Tag Archives: travel

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Fog and Forested Ridges

May 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter fog envelops forested ridges near Mount Tamalpais on the Pacific coast north of San Francisco

I photographed this scene on an early February day when the atmosphere was especially murky north of San Francisco. I had traveled this way for the day with some very general ideas about photographic subjects, but once I got “there” quite a few of those ideas looked a lot less promising. I had initially thought about photographing inside the coastal redwood forest, but when I arrived at my intended location I found that everything was gray, gray, gray! The atmosphere was hazy and murky and high clouds blocked any interesting light from the sun. So figured I might try for something moody along the coast, but there I found the same very difficult light.

I finally headed back up into the Marin hills, hoping that I might get up above the thickest of the gray and possibly get some light filtered through the high clouds and perhaps some longer views. As I entered the Mount Tamalpais State Park and started to ascend the road toward the peak, I finally came out of the coastal fog – though the overhead clouds remained. As I went up this road I looked for spots with some sort of longer view of the fog bank from which I had just emerged, and I finally found it along a bend where the road passed an area of open meadows and rolling hills. Here there was a line of sight back toward the ocean – completely obscured by fog – and the bits of lower hills that were poking through the tops of the clouds. On a technical note, this is not a monochrome or black and white photograph. It is, however, somewhat desaturated. One of the side effects of this difficult atmosphere was a very blue quality to the light that became much more apparent in the photograph than it appeared to a viewer on the scene. I knew I would have to deal with this in post in order to get an effect that seemed appropriate and believable. My initial thinking was to actually make it a black and white photograph, but as I worked with the image I came to feel that it worked better if some degree of muted color was retained.

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

Dogwood Flowers, Merced River

May 8, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Flower-laden spring dogwood branches above the rushing water of the Merced River, Yosemite National Park.

It seems that everyone needs a photograph of white dogwood flowers and green leaves against the backdrop of the waters of the Merced River – and here is mine! I made this photograph on a one-day quick trip to the Valley timed to coincide with the peak of the dogwood blooms. This was a spectacular dogwood blossom season! I had heard reports of larger than usual numbers of the flowers, but I was still very surprised to see how thickly the flowers covered many, many trees. I’ve seen quite a few dogwood blooms in Yosemite Valley, and this had to rank among the most impressive.

The challenges of the “dogwood over water” photographs are several. The first it to find a branch hanging over or near the Merced. This isn’t as easy at is might seem. Such branches aren’t exactly everywhere along the banks of the river, and in many places the flowers face away from the bank – not such an appealing image – or might appear against water that is too rough and provides a distracting background. Often dogwood flowers that catch your attention with their start white shapes turn out to be less than pristine close up – they might have brown tips, holds in the petals, or be discolored – and it can take a bit of looking to find some that are in great shape. Ideally there will be something high above the opposite bank the provides a bit of color to the water. Then there are the conflicting desires to use a long exposure to blur the water a bit while trying to capture a sharply delineated image of the flowers… which sit at the end of long, flexible branches that move in the slightest breeze! With patience, the breezes may eventually pause, and careful timing helps time the exposure between periods of motion.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Lupine, Sierra Nevada

May 7, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A thick patch of spring lupine flowers high in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Range, California.

We had time for only a one-day trip to Yosemite, timed to coincide with the peak of the dogwood bloom season in the Valley. We left very early – way before dawn – with a plan of arriving in the Valley not too long after the sun came up. (This time of year, arriving by dawn in the Valley would require a 2:00 a.m. start time – and, in some ways, the Valley itself isn’t so much a dawn photography subject.) After we entered the park on highway 120 I started looking for some dogwood trees that often blossom a bit later – since the light was good here it would make more sense to stop and shoot that to keep driving to arrive further on when the light wasn’t as good.

We saw a couple of trees thick with flowers, and quickly turned around to drive back to them. We spent some time photographing these trees and then moved on. (Unlike in a typical year, there was no snow at the junction with the still-closed Tioga Pass Road, and areas that would usually be full of run-off water seemed largely dry.) The area, burned twice in recent years, along the road as it descends toward the Valley is often a good place to find wildflowers. I wasn’t expecting too much in this drought year, and for the most part I was right – but at a turn-off we suddenly came upon a very large patch of beautiful lupines and stopped to photograph. I’m crazy about shooting into the light, so I got down low and photographed these flowers with the light coming from almost directly behind.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cliffs and Fog, Morning

May 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Zion Canyon cliffs in clearing fog — “Cliffs and Fog, Morning” — Cliffs of Zion Canyon emerge from morning fog

This is a somewhat different photograph of a scene that I previously shared. The earlier version featured a closer view of the pinnacle near the right of this frame – this one backs off a bit and shows more of the overall cliff face. We had arrived at Zion National Park the previous day, coming across Arizona in very rainy weather to enter this park in light rain in the afternoon. On the way over the Mount Carmel Highway to Springdale, where we would stay that night, we had photographed the wet high country sandstone as the rain came to an end.

On this morning the clouds from that rain storm had not quite left as we rode one of the very early shuttles into Zion Canyon with a plan to photograph further up the canyon. But as the shuttle entered the lower canyon I was intrigued – as I always am! – but mist and clouds swirling around the upper slopes of the canyon walls. Aside from the much more colorful red rock here, the scene reminded me a lot of what I frequently see in Yosemite Valley during stormy weather. The timing was just right in relation to the clouds and the light. As the sun came up behind my camera position, the clouds had cleared over the center of the valley allowing the morning light to shine under the mist swirling around the upper cliff face, so while the highest ridge was still darkened by the clouds, the lower face was increasingly lit by the morning light as the clouds rose and began to clear away.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: travel

Dogwood Flowers, Merced River

Lupine, Sierra Nevada

Cliffs and Fog, Morning

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