Tag Archives: tree

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

The Forest Floor

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The Forest Floor
Ferns, redwood sorrel, other plants, and young redwoods deep inside the coastal redwood forest.

The Forest Floor. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ferns, redwood sorrel, other plants, and young redwoods deep inside the coastal redwood forest.

Here is another photograph from this year’s late-spring foray to the far Northern California redwood region — the National and State Redwood Parks. It may surprise you to find that this almost-native Californian didn’t really start to get his mind around this region until fairly recently. While I’ve know the redwoods closer to the San Francisco Bay Area nearly my whole life, the parks in the northern reaches of the state were not part of my experience aside from driving through a few of them. Over the past few years I have been exploring them and I am now starting to feel like I know that part of the state a bit better.

This scene comes from one of the state parks. Which park is perhaps not that important, given that you can find scenes like this one almost anywhere. One differentiating factor among the parks seems to be how far they are from the coast — wetter and lusher closer to the coast, warmer and a bit more open further inland. This scene is perhaps more representative of the near-coast forest, with extremely thick and lush undergrowth and green things growing everywhere. (That “green things” comment may seem odd to those who aren’t familiar with much of the rest of California, where things are distinctly not-green during most of the year.)

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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Forest, White Trunks

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Forest, White Trunks
White trunks stand out from a background of dense vegetation, Redwood National Park.

Forest, White Trunks. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

White trunks stand out from a background of dense vegetation, Redwood National Park.

Several days ago I shared a similar photograph from this same location, a dense line of forest along a roadway in Northern California’s Redwood National Park. I noted that the previous photograph was of a location that I’m mildly obsessed with, a place where I stop every time I pass that way. And to prove it, here is a second photograph of the same subject — and, no, I’m not done yet!

Perhaps because the roadway opens the forest to the sky a bit more, unlike the towering redwood forests which block light very efficiently, these smaller trees seem to have really taken off. They form a dense and impenetrable wall of green that is really only broken by the vertical forms of the mostly-white trunks. Wandering along the edge of this forest, it almost seems like there are compositions everywhere I look.

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.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Old Growth Redwood Bark

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Old Growth Redwood Bark
Detail of a section of the bark of an old-growth coast redwood tree.

Old Growth Redwood Bark. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a section of the bark of an old-growth coast redwood tree.

As I have posted photographs from our recent visit to the Northern California coast redwood groves I have commented at times about the various ways of seeing the redwood forest and its famous trees. In a place with a primary subject of such stupendous size it is important to remind myself to also look away from the obvious things and keep my eyes open for smaller details. (The notion that smaller details of a subject often characterize it as much as the larger things is an important idea in much of my photography.) Yes, there is a really (really!) big tree in this photograph, but you only get to see this small section.

Redwood trees, especially the ancient old-growth trees — can exhibit all kinds of individual quirks. Some lean, occasionally on other trees. Some split into more than one trunk. Some have missing crowns. Other plants infiltrate some of them. The bark patterns are among the individualizing features. While some trees have rather regular patterns, others have all kinds of unusual shapes and patterns and deformities. The patterns of this tree, which almost have a grotesque quality, caught my attention as I photographed in a quiet grove of big trees. At first I thought to include a fern growing at the base of the tree, almost treating the bark as background, but in the end I decide to exclude everything but the bark. If you are so inclined, you might have some fun making associations with some of the shapes.

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.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Crescent City Sunset

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Crescent City Sunset
The sun sets beyond evening clouds and sea stacks along the Pacific Coast at Crescent City, California.

Crescent City Sunset. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The sun sets beyond evening clouds and sea stacks along the Pacific Coast at Crescent City, California.

Earlier this month we got away for a few days of photography in far Northern California — the redwood country, but also the never-far-away coast. We stayed in Crescent City the first couple of nights, just below the Oregon border, since this place provides good access to several of the redwood parks. The days are very long in far Northern California at this time of year, and even with several hours of morning photography and several hours of work in the evening, there is a lot of “in between time.” On this day we decided to enjoy an early dinner in town before heading out for evening photography. Eventually we worked our way to this spot along a bluff at the edge of town.

I had a particular subject in mind when we arrived, but the conditions were evolving in a somewhat unexpected way. A weak weather front was approaching from the northwest, and it was clear that its cloud shield was going to block the sun as it descended toward the horizon. I made a few quick exposures in pseudo-evening light, and then the light went gray. It was difficult to say for sure, but it looked like there might be a gap between the bottom of the clouds and the ocean, and in anticipation of the sun’s light coming through that gap right at sunset I quickly moved to a different location that placed this sea stack with its small tree in line with some more distant rocks and the likely position of the setting sun.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.