had a bit of a directional quality.

On this visit I thought a lot about the difference between what the camera records and what the eye and mind see in the redwoods. When opening files from photography in the redwoods, the colors often seem more dull than the memory. Several possible explanations exist, but I’ve long had an idea about how our visual system accommodates different kinds of lighting, essentially normalizing them in ways that aren’t captured by the camera. This time I made a point of stopping and thinking long and hard about the way the colors looked to me while walking through the forest, and I realized that our visual system’s normalization process compensates for the bluish light and tells us that the colors are warmer than they objectively are. To my mind, it is more important that a photograph express what I saw in the place than it is that it achieve some standard of objective color balance that essentially lies about what I experienced… and what you see here is true to my experience in the redwoods.

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.