Tag Archives: ridge

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Richardson Bay, Morning

February 23, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This photograph was shot from essentially the same position as the previous one, a black and white photo of the same vista, though with shorter focal length. I used a longer focal length here to try to enlarge to closer elements and leave out some of the stuff along the edges, and to minimize the amount of sky to some extent. I liked the color version of this – it was hard for me to think about giving up the nice overall blue haze, but even more to give up the was of light on some of the green grassy areas at the bottom of the frame.

There is quite a bit of stuff in this image, so let me describe what you see. At the bottom of the frame are hills above Marin City. Beyond the foreground hills you see Richardson Bay, which is an arm of San Francisco Bay near the entrance to Golden Gate. Across the bay we see the hills of the Tiburon Peninsula and beyond that looms the peak of Angel Island. In the distance and across San Francisco the buildings of downtown Oakland are visible through the low level backlit morning haze. Beyond are the East Bay Hills and the furthest peak is Mount Diablo, all the way out past Concord.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (Click the title to see the full article and to comment if you are viewing it on the home page.)

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: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Alcatraz, Treasure Island, East Bay Hills

February 6, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Black and white photograph of San Francisco Bay with Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the East Bay Hills beneath a morning winter sky.

On this early February day the rough plan was to head up across the Golden Gate Bridge before dawn, shoot a bit from high in the Marin Headlands as the sun rose, and then continue on to most likely shoot at Muir Woods. However, I ended up spending at least two hours shooting from the headlands, and by the time I finished I knew that the tourist hordes would be arriving at Muir Woods, so I only did a bit of additional shooting from the hills before heading back home.

This photograph was made just before I left the Marin Headlands, near the last turn before the road crosses highway 101 near the Golden Gate. It is a familiar location and I’ve photographed from here many times in the past. I don’t always stop, but if something is a bit special or unusual about the conditions I will. That was the case today as someone unusual weather conditions had left the bay mostly clear, but with a thin layer of fog over Oakland and other areas along the east side of the San Francisco Bay – and impressive high clouds were floating above. Alcatraz Island is at the left, Treasure Island and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are in the center, and beyond that the tops of buildings in downtown Oakland are visible against the backdrop of the East Bay hills.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Email
Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Sunset Avalanche, Half Dome

January 18, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 9 Comments

An avalanche breaks loose from the edge of Half Dome as sunset light falls over Yosemite Valley.

Sometimes timing is everything. But, to be honest, luck often plays a bigger part! :-)

On my way out of The Valley on a mid-January weekend, I made this spot my last stop, thinking that I wanted a photograph from this angle at sunset with snow on Half Dome. (I have a number of photographs of this location, but mostly from the warmer months of the year. ) I know this spot well enough at this point that I know pretty much exactly where to be and when to be there, and this was no exception. On the way up here I first stopped to photograph some trees on a ridge across the Valley, something I worked on more than once during this trip. When the last light left those trees I headed on up the road to this overlook and arrived perhaps a full half hour before the start of the real light show. I hung out a bit, ate a snack, and eventually set up.

I never know exactly what will happen here, believe it or not, even though I understand the process pretty well. The foreground right ridge first falls into shadow, then the shadow line begins to creep up toward the face of Half Dome and rise up the rocky slope in front of El Capitan at the left. But what the sky will do during this transition is quite variable. Sometimes the sunset simply dies out with a whimper. On other evenings the light goes through a remarkable sequence of transitions. That is what finally happened on this evening. Eventually I’ll share some of the other photographs from this evening, but for now I’ll just share a hint or two. The color of the sky behind Half Dome transitioned from blue to pink and purple and finally to a deep blue that verged on purple.

But the real surprise – and one I did not realize I had captured it until I got home and looked closely at my raw files – was that one of the images contained a sort of “Yosemite Fall” that I had never seen before, namely the “snow fall” created as a large piece of the snow field near the edge of Half Dome let loose after a day of warm sun and cascaded down the right face of the mountain… just as sunset light split the dome! I suppose this provides yet another opportunity to quote Ansel, who apparently once said, “Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.”

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
Flickr | Twitter (follow me) | Facebook (“Like” my page) | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Rocky Knoll with Monterey Cypress Trees

January 16, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A grove of Monterey Cypress trees grows on top of a rocky ridge above the Pacific Ocean at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

In my continuing attempt to mine every bit of ore possible from this scene… this is a closer study of the same tree-covered knoll that I posted recently. The rocky hill is near the end of a thin peninsula between Whalers Cove and Bluefish Cove at Point Lobos. It is covered with a wild confusion of plants, Monterey cypress trees, and rocks and the whole thing drops suddenly to the edge of the Pacific Ocean right below.

This is another in a group of photographs that I sort of think of as “how much dense detail can I cram into one frame” photographs. For this reason, I’m pretty certain that this will have a better chance of making sense in a decent sized photograph in which the detail can be enjoyed a bit more than it can be in this small jpg.

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
Flickr | Twitter (follow me) | Facebook (“Like” my page) | LinkedIn | Email

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