Tag Archives: stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Brown Pelicans, Fog, Water

July 20, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large flock of brown pelicans flies above the Pacific Ocean on a foggy summer morning

I have a thing about pelicans. They seem to me to stand apart from other birds along the California coast, most often coasting sedately on the wind, either high above as they pass along and above coastal cliffs or else down so close to the water that it seems like they will touch it. I have learned to watch for them, and I know of some places where it is likely that I’ll be able to see them close up, often by going to places high along cliff-top bluffs along which they frequently fly.

This large group completely surprised me — they came out of the blue, and I had not even been thinking about pelicans as I finished photographing a landscape scene from the tripod. I was just about as unprepared as possible for photographing birds in flight. Everything on the camera was set to manual — focus, shutter speed, aperture — and the camera had been in live view mode and on a low ISO. I was at the back of my car removing the camera from the tripod to put it away and probably was in the middle of collapsing the tripod legs when I looked up and saw a huge flock of pelicans just above the roadway to my south. I knew I had just seconds to reconfigure the camera before they arrived at my position — at least I had a long lens attached already! — so I did what I often do in these cases. I ignored the birds as I instinctively went through a bird photography set-up routine as quickly as I could: auto-focus on, stabilization on, camera in aperture priority mode (that’s a long story), ISO jacked up to 800. The only thing I forgot was shifting into burst mode, but that isn’t totally necessary. Finishing this quick sequence, I looked up to find the birds just about at my position, raised the camera, quickly tried to frame the birds against the background of the foggy Pacific, and made a few quick exposures before they moved out of range and faded into the fog.

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: Architecture, Photographs: Music & Musicians, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Fly Space Rigging

July 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking straight up into the fly space of the California Theater, San Jose

As I work on my three-year project photographic classical musicians, I spend a lot of time around their rehearsal and performance spaces. In addition to photographing the people, I have also photographed the environment within which they work, and not always the obvious parts that are visible to those who attend concerts and see the formal appearance of the stage.

A lot of interesting things exist in the backstage world. In contrast to the stage itself, at least as viewed from the perspective of the audience, this is a world seems as much industrial as artistic, but even that “industrial” aspect is an interesting combination of some very modern technology (such as lighting and sound systems) and some very old technology (the equipment for hoisting sets and other equipment on and off the stage). This photograph looks straight up into that equipment and the catwalk near the highest point in the backstage fly space.

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

Fog, Trees, and Pond

July 18, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tule fog nearly obscures a San Joaquin Valley pond and surrounding trees

This particular fog condition developed quickly as we were out in the San Joaquin Valley early on a winter morning photographing birds. The winter tule fog in the Valley is often quite thin — so thin, in fact, that you can sometimes seen the stars and moon above on a night when you can barely make out object 100 feet in front of you. This was that sort of fog, but a gentle breeze was also moving it around and changing the conditions from moment to moment. I recall coming to this spot, where the marshland water extends for some distance, and noticing that the trees were alternating between the state of “barely visible” and “not visible at all,” and the fog was brightly lit from the morning sun and sky.

This sort of subject is a bit challenging to photograph and to work with in post. The contrast is obviously very low, and details are hard to see, making focus a bit tricky. And the low contrast almost certainly requires a bit of work in post to get the right combination of diffuse, luminous atmosphere and enough detail to produce an image that makes sense. Here, since the sky was actually quite bright, I wanted to push the sky close to white but still retain the subtle shapes of the high clouds. And beyond all of that, I wanted the photograph to evoke the feelings of stillness and mystery that arise on such a morning.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Forest

July 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Redwood trees growing in a gully at Muir Woods National Monument

I had a couple of primary goals on this visit to Muir Woods National Monument: I thought it might be a good location to shoot on this overcast summer day since the high fog softens the light that can otherwise be quite challenging inside the redwood forest. I also wanted to play with a new ultra wide-angle zoom lens, and I figured that this would be a better place for that activity than spending time in an urban setting… even though the latter might allow for more objective lens testing.

I typically arrive at Muir Woods very early in the morning, partly for the quality of the light in the forest at that time of day and partly for the very practical reason that the hordes of tourists from San Francisco are still mostly having coffee back at their hotels! However, I did not get there quite as early this time, and as I entered the park I could tell that it would not be too long before those hordes finished their coffee and began arriving. So I took a side trail up out of the valley of Redwood Creek (the location of the popular nature hike loops) and climbed up towards higher ridges. I was not alone on this trail but there the number of other hikers was reasonable, and for reasons ranging from aesthetic to objective (e.g. – testing that lens) this turned out to be a good choice. As the trail climbed, the views opened both above and below my camera position, and it was possible to shoot straight toward the trees and show a bit more of their height. Here a group of younger redwoods grows closely together in a small valley.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: stock

Brown Pelicans, Fog, Water

Fly Space Rigging

Fog, Trees, and Pond

Redwood Forest

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.