Thursday, September 19, 2013

Muir Woods National Monument (Part 1) - With On The Road Photos

I took a trip to both Muir Woods National Monument and Sausalito (pretty close together) a few month back. I took many photos at these 2 places and will be splitting the photos into several blog posts. If you want to see my Muir Woods National Monument and Sausalito photos from last year, you can do so here.

Muir Woods National Monument is a park located in Mill Valley, CA, 12 miles north of San Francisco. It is famous for its Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees. This forest of trees is one of the few forests of this type of tree still standing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Muir Woods National Monument photos for 2013, use this link. To see my best Mill Valley and Sausalito photos, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts:
Muir Woods National Monument: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Mill Valley, Sausalito, and San FranciscoPhotos

Today, I have part 1 of Muir Woods National Monument. I will have a few photos from my drive up to Muir Woods National Monument, and the rest of the photos are mostly of the redwood forest. The photos includes regular scenery, long exposures, and 1 HDR composition.

Photo of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge taken from San Rafael, CA.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 56 38 N 122 28 48 W   

Photo of the pier from the same location. 

Now almost at Muir Woods National Monument, a photo on top of the mountain showing the heavy fog over Mill Valley, CA.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 40 N 122 33 30 W

If you have been to Muir Woods National Monument, you would know parking is always a pain there. I had to walk pretty far from where I parked to get to the park. This photo was shot in Mount Tamalpais State Park, a park bordering Muir Woods National Monument. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 16 N 122 34 04 W  

A portrait of a giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) tree. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 34 N 122 34 22 W  
Please do note the locations given in the blog post maybe inaccurate due to the dense vegetation in the park. 

HDR composition of several giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 38 50 35 N 123 16 04 W

The tall Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 37 N 122 34 27 W  

Long exposure of the trail in the park. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 38 N 122 34 31 W  

A portrait of a giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) tree. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 41 N 122 34 31 W

A few photos of a giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) tree.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 42 N 122 34 31 W  

The other side of the fallen tree. The tree was actually blocking the trail, therefore, the rangers had to cut out the section that was blocking the trail. 

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed them. Next time I have more photos from Muir Woods National Monument. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts:
Muir Woods National Monument: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Mill Valley, Sausalito, and San FranciscoPhotos

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Highway Long Exposures - An Interesting Photography Idea

A few month back, I took a trip to Santa Cruz and the near by city of Davenport in California. I went to several beaches there that other photographers have recommended to me! They were sure very beautiful. Here are some of the photos I took there. I went to Shark Fin Cove, Panther Beach, Bonny Doon Beach and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Some of the photos will be like "mini time lapses". If you wish to view those as a slideshow, just click on any image on this blog post and a slideshow should load.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Santa Cruz photos from this trip, use this link. To see all of my Santa Cruz Photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts:
Davenport Beach: Part 1 | Part 2 | 
Bonny Doon Beach: Photos
Panther Beach: Part 1 | Part 2 | 
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: Photos
Highway Long Exposures: Photos

Today, I have the last photos from my trip that I took on the way back home (to the SF Bay Area) on the highway. I remember a while back on Youtube, this guy had a great long exposure idea for at night. What the method involves doing is that you hold a camera up to the wind shield in a moving car (you obviously can't be the one driving) at night, and expose the photo. With this method, you can try moving the camera around and making a lot of different patterns, or just try to hold the camera as still as possible to the dashboard. I decided to give it a try on the way home and I am here to share my results. Best of all? No 2 photos will ever by alike!

Depending on how light hits the different objects during the exposure, not all things are blurred out.  



Slight traffic will looks somewhat like this.  

 Black and white processes are sometimes also pretty interesting with long exposures like this.


Another black and white process. 


These are all the photos for today and for Santa Cruz. I hope you have enjoyed them. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts:
Davenport Beach: Part 1 | Part 2 | 
Bonny Doon Beach: Photos
Panther Beach: Part 1 | Part 2 | 
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: Photos
Highway Long Exposures: Photos