Tag Archives: white

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

Two Trillium Blossoms

March 15, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Two trillium blossoms in the redwood forests of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California.

It is probably obvious by now that I’m a trillium fanatic. Early March is “trillium season” in the redwood forests around the San Francisco Bay Area, so I have been out photographing these flowers during the past couple of weeks. I was originally concerned that this might be a very poor year for them since we are in the midst of a serious drought in California, but some early March rain seems to have provided enough water to get them to sprout. In fact, this past weekend I saw lots of new plants just starting to emerge, so it seems to me that there may be some life left in the this year’s bloom. (And now we are looking hopefully at an upcoming week of much-needed rain.)

I photographed this pair along a trail that traverses a hillside above a valley filled with coast redwoods. I arrived in this spot just as morning light was beginning to filter down through the tall canopy of this forest and, in spots, hit the ground and the new plants. The trick is is to get some of the brighter color of this sunlight but to avoid the direct sun – the latter is far too harsh for photographing these flowers. So I worked in the shaded areas or, at times, in those spots that were right on the sun/shade boundary. I probably most often photograph single flowers, but when I can find a group I like to see how I can make a composition out of them. It is a bit trickier than it might seem, as there are a bunch of elements that must work together. First, the two flowers need to be fairly close together, and they both need to be at roughly the same point in their development – it isn’t so wonderful to get one beautiful flower and one half-dead, dried hulk. Then they must both be illuminated in roughly the same way – it won’t work so well if one is in brighter light than the other. The background is a tricky thing, too. If it is too bright or too busy (or too well focused) it can easily distract from the flowers themselves, so I usually look for something in shadow and without any very bright objects. While I may be able to find a camera position that accomplishes this, sometimes I need to move a small, bright leaf or twig. And once all of this is worked out, the flowers must be roughly in a plane parallel to the camera’s sensor so that both will be in focus – and this must happen while shooting at the large apertures necessary to throw the background out of focus. And last, but not least, exposure can be slightly tricky – it is very easy to over-expose the bright but delicate form of the flower’s petals, and end up losing detail.

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.

Events, Photographers, Photographs: People, Photographs: Photographers, Photographs: San Francisco

Arthur Tress, De Young Museum

March 11, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

: Photographer Arthur Tress speaks about his photography on March 9, 2012 at his exhibit at the De Young Museum, San Francisco.

Photographer Arthur Tress speaks about his photography on March 9, 2012 at his exhibit at the De Young Museum, San Francisco.

Last week I was fortunate to be among a small group of San Francisco Bay Area photographers invited by Adobe to attend an event at San Francisco’s De Young Museum in connection with the opening of “San Francisco 1964,” an exhibit of the photography of Arthur Tress. The exhibit includes a large selection of work which, as I understand it, Tress shot as a young man upon his arrival in San Francisco in 1964, the year when both the Republican Convention and the Beatles arrived in The City.

While Tress’s photographs are certainly interesting historically in that they capture many elements, both small and large, that characterize the visual nature of that time, they are also just plain wonderful photographs. Many capture odd and ironic juxtapositions of elements, others focus on the people watching the main events (civil rights demonstrations, etc) taking place in front of them – and some are simply touching recordings of individual people. (One of my favorites, among many, is a haunting but seemingly simple photograph of a young woman sitting at a table.)

If you are a Bay Area photographer or photography aficionado – or even a fan of the history of the Bay Area – I encourage you to visit the De Young to see this show. And, again, thanks to Adobe for giving me the opportunity to see the photographs and, even more, to hear Tress speak about his work. (This photograph of Tress is presented in black and white and in a square format – once you see his show you will understand why… ;-)

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Ship Yard Structures, Night

March 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Night photography of steel towers at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

It had been a while since I last shot at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, one of my favorite places to do night photography. But in early March the opportunity came up to join friends from the Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group currently celebrating its 20th year. We met in the afternoon for the traditional social stuff – tour of the island, sharing photographs, and pizza – and then headed out after the sun set. (Night photographers are probably the only people who look out the window and mutter, “Ah, it’s still golden hour. Let’s not go out yet…” ;-)

These giant steel towers are among the most iconic structures at the historic ship yard. As I understand it, they were originally part of a system used to move very heavy materials (such as ship engines) from shops to the water’s edge. Virtually everyone who photographs here indulges in photographing these towers and even after you have photographed the place as many times as I have they are still a source of interest. Recent work on the island has opened up a section of the water front that was previously off-limits, so it was possible to walk right beside these shell towers as they stretched out toward the water. Working from almost directly beneath them, I lined up a couple of the towers in night darkness, in which the towers were lit by nearby security lights.

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

Trillium Plant and Flower

March 6, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A trillium plant blooms during late winter in the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument.

I somehow missed the trillium bloom in the Northern California redwood forests last year, so this year I was determined to make it back again at the right time. (That time is essentially the first week or so on March.) Since I had plans to be out and about doing night photography later in the day, I decided to start early and head to redwood forests north of San Francisco to see what I could find. I was a bit concerned since it has been quite a dry winter in California.

Fortunately, it seems that a few recent light rains have been enough to get the early spring growth going. Where a week or two ago almost everything was brown, this week there were signs of green grasses and some wildflowers starting to appear. While the redwood forest was not a downright soggy as it usually is at the beginning of March, it was wet enough to start a few small streams flowing. At first I did not see as many trillium and other seasonal plants as I hoped to see, but then I noticed a couple of things. First, some plants seem like they may be on a slightly delayed schedule this year. Second, as I continued to walk and look more carefully I was able to find quite a few of these trillium flowers.

A bit of advice if you try to photograph trillium plants and flowers… The blooms seem to come and go rather quickly, so don’t delay if you are looking to photograph them or you’ll find only the triple leaf plants and no flowers. The floor of the redwood forest is a “busy” place, with lots of different plants and the textures of dead and fallen plant material. Photographing flowers against this background takes a bit of care or the flowers will be lost against the complex backdrop. Shooting rather early or late, when little direct sunlight makes it to down through the trees is a good idea – the light in the shadows is softer and less harsh and you can use large apertures to blur the background.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: white

Two Trillium Blossoms

Arthur Tress, De Young Museum

Ship Yard Structures, Night

Trillium Plant and Flower

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