Tag Archives: santa clara county

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Trail, Winter Haze

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Trail, Winter Haze
A trail winds past oak trees on a hazy winter day.

Trail, Winter Haze. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A trail winds past oak trees on a hazy winter day.

This is not a place where I typically stop to make landscape photographs. It is along a trail that I often head to when I want to get out for a local hike, and this section of the trail is one that I usually think of as “on the way to other interesting places.” The trail is actually a fire access road, and off to the left and out of the frame there is a ramshackle farm and beyond that a roadway. But the winter atmosphere can make almost anything look better!

The sun was just barely out when I made the photograph on Christmas Eve Day. It was very hazy day of the sort that develops in the Bay Area in the winter when air circulation is poor. In many cases it isn’t exactly an attractive effect. However, when the sun is behind subjects the haze can glow and produce fascinating silhouette effects — and sometimes turn a familiar scene into something quite different.

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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Two Winter Oak Trees

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Two Winter Oak Trees
Two oak trees, on opposite sides of a dormant meadow, with hazy winter light.

Two Winter Oak Trees. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Two oak trees, on opposite sides of a dormant meadow, with hazy winter light.

If you recall another recent oak tree photograph I shared, you might recognize the form of the more distant tree on the right. In that previous photograph my camera position put the sun almost directly behind the tree, thus accentuating the day’s atmospheric haze. For this photograph I moved to a spot from which I could include two trees and highlight the mass of the tree on the left along with its shadow.

I know I’ll be thrilled in a few months when this meadow is again full of tall, green grasses. (And given our recent — and welcome! — California rain, there’s a good chance that the grass will be tall this spring!) But I also love this early winter time, when the air is cool to cold, the trees have lost their leaves, and the meadows have gone dormant.

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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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Oak Silhouette

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Oak Silhouette
A dormant oak tree silhouetted against glowing winter light and hzae.

Oak Silhouette. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A dormant oak tree silhouetted against glowing winter light and hzae.

As the grand alpine landscapes of the Sierra backcountry become mostly inaccessible to me in the winter, my attention inevitably turns to the low country — the Pacific coast, the inland valleys, and the oak/grassland hills not far from where I live. This photograph comes from the latter, a small county park less than a half hour from my home, a place where I have hiked for many years. There are still surprises there, though, including this tree, which I had not noticed before this hike on Christmas Eve Day.

At first glance the conditions might not have seemed to promising for photography. A period of stagnant winter air around here had produced a lot of haze — so much that there were prohibitions on fireplace use and some warning about particulate levels. But that same haze glows in a luminous fashion when the light is right, and here it mutes the background details and sets off the form of this old oak tree.

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 | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

A Tree Revealed

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A Tree Revealed
The branches of a winter oak tree, with only a few autumn leaves remaining.

A Tree Revealed. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

The branches of a winter oak tree, with only a few autumn leaves remaining.

This tree stands alongside a trail that I’ve hiked for years, one that runs up a little valley in the oak-grassland hills south of the San Francisco Bay. I have hiked here in all seasons for decades, but I think winter is still my favorite on this route. On Christmas Eve Day, it was sunny and pleasantly cool, with haze muting the light a bit. I approached this tree from the other side, and didn’t see the color of the leaves until I looked back it after passing.

It might surprise people from other parts of the country, but quite a few trees around here still have their leaves, either because they never drop them or because, like this oak, they manage to hang onto them all the way into the new year. While this oak still has a few leaves, glowing in the sunlight, most of them have fallen, revealing the silhouette of the trees branching structure.

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 | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.