Tag Archives: water

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

Light on Water, Point Reyes

June 1, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Afternoon light filtered through incoming clouds illuminates the surface of the Pacific Ocean at Point Reyes, California.

When we were at the Point Reyes lighthouse on Memorial Day, clouds from a weak weather system were approaching the coast. Above the horizon the sky was dark and somewhat gloomy. Overhead there were broken clouds, the light coming through the cloud breaks dappled the surface of the Pacific Ocean to the northwest of the Point, and there was a larger pool of light on the horizon. All of this seemed to call for another “minimalist seascape,” so I made one.

When I made the exposure I was leaning towards a black and white image, but when I began to work with it in post and realized that it was very close to being monochromatic already, I decided to stick with the very muted colors of this version. The colors a bit more obvious in the print, but still quite subtle. The closest thing to real color is a slight golden tinge to the light on the horizon.

The Point Reyes lighthouse area is often a pretty wild place. I’ve been there when the wind was blowing so strongly that I essentially gave up on photography. It can be extremely cold out there, too, even on days when the sun is breaking out and the temperatures are warm a bit inland. But this spring day was a surprise. Apart from the passing clouds, the weather was quite comfortable, and for the first time that I can recall there were moments of no wind at all!

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Mammoth Peak Reflected in Tioga Tarn

May 30, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Mammoth Peak in sunset light, reflected in the still surface of Tioga Tarn, Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

This view of Mammoth Peak on Kuna Crest in the Yosemite High Country from the Tioga Tarns at the top of Tioga Pass is a classic Sierra Nevada scene. The foreground tarns are lush green in the early summer after the snow melts out and fall into shadow early in the evening as the sun drops behind the ridge between this area and Gaylor Lakes. Mammoth Peak, however, has an almost unobstructed line of sight to the west, so this peak continues to hold the sunset light until the last possible minute. (Don’t let the peaceful appearance of the scene fool you – I was being devoured by clouds of mosquitos as I made these exposures.)

In order to deal with the extremely large dynamic range between the Mammoth Peak snow fields in direct sun and the very dark shadows of the nearby forest I resorted to exposure blending and a few other post-processing techniques. With exposure blending, I make two exposures, one optimized for the brightest areas of the scene and the second a slightly longer exposure to capture a bit more of the shadow detail. In post I began with the darker frame, since that presented Mammoth Peak the way I remembered it. Then I placed to other exposure beneath it and used a mask layer to reveal some of the lighter areas from the lower layer.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Shoreline Grasses and Subalpine Pond

May 28, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I made this photograph on a special afternoon late last July. Although I had been across Tioga Pass earlier in the season when it was still very snowy, this was my first real visit to the summer high country of the season. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon with just a few fluffy clouds floating about when I came to the meadows near Tioga Pass. The color of the meadow grasses was at just that perfect point that we think of when we imagine summer subalpine meadows – the intense green just before the wildflowers bloom and the inevitable change toward fall begins. (Yes, after some summers in the high country this cycle becomes clearer and clearer.)

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

Boulders and Spring Torrent, Cascade Creek

May 25, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

I recently posted the black and white version of this photograph of Cascade Creek in full spring flow.

The color version of this photograph posed a series of post-processing questions and problems that others who have worked with a scene like this one can probably imagine. The creek descends through a narrow, rocky gorge at this point and I photographed it early in the morning before any direct sunlight was able to reach the water. Benefits of shooting at this time included the softer light, which tends to both throw some light into the shadows and to soften the brightest highlights. This also permits a longer exposure which allows the water to blur a bit and express the wild motion of the creek. However, since the primary source of light was the open sky, the camera “sees” a very blue scene. (Our visual system compensates for this, so it doesn’t look as blue as it really is when you are on the scene.)

There are several ways to deal with the color balance issues that this situation creates. You could just “go with the blue,” and I’ve seen photographs done that way. I’ve even seen some in which the photograph amped up the saturation and ended up with something very blue. In general, that’s not my thing! I’m most often looking for something that seems “believable” – it may not be objectively accurate, but I intend it to be “subjectively accurate.” With this in mind, my first instinct was simply to warm the color balance in order to move away from the blue cast and toward a warmer one.

My immediate impression was that this was an improvement, and I worked with this interpretation for several days – but something about it didn’t sit quite right with me. (This is perhaps one reason that I also worked with the black and white rendition in the meantime.) Eventually I did some comparisons between the “warmed up” version and the original… and neither seemed like what I was after. The overly blue original looked garish but the overly warm version seemed artificial. I tried some other approaches and finally discovered that because the blue was so intense that I could simply desaturate it – more than you might think – and keep the “colder” coloration without letting it overwhelm the image.

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