Tag Archives: road

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife, Photographs: Yosemite

Bear Family in Tree, Yosemite

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Bear Family in Tree, Yosemite

Bear Family in Tree, Yosemite. Yosemite National Park, California. June 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A mother black bear and her two cubs practice their tree-climbing skills in Yosemite National Park, California.

I confess that I participated in a full-scale “Yosemite tourist experience” in order to get this photograph. Despite the fact that I’ve encountered California black bears many times in the high country while car camping and while backpacking – and I respect but do not fear these bears – this photograph was made during a less wild experience. I was driving back down Tioga Pass Road from Tuolumne and as I approached the right turn to pick up the main road out of the park I suddenly came upon many cars parked at odd angles along the road. I slowed, rolled my window down, and asked, “Hey, what is everyone stopped for?” The breathless reply was “a mother bear and her cubs are in the trees!”

Not having any decent bear photographs in my collection I decided to stop and see what I could get. I found a spot to park off the roadway, grabbed a camera and the longest lens, and walked back up the road to where others were staring intently across a small clearing toward trees far beyond – but I couldn’t spot a darn thing. Finally someone pointed out where the mother bear had last been seen, and I thought I spotted her head – in very poor light and crouched down low in the brush. I flipped on the image-stabilization on my 100-400mm lens, increased camera ISO to 400 (wanting to minimize blur when I hand held the camera) and got “mama” framed up. She was not a very photogenic subject, prone on the forest floor beyond some plants – but I was patient. Before long she began to move, walking among the trees, and soon her two small cubs appeared. I thought they might just be within range of the lens I had so I began to track their movements with my camera and shoot photos whenever something interesting happened. (Basically, I like to photograph wildlife – at least mammals – in much the same way that I might photograph people: I want the critter to look in a direction such that I can see its face, and if the animal is actively engaged in doing something, all the better.)

It seemed to me that “mom” was perhaps showing the cubs how to climb trees. She would edge them over to a tree and then they would start to climb. Before long both of the small cubs were scampering many feet up into the trees, and mom followed at least partway.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: black, bear, mother, sow, cubs, climb, tree, trunk, moss, ascent, forest, grove, wildlife, animal., nature, yosemite, national park, california, usa, travel, adventure, tioga, road, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, stock

Stories

Another Epic Sierra Round Trip

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The time was ripe this weekend for a visit to Yosemite Valley and perhaps other places, so a two-day photo trip was in order. As is sometimes the case when I do these short up-and-back runs, some things happened according to plan and others, uh, evolved.

I left the SF Bay Area at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. The plan was to head to the Valley early and then possibly get on the wait list for a camp spot with the rest of the plan being to shoot spring subjects there for a couple days.

Continue reading Another Epic Sierra Round Trip →
Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Road, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Morning

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Road, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Morning

Road, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Morning. Death Valley National Park, California. April 2, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A gravel road winds through the curved hills of Twenty Mule Team Canyon in early morning light, Death Valley National Park, California.

I had never visited Twenty Mule Team Canyon (located just up the road from Zabriskie Point) before this trip, but thanks to Edie Howe’s recommendation I spent an early morning shooting there on this trip. Except for the lack of a single dominant feature like Manley Point, in some ways this little loop has as much or more to offer than Zabriskie Point. Many of the same curved and twisted landscape features are found here, and there is even a wonderful early morning view down across low hills and peaks into the heart of Death Valley itself. In this photograph the early morning light is hitting what is, to be honest, a mud hill near a curve in the gravel road that passes through the canyon.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: road, dirt, gravel, turn, curve, berm, bank, 20, twenty, mule, team, canyon, death valley, national park, california, usa, hill, mud, wash, morning, light, golden, fold, scenic, travel, stock, nature, landscape, geology

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Nimitz Avenue at Night

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Nimitz Avenue at Night

Nimitz Avenue at Night. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California. March 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of buildings and shipyard structures along Nimitz Avenue near the waterfront at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

This is perhaps one of the “classic” Mare Island Naval Shipyard scenes, where the giant shipyard scaffolding crosses Nimitz Avenue from the shipyard buildings to the shoreline facilities, varieties of artificial light lend a warm glow to the view up the street, and faint star trails appear above in the dark sky.

I think that this is a good scene for first-time Mare Island night photographers to work with. It presents a lot of interesting challenges, but they can all be handled with some thought and care. You need to get the sky right – not too light and you want at least some star trails. I could have done a longer exposure since a bit more than three minutes left me with short star trails, though they weren’t my main subject. The dynamic range is absolutely huge, especially if you don’t take care to obstruct direct line of sight to some of the lights up the street. I had to look around quite a bit to find one small spot where the composition worked and the buildings and towers are positioned to block them. If you don’t block them you either completely blow out those highlights or else you must shorten the exposure to the point that the foreground roadway ends up almost completely black. The lighting also has to be just right on the structures at the top of the frame. On this night we were perhaps 3 or 4 days short of the full moon so a combination of moonlight and artificial light illuminated the structure. (A full moon might have been a bit better.) Then you need the right focal length to get the right parts of the scene into the frame. Here I used a 35mm prime on a full-frame DSLR and cropped the result a bit to eliminate some distractions along the right edge.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: mare island, naval, shipyard, minsy, night, photography, nocturnes, vallejo, california, usa, building, road, tracks, rail, train, shipyard, structures, minsy, brick, street, sky, star trails, smoke, stack, smokestack, truss, nocturnes, window, light, stock