Tag Archives: single

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Parking Lot Near Pier 48, Morning

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Parking Lot Near Pier 48, Morning
Parking Lot Near Pier 48, Morning

Parking Lot Near Pier 48, Morning. San Francisco, California. July 8, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on a large parking lot near Pier 48, San Francisco.

Continuing with the “urban landscape” theme, this is a photograph of a parking lot south of the bridge next to ATT Park and near the buildings of Pier 48 in San Francisco. After getting off the train that arrived in San Francisco at 7:00 a.m. and wandering over to Townsend Street, I decided to cross the what I think must be the Mission Bay inlet and take a look through this area which was rather deserted at this early hour. (Come back here before a Giants game, and the parking lot will be completely full of the cars of people who are willing to spend exorbitant amounts to park here.)

While there were cars in other portions of this parking lot that are closer to likely destinations, at this far end there was a single lonely car, and that seemed like it could be an anchor for a photograph of the lot, the tall streetlight poles, the industrial-looking buildings of Pier 48 and other assorted waterfront things. Because it was so early, the sun rising across the bay was filling the air with brilliant light that created a sky that was more white than blue.

In addition to the obvious crop, this image required other kinds of substantial work in post. The first issue was controlling the very brightest parts of the sky and a second was the follow-up need to then lighten a few other areas to get some detail back into the image. Color balance was a tricky thing – this isn’t that far from what the raw file contained, though I did warm the colors just a bit. I also did something in this image that I rarely do, namely use semi-opaque blurred and desaturated overlay layer of the original image to do, well, some stuff that is a bit hard to describe in written form. Suffice it to say that this had an effect on the parking lot and on the brightness of the sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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

Lodgepole Pine, Evening Shadows

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Lodgepole Pine, Evening Shadows
Lodgepole Pine, Evening Shadows

Lodgepole Pine, Evening Shadows. Yosemite National Park, California. July 22, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The evening shadow cast by a nearby high ridge approaches a lone lodgepole pine and an old snag near Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

One of my favorite kinds of light is that found at the edges of shadows from higher peaks as they move across lower terrain. (A secret: Among other “tricks,” I like to find and follow these margins when I shoot in Yosemite Valley, too.) Because this light most often happens during the relatively early and late hours of the day, the color quality of the light tends to be warm and the angle low. As the patterns of light and shadow move across the landscape, individual elements may get picked out the light and can often be isolated against darker backgrounds, as in this photograph.

The Sierra is full of trees pretty much like this one, and such meadows with the isolated small and large trees and scattered boulders are not hard to find. This particular tree is in one of the extensive meadow areas in the general area of Tioga Pass. The photograph was made in the very late afternoon as the tall ridge to the west was blocking the sun.

Despite the still and tranquil nature of the scene, this is an example of a sort of shot that reveals the wrongness of the idea that all landscape is done slowly and methodically and with all the time in the world to work. Sometimes that is the case, but when you work the margins of shadows (or many similar dynamic subjects) there may only be brief seconds when the light is where you want it. An observer might find it humorous to watch the photographer run to get into position and then work very quickly.

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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

Succulent Plant Growing on Rock

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Succulent Plant Growing on Rock
Succulent Plant Growing on Rock

Succulent Plant Growing on Rock. Castle Rock State Park, California. April 24, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of a single succulent plant growing on an almost barren rock face at Castle Rock State Park, California.

I wish I had a better title for this photograph, but I’m afraid that I am not expert at plant identification. (Yes, I’m hoping that someone who knows about these things will offer an identification – I’ll change the title to reflect this. Thanks in advance!)

(Update: “Thank you!” to Gena and Guy who suggest that it is a type of stonecrop. That makes sense to me.)

On this warm spring-like morning I hiked at Castle Rock State Park along the summit ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains – this was my first hike of the season on which it actually felt like spring rather than winter. (It has been a wet winter here in the San Francisco Bay Area.) As I passed over a rocky section of the trail to Goat Rock I paused to think about photographing some ferns and wildflowers that were growing against the base of a small rock face. I didn’t find anything along those lines worth photographing, but I did spot this single specimen of some sort of small succulent plant growing out of seemingly nothing in the middle of the rock face. The plant’s location was so improbable that I stopped and looked around for another of the same type, but this seemed to be the only one.

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.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 105mm
ISO 100, f/16, 2 seconds

keywords: black and white, monochrome, single, succulent, plant, leaf, pointed, spring, season, cliff, wall, moss, lichen, trail, hike, castle rock, state, park, california, usa, north america, nature, flora, vegetation, barren, face, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Purple Wildflower

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Purple Wildflower
Purple Wildflower. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. April 12, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Purple spring wildflower (Dichelostemma capitatum, blue dicks) photographed at Almaden Quicksilver Park in central California.

I want to thank Gina Zolotar for helping identify this and other wildflowers I photographed this spring. I know these plants and flowers well – I can tell you when they bloom and where to find them and I can locate the plants even when they are not in bloom. But I’m absolutely pathetic when it comes to remembering the common names of plants and flowers, much less their scientific names.

keywords: flower, wild, wildflower, purple, one, single, stem, green, bokeh, almaden, quicksilver, park, santa clara county, san jose, california, usa, nature, spring, plant, stock, Dichelostemma capitatum, blue dicks, bluedicks