Like the brochures say, no visit to Scotland is complete without seeing the hairy highland “coos.” While coos (or, in American English, “cows”) are not my usual subject, the critters were there and I had a camera, so I made some photographs. In this case, a small herd was right next to the road north of Portree, so we paused on our daylong route out and around the end of the island to view them.
Continue reading Back-Scratching Hairy Coo Calf
I have passed this spot on Tioga Pass Road for years and thought about making a photograph. I could only catch a brief glimpse while driving by since it is along a section of the roadway with no obvious pull-out. In mid-September it caught my eye again, especially with I saw haze and light beams in the trees. So I turned around, went back, and finally located a place to pull over a short walk away.
This part of the Yosemite High Sierra is full of little meadows like this one, stretching upwards along streams that descend from higher peaks. This one is full of young trees that are gradually filling in the meadow, and I suppose someday the meadow will be gone and the stream will flow through the forest.
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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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Photographing California’s coastal redwood forests can be a (fun) challenge. There is often an overwhelming amount of “stuff” in the scene — trunks, branches, undergrowth, all growing densely. Part of the challenge is finding a workable composition among all of the details. Light can also be tricky. On sunny days light beams fill the scene and pose nearly unsolvable dynamic range issues — shadows go completely black and highlights threaten to blow out. I made this photograph on a cloudy morning when the overcast was thinning a bit, producing some very soft light.
The location is Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. Oddly, as a lifelong Californian who has passed by here often, I have barely explored this park. In fact, I can recall only one previous brief visit. Perhaps this is because I’m typically in the area to photograph coastal subjects rather than forests, and perhaps also because there are other redwood parks closer to where I live. This little scene is a obscure one near the main campgrounds and a nature trail.
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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This photograph comes from an evening walk in Venice back in August. Looking back on it, I’m still surprised that I managed to find a break in the usual stream of humanity across bridges like this one. It was evening, and things do quiet down at night, but it isn’t all that late. It is pretty likely that I made the photograph quickly while passing, and I’d be willing to bet that seconds after I made it other people entered the scene.
Dealing with crowds in Venice and similar places — as a photographer or just plain as a visitor — is a complex subject. (Some might simplify it by simply staying away at the worst times of the year, but we did not have that option.) To some extent, it is possible to embrace the intense energy of the masses of people, but that can be both distracting and overwhelming. But late at night or — even better — very early in the morning the crowds melt away to nearly nothing. One early morning in Venice I walked through one of the most crowded locations, and it was almost empty.
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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.