Tag Archives: calm

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Pelicans and Cormorants – Point Lobos

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Three Pelicans, Shadows
Three Pelicans, Shadows

Three Pelicans, Shadows. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. September 2, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three Pelicans, Reflections
Three Pelicans, Reflections

Point Lobos State Reserve, California. September 2, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cormorant, Reflected Clouds
Cormorant, Reflected Clouds

Cormorant, Reflected Clouds. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. September 2, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Something a bit different today – I’m bundling three wildlife photographs into a single post. As I queue this message in advance on an early September morning, it appears that I have enough photographs ready for posting to carry me through October! I think I can afford to put three in this post!

All three were made from the same point on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean at Point Lobos, where I had gone – on Labor Day! – primarily to do landscape/seascape photography. It was an interesting and slightly unusual day. Tropical monsoonal moisture had been streaming over the area for a few days, which is not quite a typical pattern in this area, and the morning started out cloudy. Although it was Labor Day, a bit day for travel and tourism, I arrived early enough that things were still quiet.

On a more typical Point Lobos shooting day, at least one without fog, I would likely complete my work and leave by or well before noon. But the broken overcast allowed interesting and filtered light to continue well into the early afternoon, so I stuck around. After shooting in the forest along the north shore – much easier in filtered than in direct light – I decided I would make a loop along the high bluffs on my way back to my car. I came to this spot just as a very large flock of pelicans floated past below, barely skimming the tops of the almost glassy-calm ocean. With filtered top-light and a good vantage point, I decided to put on the long lens and see what might fly by. Here are a couple of photographs of pelicans and cormorants flying right above the water.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

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

Merced River, Forest, Autumn

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Merced River, Forest, Autumn
Merced River, Forest, Autumn

Merced River, Forest, Autumn. Yosemite Valley, California. October 31, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful autumn trees among burned forest and reflected in the water of the Merced River, Yosemite Valley

This is, in several ways, a “quieter” photograph than some that I have posted recently. The location is along a section of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley that is probably not really seen by more than a handful of people, if that, on any given day.The spot is not special enough, if specialness is definable, to warrant its own particular name. (However, a few people do have a name for it – but it isn’t really to be shared here.) So the scene itself was, objectively speaking, quiet – the only others around were a couple of photographer friends working individually nearby, there was no wind, the river was as calm and quiet as I recall seeing it – barely even flowing, and almost nothing was moving in the forests along its banks.

There was another kind of quiet, too – the mental quiet that I often look for while photographing, especially in places like this. It is easy to let my mind wander – is this the right place to stop? should I check email before leaving the car? is there anything here that will make a great photograph? might it be easier to shoot someplace more predictably beautiful? what if I can’t find anything to shoot? Leaving my car behind and shouldering my tripod and bag of gear, I walked down to the river bank and began looking. My notions about what I might photograph are not so important – being open to what I might find to photograph is. When you first begin to photograph, it can sometimes take a long time to get into the frame of mind that allows you to slow down and become engrossed by what you see, to the point that you lose track of time and even where you are, focusing entirely on the seeing and the photographing. Eventually, I think you can learn to let this happen more quickly – not that it always does – and to avoid the trap of trying too hard to steer the process and to instead be quiet and open to what you see. And so, thinking back on this evening, as I made my last photographs before heading home, I recall the sense of quiet focus as much as the objective features of the scene itself.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.

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

Last Light on Trees, Upper Young Lake

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Last Light on Trees, Upper Young Lake
Last Light on Trees, Upper Young Lake

Last Light on Trees, Upper Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 14, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last sunset light strikes trees growing on a boulders at the end of a peninsula at Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

After arriving at Upper Young Lake with the intention of photographing a small, lone shoreline tree… I promptly wandered off and photographed a number of other subjects instead. (I mentioned elsewhere that I ran into John Sexton and Anne Larsen also photographing here, and John pointed out correctly that the tree would end up shaded at the time of best light. Need to go back in August for that one…) First I did a bit of reconnoitering around the west side of the lake, wandering down to and beyond the outlet stream, and thinking about how to photograph this rocky prominence at the end of a small curving peninsula. Then I photographed a bit near the drop-off from the upper lake towards the middle lake. After that I walked back toward the outlet stream again, noted the predicted shadow on the tree, and decided to focus my attention on this peninsula/rocky/tree subject, which I stuck with until the light faded.

When I began photographing this subject the low angle evening sun was casting its warm light on the rocks, trees, water, and even parts of the distance rocky slopes. As the sun dropped various areas began to fall into shadow and the light became warmer and warmer. I made this photograph just before the very last direct light left these trees.

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.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Morning, South Beach Harbor, Clearing Fog

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South Beach Harbor, Clearing Morning Fog

Morning, South Beach Harbor, Clearing Fog. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Moored boats float in calm water under morning high fog on San Francisco Bay at South Beach Harbor.

The South Beach Harbor is a favorite subject of mine when I take the train to San Francisco to do photography on foot. I often walk from the Caltrain station past AT&T Park towards the Embarcadero, which takes me right to this spot. If the combination of still water, fog, and/or early morning light is right I usually stop and shoot here a bit before moving on.

On this morning the water was just about as smooth as I’ve ever seen on this part of the San Francisco Bay. Although there was fog, it ws the higher variety that still permits long views across the water, and it was already clearing when I arrived.

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

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