Tag Archives: sequoia

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

Redwood Grove, Humboldt Redwoods

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Redwood Grove, Humboldt Redwoods
A dense grove of old- and new-growh coast redwoods, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Redwood Grove, Humboldt Redwoods. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dense grove of old- and new-growh coast redwoods, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

When photographing new locations, there is a tension between knowing enough and knowing too much ahead of time. In most cases, some preparatory research about a place is useful — it lets you find your way to (and back from!) interesting locations, and it alerts you to their existence. On the other hand, knowing too much about a place limits opportunities to experience the feeling of “discovering” something unexpected. When we arrived at this grove near the end of an exploratory loop to the far Northern California coast, the unexpected stillness and quiet of this magnificent grove was magical.

Another tension concerns the best way(s) to interpret coast redwood forests in photographs. For me, the path usually lies somewhere between the (hopeless and uninteresting) idea of “capturing” supposed objective reality and fascinating and extravagantly subjective and even fantastical interpretations that may be problematic. I don’t think that there is a right answer, but extreme cases raise important questions. On this visit I focused on carefully considering what I see without the camera — how cool/warm the light appears in these places, how much detail can I really see, how much light is really in the scene. These observations inform how I render these subjects — and my thinking about the boundaries between what was there, how the camera “saw” it, and how I want you to see it.

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

Redwoods and Rhododendrons

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Redwoods and Rhododendrons
A lush understory of rhodendron trees beneath coast redwoods, Del Norte Redwoods State Park.

Redwoods and Rhododendrons. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lush understory of rhodendron trees beneath coast redwoods, Del Norte Redwoods State Park.

This year we mostly missed the peak rhododendron bloom. It can be a little tricky to time this just right, especially when we only had about five days to visit the area. This year we targeted a part of the calendar during which we had good luck a couple of years ago… but this time the bloom was not as widespread. My suspicion is that this was due to some combination of the natural variations in timing plus the fact that this year California and the west are in a very serious drought. And while the redwood forest looks (and is) a lot wetter than other parts of the state, it is drier there than in most typical years.

I’ve thought a lot about the best ways (a distinctly plural concept!) to portray these giant forests. Because of the tree’s remarkable height, the first instinct is to somehow capture that full skyward stretch. There are ways to do this, but typically this requires getting some distance from the trees and perhaps finding an opening into a grove or simply photographing a whole section of the forest from outside its boundaries. You could photograph straight up into the canopy, too. A few years ago it occurred to me that one way to suggest the immense height of the trees is to not show it, but to intentionally leave out the upper part of the trees and let the gigantic trunks imply the invisible height. Here I also wanted to include and emphasize the lush undergrowth with some very healthy-looking rhododendron plants in the foreground.

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

Redwood Forest Foliage

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Redwood Forest Foliage
A lighter-color plant stands out among forest foliage beneath Northern California coast redwoods.

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

A lighter-color plant stands out among forest foliage beneath Northern California coast redwoods.

While the giant trees are usually the primary factor drawing me to the redwood forests of the California coast, I inevitably find myself distracted by the more intimate world of the forest floor. This is even more true on days when the light is soft and luminous and the shapes and tonalities of this foliage become especially beautiful.

As anyone who follows my photography knows, I’m not always the best source of plant identification information, to say the least. I may know a plant — where it is found, how it grows, what it looks like in different seasons, and more — but quite often I am unsure of what it is called. I did not think about the identify of this beautiful arrangement of leaves as I made the photograph, but in looking it up a few weeks later I’m guessing that it might be salmon berry. Input from more knowledgable people is welcomed! I grew above a deeply shadowed bed of redwood sorrel and other lush plants.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sierra Showers

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Sierra Showers
“Sierra Showers” — Afternoon thundershower clouds reflected in the surface of a raindrop-dappled alpine lake, Kings Canyon National Park.

As I was getting ready to post this photograph I was pondering, as usual, what to write about it. As I considered the focus of what I ended up writing here today it occurred to me that this one photograph could be the starting point for an entire book. (Don’t worry, I’ll keep this post considerably shorter than that.) It could naturally lead to subjects including my visits and return visits to certain locations in the Sierra, the experience of spending long periods in the backcountry, what and how to see there, the sensory experiences of things like afternoon rain, how non-iconic subjects evoke these things, my good fortune in photographing the backcountry in the company of good friends during the last decade, and much more…

But that’s far too much for this post, so I’ll just share a little background. A group of five of us isolated ourselves at a very high backcountry location for a week back in 2013. We photographed morning and evening every day, in very diverse conditions, and we hung out together through the slower midday hours. There were many lakes nearby, and on this afternoon I had walked the short distance to one of them and was photographing when the afternoon showers began. For me, this photograph conjures up all of the associations I have with that trip and with afternoons like this one.

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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


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