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

Horsetail Fall, Sunset (#3)

February 24, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Photograph of Horsetail Fall – the “natural firefall” – along the eastern end of the face of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, California.

I made this photograph from “the other” vantage point for viewing the winter Horsetail Fall light show. I’ve shot this subject a few times in the past, but always from the general area of the picnic area at base of the east end of El Capitan. Since I thought the light might be good on this evening I decided to try the location along Southside Drive at a point between the crossover road near El Capitan and the start of the Four Mile Trail where many people photograph this scene. Yeah, it is an icon. What can I say? (Well, I can say that my favorite photograph from this particular trip to the Valley is actually a black and white image of a couple branches of a dormant fern plant – but that’s a different photo and a different story.)

This location – I’ll call it the “Merced River location” – is popular among Horsetail Fall photographers for several reason. For one it is very accessible. To be blunt, you can find a shot within a few seconds walk from your car! (Unless you arrive late and all the parking is gone, a distinct possibility in such a popular spot, especially if you go on a weekend when the sunset light hits the fall.) It also provides a different sort of view of the fall. While the view from right beneath El Capitan tends to provide a slightly wider and closer view of the upper fall, this one provides a clear view of a greater portion of the fall along with the little valley above the fall. And because it is a bit further east, you are looking at the fall more from the side. This means that when things work out just right the brilliantly lit fall becomes a very thin stream against the much darker background rock.

The light on this evening was perhaps not quite “classic” Horsetail light. There was some nice color, but the light faded before it became brilliantly colorful. It seemed like perhaps the sun (which is itself not visible to photographers from here) might have passed behind some distant clouds in the west just before reaching the horizon. The development of the brilliant sunset color was somewhat muted when this happened.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 360mm
ISO 200, f/11, 1/50 second

keywords: yosemite, national, park, valley, california, usa, north america, nature, winter, horsetail, fall, waterfall, water, gold, molten, light, sunset, dusk, glow, fire, firefall, cliff, el, capitan, cap, face, crack, water, spray, mist, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, february, stock

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

Nimitz Avenue Buildings and Tracks

February 23, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Night photography of Nimitz Avenue buildings and railroad tracks at the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

This row of old shipyard buildings is along Nimitz Avenue and directly faces the area where ships were apparently worked on. In the distance one of the large overhead structures used to move heavy ship components to the water is visible, and the railroad tracks run up the street in front of the buildings. A combination of high clouds and lower fog is blurred by the nearly five minute exposure time of this image.

This photograph illustrates some of the technical issues that come up when doing this sort of night photography and, in particular, when photographing at Mare Island at night. I love to shoot subjects illuminated by the wildly variable artificial lighting found here, which can include just about every kind of light imaginable: sodium vapor lights, tungsten lights, fluorescent lighting, light bleeding from the town of Vallejo across the water, the light of the moon (though not on this occasion). Here a large part of the lighting is very “hot” yellow/red toned artificial light, making it hard to control the red channel on my DSLR and still get enough light in the other channels. In addition we have the contrast between the very light colored paint on the close building (which is lit by closer lights) and the much darker and less reflective brick surfaces beyond. In front of that runs the road, which is crossed by some deep shadows that I don’t want to end up completely black. And overhead is the beautifully diffused bit of clouds and some star light, but if color adjustments are made to the foreground buildings the sky can end up looking quite strange. Although it isn’t apparent in the shot, a great deal of care is required to to get the composition you want and not place very bright light sources directly in the frame, and this adds a difficult element to creating a composition that you don’t usually deal with in the day time. (I try to keep them out of the frame, but I also sometimes place the camera so that a beam or pole or the edge of a building blocks the direct lights.) Finally, in this case, I had to work close to the buildings with a bit of a wide angle lens, introducing some obvious perspective effects, some of which I’ve modified a bit in post.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: mare. island. naval. ship. yard. historic. vallejo. california. usa. nocturnes. night. photography. structures. nimitz. avenue. street. track. railroad. curve. structure. building. industrial. old. dilapidated. abandoned. corrugated. metal. brick. window. door. wire. conduit. pipe. tower. roof. sky. star. trail. cloud. shadow. reflection. asphalt. water. puddle. north america. cyclone. fence. stock. 65. 99. 99A

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

Horsetail Fall, Sunset (#2)

February 22, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Horsetail Fall in the final sunset light on a mid-February evening, Yosemite Valley, California.

I was in Yosemite Valley for a couple of days during the middle of February. My main reason for going was not to photograph the seasonal and iconic sunset light on Horsetail Fall, but it turned out that I did just that – twice. Since I have photographed the phenomenon in the past and already have a photograph that I consider a success, shooting it again isn’t at the top of my to-do list. However, I’ll shoot an icon if I think that the conditions might be special. In the afternoon I had been up high enough to get a clear view to the west, and it had looked almost completely clear. This is pretty much a necessary condition for good light on Horsetail, since the very late and low-angle light has to come in from across the Central Valley unobstructed. And, as everyone knows by now, the fall is an intermittent and seasonal event that depends on the right combination of prior snow (or rain) and warm weather to get the creek feeding the fall running in the middle of winter. It turned out that this had also happened, and the fall was running pretty strongly.

So, with all of those pieces apparently in play I decided to head on over to the picnic area beneath El Cap and then wander east until I found a suitable viewpoint. Still a bit ambivalent about shooting Horsetail, one reason I chose this spot is that it allowed me to shoot other subjects in the late afternoon and then arrive more or less at the last moment (around 5:00 p.m.) and still find parking and a spot to shoot. The parking, especially, can be more problematic at the other popular location, located along Southside Drive.

In the end, it was an odd evening for Horsetail. As the sunset continued the fall began to glow, and it looked like it might possibly turn out to be a really special night to shoot this subject. But then a few minutes before the peak of color would have occurred… it was as if someone switched the lights off. Very quickly the color dimmed to much more muted shades and remained so as the light faded. This was my last shot before that turn of events occurred, and this color corrected version (compensating for the otherwise very blue light on the rock face not struck by the sunlight) picked up some nice light and some of the most delicate and beautiful spray I’ve seen on the fall.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: yosemite, national, park, valley, california, usa, north america, nature, winter, landscape, cliff, water, fall, waterfall, creek, el capitan, ledge, crack, tree, skyline, ridge, buttress, mist, spray, horsetail, fire, evening, sunset, light, travel, scenic, mountain, sierra, nevada, range, winter, february, shadow, stock

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

Brick and Concrete Buildings, Mare Island

February 21, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Night photography of brick and concrete buildings under artificial lighting with star trails at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

The Mare Island night photography well has still not quite run dry – so here is one more from my February 6 shoot there with The Nocturnes. I spent a fair amount of time poking around the spaces near this brilliantly lit concrete building and the darker brick building beyond, photographing the two buildings from various angles and directions. The contrast between the artificially lit plain concrete walls of the foreground building and the darker and more textured brick walls of the further building was striking, and I’ve been intrigued for some time by the reflections and glow of the windows up high on the roof. This exposure was long enough that the high clouds moved and created the linear blurred shapes you see in the sky, interspersed with subtle but numerous star trails.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, historic, vallejo, california, usa, nocturnes, night, photography, structures, minsy, concrete, brick, building, wall, window, light, reflection, shadow, fence, roof, sky, cloud, star, trail, yellow, vent, architecture, asphalt, puddle, industrial, stock, north america

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Monthly Archives: February 2010

Horsetail Fall, Sunset (#3)

Nimitz Avenue Buildings and Tracks

Horsetail Fall, Sunset (#2)

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