Tag Archives: sun

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

Red Alder Leaves, Autumn

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Red Alder Leaves, Autumn

Red Alder Leaves, Autumn. Muir Woods National Monument, California. October 25, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunlight filtering through the canopy of the redwood forest back-lights overhead red alder leaves at Muir Woods National Monument.

I posted a black and white version of this photograph yesterday – and I still go back and forth on which I prefer. The luminescent green color of the backlit alder leaves against the pattern of the branches on which they grow is what first attracted me to this subject, but I like the more abstracted nature of the black and white version. I probably won’t be able to decide until I print the photographs… if I can even decide then!

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Red Alder Leaves, Autumn

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Red Alder Leaves, Autumn

Red Alder Leaves, Autumn. Muir Woods National Monument, California. October 25, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunlight filtering through the canopy of the redwood forest back-lights overhead red alder leaves at Muir Woods National Monument.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

I made a black and white and a color version of this image – since I think I prefer the black and white version I’m posting it first.

This year I have been returning to Muir Woods in all seasons and, among other things, I’ve watched the red alder trees as they have gone through the cycle from the first spring leaves to the deterioration of the leaves as they begin to change color before dropping from the trees as winter approaches. In many places along the main trails at Muir Woods the path travels directly beneath a canopy of these trees and when the light comes through the trees, filtered by passing through the upper levels of the forest, it highlights the curving and twisting shapes of the branches.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

McGee Creek Pack Station, Autumn Snow Storm

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McGee Creek Pack Station, Autumn Snow Storm

McGee Creek Pack Station, Autumn Snow Storm. Sierra Nevada, California. October 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Snow flurries from an early autumn storm mask the high peaks above the McGee Creek Pack Station in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California.

When I’m driving back from the Bishop area I often make a few odd stops at special little places along highway 395 at which I think I might find something special, and the McGee Creek Canyon is one of these places. The canyon is just a short drive above the north-south highway, and in the right conditions it can provide really wonderful scenes – the aspens that grow along the road to the canyon, the views back into and across the valley to peaks beyond, intimate scenes of high desert rocks and vegetation, and from the road end up the steep-sided canyon toward the alpine headwalls of the canyon.

On this early October 2009 day I was returning from shooting near Bishop Creek in light snow and thought I might get some interesting views of aspen color (which didn’t really happen) and the view up McGee Canyon, so I turned off of 395 and headed on up. From previous visits I knew of this specific view from along the gravel road right above the pack station, so I already had it in mind as I arrived. When I saw the cloud-shrouded peaks at the end of the canyon and the foreground light I quickly stopped and set up. The cloud shadows were moving quickly and, unfortunately, heading my direction so I had to work very quickly – and I had just enough time to make this one exposure with the light on the area around the pack station before the light was gone.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

San Francisco Buildings, Morning Light

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San Francisco Buildings, Morning Light

San Francisco Buildings, Morning Light. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on a maze of buildings in downtown San Francisco, California.

I’ll interrupt the landscape and nature photography for a bit here to post a series of photographs made on a mid-September morning in San Francisco – one of my periodic (very) early morning Caltrain trips up the Peninsula to the The City to shoot on foot in the downtown area.

On this morning I arrived on the 7:02 a.m. train to find – no surprise! – fog along the San Francisco Bay waterfront. I headed along the Embarcadero past familiar subjects including the South Beach Harbor and the Bay Bridge, then turned up Market Street into the main downtown area. The fog was clearing back from the bay and the light was wonderful – a mixture of foggy gray, early morning blue, and intermittent shadows from clouds near the edge of the clearing fog bank.

There is a huge variety of potential subjects in downtown San Francisco on a weekday morning, but I decided to focus on the almost abstract forms on the buildings in this early light.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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