Tag Archives: wild

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Dew on Lupine and Grasses

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Dew on Lupine and Grasses
Dew on Lupine and Grasses

Dew on Lupine and Grasses. Castle Rock State Park, California. April 24, 2005. © Copyright 2005. G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dew from morning fog collects on meadow grasses and lupine flowers, Santa Cruz Mountains.

It is a wonder that I even consider this photograph worth posting. (Hope I’m not wrong about this!) I made this photograph six years ago when I was doing my very first investigation of digital SLR shooting after having been a film photographer (at least apart from some earlier more or less point and shoot stuff) for many years. To “test the waters” I had picked up a very inexpensive and modest Canon “Digital Rebel” XT DSLR and a single zoom lens. The camera actually wasn’t a bad performer at all. While these models were small and lightweight and lacked some features of their more expensive brethren, they had essentially the same sensors and for those who shoot the way I generally did the other features were mostly superfluous. The first DSLR-sourced print I ever sold came from this camera. The lens was another story. For my “test” I simply picked up a reasonably inexpensive wide range 17-85mm variable aperture lens. This lens has its pluses and minuses (read more here), but for me the minuses were eventually deal-breakers. However, this little handheld photograph was made with that very modest lens, and as long as I don’t try to make it too big I think it works fine.

The scene is a typical one in the oak and grassland areas of Central California that surround the area where I live. This particular scene was at Castle Rock State Park, in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Silicon Valley and the coast. At this time of year the weather can evolve in any of several directions, including rain, fog, brilliant sun and heat, and more – but on this day I was shooting in very damp coastal fog along the top of the ridges.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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

Small Trees and Plants, Granite Slabs

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Small Trees and Plants, Granite Slabs
Small Trees and Plants, Granite Slabs

Small Trees and Plants, Granite Slabs. Yosemite National Park, California. September 15, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Small trees and plants grow in a thin crack among stained granite slabs, Yosemite National Park.

Just over a small hill from the campsite on the first nights of my recent Yosemite back-country photography trip, the Tuolumne River cuts down through rocky terrain and past large granite slabs marked by intrusions of red rock. As is often the case in the Sierra, any tiny crack or weakness in the rock is enough for plants to get started. This very think crack supports a “grove” of very small trees, along with some other plants.

The previous week had been a rainy one, including the night before, when I arrived just in time to set up my tent before the rain began. As a result, water had been draining across this granite slope and highlighting the natural seepage lines on the rock and the colors of various deposits from the more colorful rock above and embedded in the granite slabs. I made this photograph in the very soft early morning light before the sun had risen high enough to send direct light down into the canyon.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Lupine and Fog

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Lupine and Fog
Lupine and Fog

Lupine and Fog. Mission Peak, Fremont, California. April 16, 2005.© Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring lupine blossoms grow on fog-shrouded slopes of Mission Peak above Fremont, California.

While doing a major review of the past half-dozen years of raw files this week I have come across quite a few photographs that I had more or less forgotten. (I’ve also deleted a lot of old raw files, but that is a different story.) While I had forgotten this photograph, I remember the day I took it quite well and the memory of the photograph came back as soon as I found it.

Mission Peak is more than 2000′ feet above the Mission San Jose (part of Fremont) area of the San Francisco Bay Area, in the East Bay a bit north of San Jose. The peak is a very popular hiking location due to its proximity to urban areas, its quick access to near-wilderness, and the fact the summit provides a spectacular view of the southern parts of the San Francisco Bay, ranging from the South Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains all the way up to San Francisco and, on clear days, beyond. On this day it was not clear, at least not at the start of the hike – it was extremely foggy, quite wet, and rather cold. But anyone who photographs flowers much knows that soft and diffused light can be your friend, and this fog certainly provided that light. The fog-obscured hills beyond are covered in the intense green (what I call the “impossible green”) of the California grasslands in spring.

By the way, I recall that as I continued on up the trail past these flowers and approached the summit of the peak I emerged above the fog bank to find hillsides carpeted with more lupine and with California golden poppy flowers.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Burned Forest, Evening

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Burned Forest, Evening
Burned Forest, Evening

Burned Forest, Evening. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. August 20, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on an eastern Sierra Nevada forest recovering from a recent wildfire.

This spot is in Mono County along highway 395 not far from June Lake, and it is a spot that I’ve had my eyes on for some time. As a person who was brought up in the “Smokey the Bear” era, when wildfires were thought to be entirely a bad thing, it took me a while to come to terms with the knowledge that such fires are a natural and necessary element. I understood this logically before I understood it aesthetically, and I struggled for some time with the idea that places where fires have occurred can be seen as sites of rebirth rather than as destruction and desolation.

I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity and the right light to photograph this burn area for a couple of years now. I pass by fairly often, but it has always been at the wrong time of day or at a time when I could not afford to stop. However, as is often the, unexpected coincidences caused me to be here just before sunset as the light turned golden in mid-August. Ironically, part of the cause was… a forest fire in Yosemite! Up in the Tuolumne area, the afternoon air had turned smokey and the light had taken on the sort of brownish color that forest fire smoke can create. This light was not inspiring me, so I thought that I’d drive over the pass and head south a short distance on highway 395 to see if I could find more interesting lighting. As I traveled south from Lee Vining I happened to notice the turn-off for West Portal Road, which heads out in the general direction of Mono Craters. I took this road and spent some time poking around, eventually making a few exposures in the area called Aeolian Buttes, and then returned to the main highway a bit south of where I had originally left the road.

As it happened, this choice dropped me onto 395 at a place where I could see this burned area just a bit further down the road. The sun was not far from dropping behind the Sierra crest, so I figured this could be my chance to give it a try. I found a spot where the late afternoon light was warming the color of the summer-dried grasses and some white flowers grew among the burned trees, and I had perhaps 15 minutes to work before the sun dropped behind the peaks.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)