Tag Archives: tree

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

Redwood Grove Panorama

May 12, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A wide panoramic view of morning light in a dense redwood grove at Muir Woods National Monument, California.

Up next in the stitched panorama parade… a photograph make in the vicinity of Bohemian Grove at Muir Woods National Monument in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California. This grove is high on the list of popular places in the central and well-known section of the park, and the loop trail that many visitors hike travels right through it.

There are, it seems to me, a huge number of ways to photograph these very tall trees. Interesting effects of light filtering down from above are often a possibility. There are lots of small subjects that can be shot close up. But their sheer height is often difficult to capture. You can shoot straight up, but that creates some issues. You can (and I have) shoot in vertical format to try to include the vertical size. You can try to shoot from further back, but then the scale of the trees diminishes – plus it is very hard to get a clear line of site on these trees from any distance… unless, perhaps, you are at the edge of an area that has been logged.

So, I’ve been thinking about shooting very wide panoramas of groves of parallel vertical forms of the massive trunks. I think that this has two effects that work for me. First, when you stand before these trees and look around you mostly are seeing just the lower sections of the trees – so for me this depiction is true to the experience of being in the forest. Second, the fact that you cannot see the full height of the trees doesn’t mean that you aren’t aware of it! Focusing on these massive trunks might cause you to project the rest of the trees and the great height that isn’t included within the frame. (This isn’t the first time I’ve done this, and I’m certainly not the first person to do it.)

By the way, because the image is stitched from multiple high-resolution full-frame images, it has the potential to be printed very large at some point.

(More of my Muir Woods photographs)

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

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 200, f/116, .6 second
panorama stitched from multiple exposures

keywords: morning, light, tree, forest, grove, trunk, tall, giant, coast, sempervirens, redwood, muir, woods, national, monument, golden gate, recreation, area, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, san francisco, california, usa, north america, stock, panorama, large, dense, wide, bark

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Spring Oaks and Santa Cruz Mountains – Castle Rock State Park

May 11, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring Oaks and Santa Cruz Mountains. Castle Rock State Park, California. April 24. 2010.

Spring Oaks and Santa Cruz Mountains - Castle Rock State Park

Panoramic photograph of oak trees with new spring growth above the Santa Cruz Mountains descending towards Monterey Bay – Castle Rock State Park.

This is the first (in order of posting) of a few stitched panoramas I made last month. I’ve thought about this shot for a while. It is from at the top of a staircase section of trail at Castle Rock State Park in California, alongside Goat Rock. From this spot you can see all the way to Santa Cruz, the Monterey Bay, and the Monterey Peninsula hills beyond. On this early spring morning the oak trees were just getting their new leaves, so it was still possible to shoot between the branches and see the distant scene where fog filled the bay.

One idea I’m currently working with – among many others – is creating very wide panoramic stitched images of subjects that would usually be shot in a taller format – especially trees. Instead of photographing the entire tree, this feels to me more like looking through the trees at the scene beyond, closer to how I might actually look at this scene if I were there.

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

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 131mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/60 second
three image stitched panorama

keywords: oak, tree, grove, forest, trunk, branch, silhouette, spring, season, growth, new, leaves, santa cruz, monterey, mountains, hills, ridge, valley, summit, county, bay, distance, haze, goat, rock, castle, state, park, california, usa, red, green, nature, scenic, travel, stock, landscape, flora, foliage, plant, north america, west, coast, bay, area, stitched, panorama

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

Redwood Grove, Morning Light – Muir Woods

April 27, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning light slants though the trunks of tall redwood trees near Bohemian Grove, Muir Woods National Monument, California.

I was surprised by somewhat sunny conditions on this mid-April visit to Muir Woods National Monument north of San Francisco, California. When I left my home in the South Bay very early in the morning it was quite cloudy, and the forecast was for even cloudier (and more persistently cloudy) conditions north of the Golden Gate Bridge. But as I drove through the City the clouds cleared to the north and by the time I was across the Golden Gate it was almost clear, with just a bit of nice high cloudiness to diffuse the light a bit.

I arrived at Muir Woods early enough that I got a parking spot in the closest lot. (Those who visit the place often and who are familiar with the crush of tourists later in the day understand what this means… ;-) As I usually do, I wanders slowly up the trail alongside Redwood Creek, taking in as much of the scene (visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.) as I looked for photographs. Eventually I made it to the bridge (Bridge #2) that crosses the creek just above the old Bohemian Grove. This is a spot where I often photograph if the crowds aren’t too bad – there is a lot to see right here! There are some deciduous trees whose leaves can catch the filtered light in interesting ways; the creek flows through, in places with ferns right down to the waterline; and there are lots of very tall redwood trees. I’ve been working on some photographs in landscape orientation that show groups for the trees, focusing primarily on their massive and parallel trunks – in fact, one from the series on this visit consists of a stitch of something like five horizontal frames. This one is more conventional and is a single exposure.

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

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 200, f/16, .6 second

keywords: redwood, tree, grove, trunk, foreset, bohemian, muir, woods, national, monument, golden gate, recreation, area, trail, sequoia, sempervirens, tall, big, flora, foliage, nature, scenic, travel, san francisco, marin, county, california, usa, north america, morning, light, slant, stock

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

Woman Walking Past Wall

March 14, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Woman with coffee cup walks past a wall and behind a fire hydrant and tree, San Francisco, California.

While waiting for a table at a restaurant on a Saturday morning in San Francisco, I grabbed a few photographs of this interesting (to me, anyway!) juxtaposition of yellow wall, tree trunk, fire hydrant, and passing pedestrian from across the street. I first just thought that the light on the plain yellow/tan wall and the white window frames was interesting, and then I thought about how tree trunk and the cluster of leaves framed the central window. As I thought about this and started shooting the woman walked through the frame and, I think, added some balance to the elements in the scene.

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

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8
ISO 100, f/8, 1/250 second

keywords: street, urban, woman, walk, sidewalk, texture, wall, window, white, frame, yellow, tan, trim, blinds, angle, oblique, tree, leaves, trunk, branch, fire, hydrant, curb, shadow, light, morning, san francisco, california, usa, north america, stock, cell, phone, talk

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