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Photography
© John Baker,
Travel Images
This photo essay represents the typical range of subjects on a Travel Images photo tour, and are selected in the knowledge that every client is able to obtain similar images. That is the goal for each of my clients.
This
is a 'no click' zone! . . .
just scroll on down . . .
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A shot
from the middle of Mendocino town given it's flavour by the
Victorian architecture.
If you like to include a lot of foreground detail in your shots,
stop down to around f.16 and f.22 for sharpness from front to
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Mendocino Botanical Gardens are included on every trip, and shots
like this Calla Lily are easy to come by but best recorded with a
long lens on a tripod. It's also a more relaxing technique should
you need to wait for a breeze to cease. |
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The recently restored
Point Cabrillo lighthouse. A 'sunny day' is not ideal for a
dramatic shot, so I always hope my groups are blessed with some
changeable weather! |
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More
Victoriana, but this time contrasting the modern city skyline in
San Francisco.
This shot works in daylight and after dark, but twilight such as
this works best. |
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Working fishing boats aren't the most
picturesque of subjects, but the dawn light on Bodega Bay is
forgiving and who doesn't like a reflection then?
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I spotted
this gentleman, Ben More, in Bodega Bay one year and asked the group if
they'd like to photograph him. I then set up a 'non-intrusive'
session and used a gold reflector to reflect some light into the
shaded parts of the face. |
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It doesn't matter where you are, the
coast is a good source of patterns, and Salt Point State Park has a nice
selection, many of them colourful.
Positioning your camera at a right-angle to the sun is more likely
to bring out the texture in the subject than if the sun is behind
you.
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This shack is adjacent to Fort Ross
State Historic Park, and is a decent subject itself under the right
circumstances. I'm sure there are nice close-up studies of the
windows to be had, but as it stands on private property one has to
make do with including the yellow foreground to add interest.
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This is the historic
Logger’s trestle at Fort Bragg over which logging trucks would
trundle to transport logs to the dock at today's McKerricher State
Park site.
With silhouettes the exposure pretty well takes care of itself, but
one still need 'strength' in composition.
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Being
from the British Isles I'm very fond of Sea Thrift, which grows in
abundance on the British coasts.
It is also known as Sea Pink and California Thrift, and this
backlit shot has removed much of the colour, but the sense of
place makes makes up for that loss. |
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I could take these type of shots
until the Cows come home! Just feet from the coast are dense
woodlands with an abundance of shots such as this.
Recorded with a long lens on a tripod again, may I suggest that you
tilt your camera until the lines flow in a direction that is
pleasing to you.
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Standing next to the
Golden Gate Bridge, this is a 400 mm lens perspective looking at the
eastern section of the Bay Bridge which is currently being replaced.
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The arch at Mendocino Headlands State
Park enhanced on this occasion by the lone figure. Had the light
have been more dramatic I would have played with different angles.
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Getting away from the cliché shots
of the Golden gate Bridge, the strength of this one lies in the
strong silhouette of the two figures and the contrasting 'power' of
the bridge.
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A sea-stack on the beach at Fort
Bragg. I got down low to include the texture in the wet sand, and
used a wide-angle.
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The
cliffs are what set this shot of point Arena lighthouse apart.
Dramatic light would have been nice, but one has to make the most
of each situation as it arises! |
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Once I had spotted this Crab 'hiding'
in the cleft of a rock at McKerricher State Park, it raised my
awareness level and I found more of them.
'Seeing' the image is all-important, but sometimes I need fortune to
smile on me too!
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April
is Ice Plant month in the region, and some of the displays of
colour are absolutely spectacular.
Unfortunately there seems to be a move afoot to banish them from
particular sections of the coastline.
It goes without saying that this was shot very low to the ground
with a wide-angle. |
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The Common Horsetail fern at the
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.
Yep, long lens on a tripod again!
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Mendocino
Coast brochure |
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