Tag Archives: travel

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Big Sur Coastline at Bixby Creek, Winter

January 5, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A winter storm approaches the bluffs of the Big Sur coastline at Bixby Creek.

This is, as you may have noticed, the same scene as that in yesterday’s photograph – but this time in portrait mode and composed to focus on the receding edge of the land as it meets the winter sea off of the Big Sur coast. To recap, it was raining lightly and blowing hard enough to almost knock me over when I made this photograph. The wind was coming straight at my camera position out of the south. Since I figured my tripod would probably blow right over in one of the gusts, I decided to use a “natural tripod” and instead drape myself over a conveniently placed boulder and brace the camera on the top of the rock.

This is a wild section of the coastline that forces the coast highway to ascend well above the steep shoreline bluffs and cliffs. I am intrigued by the rock pile that has slid off the face of the tall cliff at the left and collected along the beach in front of and beyond the cave at the waterline. I was surprised to see a small number of footprints in the sand on this little beach!

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Urban Residential Buildings, Sidewalk and Street

January 2, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Facades of residential buildings along a hilly street in downtown San Francisco.

With all of the landscape and nature photography I’ve posted recently, I figured it was time for something different. This is a street scene in San Francisco I photographed on a quick walk on an early March day in 2010. Many of the other photographs I made in this area included people, but it this one I wanted to isolate the fronts of the buildings, especially the contrast between the relatively fixed-up one on the left and the more weathered one on the right.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Titus Canyon Road

December 31, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

I made this photograph during midday hours after walking a ways up into the canyon from its mouth – the alternative to making the very long drive over the Grapevine Mountains from Amargosa Valley. (I have done the latter a few times, too.) While most Death Valley subjects tend to be appealing in the early morning or in the evening, many of the canyons can be at their best during the middle of the day, especially the very deep and narrow canyons like lower Titus Canyon. Here the canyon narrows down to the point that there is only room of a single gravel track, and twists and turns around rocky outcroppings. The light striking the upper canyon walls – out of the range of this photograph – reflects down into the canyon and produces soft, diffused illumination.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Natural Bridge Canyon

December 30, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A gravel wash in the bottom of the narrow confines of Natural Bridge Canyon, Death Valley National Park.

These narrow canyons, of which there are a number of great examples in Death Valley, can provide some interesting photographic opportunities, but they also can pose some real challenges. Much of the rock in these places is, frankly, rather drab and of low contrast. However, at the right time of day and on a day with the right light and in the right parts of these canyons, the glowing light reflected down into the canyons from overhead rock walls can produce warm and diffused light and bring interesting colors to the place.

I made an unusual decision to use a very long focal length for this photograph – it was shot with a 100-400mm zoom at 330 mm. More typically I would probably tend to use wide angle focal lengths in the confines of such a canyon. However, because I wanted to juxtapose the different colors and shapes of the sections of canyon wall along the narrow and twisting wash, I chose the long lens to compress the distance. Although I think the photograph creates a feeling that I’m positioned very close to the foreground rocks and the darker bit of canyon wall on the left, I was actually quite a distance back from this spot.

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