Tag Archives: silhouette

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Three Birds and Rocks

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Three Birds and Rocks

Three Birds and Rocks. Point Lobos, California. November 30, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of three birds on rugged rocks with winter surf beyond – Point Lobos, California.

Another photograph from my brief excursion to Point Lobos last weekend, on a morning of very high winter surf and backlit fog. Three small birds perch on rugged coastal rocks with the churning coastal waters beyond.

keywords: black and white, silhouette, rocks, ridge, mist, fog, atmosphere, recession, wave, surf, ocean, sea, bay, birds, three, gulls, light, foam, point lobos, state, reserve, park, california, usa, landscape, seascape, coast, shore, pacific, ocean, winter, scenic, travel, monterey, peninsula, big sur, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Punta de los Lobos Marinos

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Punta de los Lobos Marinos

Punta de los Lobos Marinos. Point Lobos, California. November 30, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of winter surf at Punta de los Lobos Marinos, Point Lobos, California.

This photograph was made this past weekend, on a morning when giant surf was rolling into the central California coast, and at times overtopping the offshore rocks of the Punta de los Lobos Marinos at Point Lobos, south of Carmel, California. The is a very long daytime exposure, made possible by using a 9-stop ND filter on a very long lens.

Regarding that, some interesting – and unusual for landscape, I think – technical details. Used a Canon 5D with the 100-400mm lens at 365mm and f/22. (I didn’t worry much about the diffraction blur since blur is sort of the point. ;-) Exposure time was 20 seconds.

For a variety of reasons, I think that this is one of the best places in California to watch the impressive winter surf close up. This peninsula of rocks extends a good distance into the coastal waters and takes the full force of the incoming swell.

keywords: punta de los lobos marinos, point lobos, state, reserve, park, california, usa, monterey, peninsula, carmel, big sur, pacific, ocean, sea, coast, rock, surf, bird, rock, waves, silhouette, black and white, landscape, seascape, travel, scenic, stock, time, exposure, mist, fog, sea

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Autumn Oak Grove, El Capitan Meadow

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Autumn Oak Grove, El Capitan Meadow

Autumn Oak Grove, El Capitan Meadow. Yosemite Valley, California. November 2. 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn colors come to the oak groves in El Capitan Meadow with Cathedral Rocks in the distance – Yosemite Valley, California.

I think I hit this meadow at pretty much the peak of the fall color this year when I visited during the first week of November. The light rain that was falling also helped saturate the colors. El Capitan Meadow is near the base of El Capitan and is full of beautiful, large oak trees and meadow grasses and plants. Beyond the edge of the meadow the lower face of Cathedral Rocks (on the south side of the Valley, opposite El Capitan) is visible.

keywords: autumn, fall, season, el capitan, meadow, grass, leaves, oak, tree, grove, forest, yellow, brown, gold, cloud, rain, cathedral, rocks, cliff, face, mountain, mist, fog, trunk, branch, silhouette, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, landscape, scenic, travel, nature, stock

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Upper Yosemite Falls in Mist

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Upper Yosemite Fall in Mist
The mist of an autumn rainstorm shrouds upper Yosemite Falls.

Upper Yosemite Falls in Mist. Yosemite Valley, California. November 2, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The mist of an autumn rainstorm shrouds upper Yosemite Falls.

This photograph was made on a very rainy early November morning, when the previously-dormant Yosemite Falls had sprung dramatically back to life following two days of rain.

This was a very difficult photo to take and it has been a difficult photo to work with in post-processing. I shot it with a very long lens (400mm on full-frame) as mist and rain swirled around the top of the upper falls, most of the time almost completely obscuring the waterfall. Occasionally the clouds and rain would thin a bit and I would make a few shots. The complexity of the post processing has several parts. First, the dynamic range of the photograph is very small. (Usually we struggle with the opposite problem – a dynamic range that is too big!) For this reason I had to make some decisions about whether and how much to expand this range in post, and also about just where the “normal” brightness should be. Second, the color saturation is so weak that the photograph almost appears to be a black and white image, but it is indeed a color photograph… with extremely muted colors.

I’m looking forward to working on making a print of this one. I’m certain that it will be a challenge, but I think that it may work well as a print.

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.

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