“Pilings and Sky” — Pilings stretch skyward at a San Francisco construction site.
On this April morning I was walking around in the China Basin, Mission Bay area of San Francisco, having arrived on the train at the Fourth and Townsend Caltrain station very early. After photographing some light reflected on buildings not far from the station, I wandered over towards the Mission Bay area. There was a lot of construction going on in this “neighborhood,”, and one particular block was a hotbed of work.
At one corner of this block work was well underway to set a large number of tall pilings into the ground for – I assume – a building that was soon to be erected there. I managed to maneuver myself into a spot where I could eliminate most of the other distractions and compose a photograph of these structures pointing toward the sky.
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Subtle colors illuminate a ridge top and sunset clouds in the Sierra Nevada foothills, California.
This is yet another virtual “happy accident” photograph. I posted a different version of it earlier, but it may have been long enough that I can tell the story again. I had been in Yosemite Valley and surrounding areas for the day, and late in the afternoon I left The Valley to head into Merced Canyon where the redbud and California Golden Poppies were blooming. The plan was to get into the canyon while there was still sun in the sky but at a time when lengthening shadows would bring some soft light to various deeper/steeper sections of the canyon. So I shot there until a bit less than an hour before sunset and then decided to head on home, starting the long drive back to the San Francisco Bay Area.
I headed down the canyon, still unable to completely stop looking at the newly green grasses, the plants that were starting to leaf out, and the profusion of purple redbud blossoms and bright orange California Poppies spreading up some of the steep hillsides. But as beautiful as much of this was, I wasn’t seeing photographs in it, so I continued on. Soon I reached Briceburg, where the road leaves the Merced and climbs steeply as it heads toward Mariposa. Climbing this steep section I continued to glance back over my shoulder at the green, chaparral-coverd ridges behind me and the clouds above them that were beginning to pick up a bit of sunset color. As I neared the top of the climb I almost kept going – doing the internal debate between it might make an interesting photograph and I’m hungry and I want to start home! – I passed a photographer set up beside the road, and I quickly recognized him as a friend. Now I had no choice but to stop, so I did a u-turn at the first turnout and headed back down the hill to where he and his wife were. I grabbed my gear, said “hi” as I set up, and figured that I might as well make a few final exposures of the delicately colored sky and the subtle tones that the last light imparted to the upper ridges.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
A sailboat in morning light on the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, California.
Taking a momentary break from the continuing stream of photographs from Utah, here is a photograph from San Francisco. On one of the first spring-warm days of the year, I took the train to San Francisco very early and then spent the morning wandering around with my camera and a few lenses. In many ways, this is my preferred approach to shooting in San Francisco – to travel light and walk – since there so many instantaneous and surprising subjects that come and go so quickly. This is sort of my own brand of “Photo Walk” for one.
On this morning I got of the train just after sun rise and first wandered through the China Basin area, taking time to photograph a large construction site before heading back over toward the Embarcadero to walk along the waterfront. As I walked past AT&T Park, I noticed the bright backlit and slightly hazy sky over the Bay and began to look for ways to photograph it. A moment later I found a gap in the shoreline “stuff” where I could get a clear shot of the water, and I stopped to put a longer lens on the camera. Right at that moment – lucky me! – I noticed this solitary sailboat coming into the scene from the right and by working quickly I had time to get about a half dozen shots of it against the minimalist backdrop of the bay before another boat joined it and cluttered up the image.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Subtle evening light gently colors the chaparral-covered hills of the Sierra Nevada foothills on a spring evening, California.
I’m going to take a brief break from posting photographs from my early April week in Utah and post one or more recent photographs from here in California. This past weekend I found time (and the right weather, or so I thought) to make a very quick one-day run up to Yosemite and back. My main goal was to photograph wildflowers in the Merced River Canyon, where lots of interesting color starts to appear about this time each year. Although there was some real concern about how the wildflowers might develop this year, given the serious drought in much of California, some late-season rains and other factors seem to have jump-started some really interesting displays. In Merced Canyon there are lots of wonderful wildflowers and other things, but I was especially interested in California poppies (which, actually, are found throughout much of the state right now) and the blooming redbud plants.
My day didn’t go quite as planned. I was sort of hoping to run into a bunch of other photographs who were likely to be in the canyon as well, but a series of decisions on my part caused me to end up in different places than where they went. After shooting into mid-morning in the Merced Canyon I decided to make a quick trip into Yosemite Valley, but not too long after I arrived there some clouds began to roll in. Clouds can be wonderful in and around the Valley – and I actually managed to use them in some other photographs I’ll share later – but this was still not quite what I was originally looking for. Very late in the afternoon I did a bit of final shooting in and around the Valley, and then I decided to head back down into Merced Canyon before the light was completely gone. I made a few photographs of redbud and California poppies, but it seemed like my day for photography was coming to an end, so I packed up and started my long trek back to the Bay Area. Near the top of the steep climb out of Briceburg I started to notice some interesting light on the spring-green ridges to my right and behind me, and then I spotted a familiar-looking figure alongside the road with a tripod and camera. At this point I had to stop, to say “hi” to my friends if for no other reason! Then I saw this lovely and subtle light on the ridge – the cloud-muted light from the setting sun was washing the clouds with a gentle pink light, and its glow was adding warm colors to the green chaparral near the summit ridge… and a moment later this light was gone.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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