Landscape, Nature and Travel Photography

A late afternoon view of the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse in Mendocino County.

Technorati Tags: Point Cabrillo, lighthouse, Mendocino, California, light station, Department of Parks and Recreation

Todays weather reminds me of the crisp sunny weather I had when photographing the Mendocino area couple years ago. The Mendocino coast is so strikingly beautiful that once you see it, it never leaves your memory. Photographed below is the beach at Van Damme State Park with the coastlines iconic cliffs and trees in the background.

Technorati Tags: landscape, photograph, photography, Van Damme State Park, beach, ocean, coast, lost coast,

As a follow up to my Top 10 Most Annoying Photo Critique Comments post I’m going to be posting a running series on photography terms and definitions. Some of these terms will be pretty straight forward and others will be new to most. The idea is that perhaps this will boost the vocabulary of those that make critiques and provide greater understanding behind much of what we see in photography.

The first entry in the series is Aerial Perspective

“Aerial perspective or atmospheric perspective is the effect on the appearance of an object by the atmosphere between it and a viewer (or the technique of depicting this effect in a work of art, such as a landscape painting). As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases. The contrast of any markings or details on the object also decreases. The colours of the object also become less saturated and shift towards blue.

Aerial perspective was discovered and named by Leonardo Da Vinci, who used it in many of his works, such as the Mona Lisa, in order to suggest distance.”

An example of this phenomenon can be seen in this image:

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This past weekend I was treated to a very relaxing weekend in Bodega Bay by my wife for our 1st wedding anniversary. Last year at this time we were in Mendocino and I had taken this photograph “Sunset at Jughandle State Reserve“. Although we weren’t treated to weather as nice as last year, we were very fortunate to be treated to several wildlife sightings. During our brief weekend trip we crossed paths with a couple species of Pelicans, Egrets, Turkey Vultures, and numerous Harbor Seals.

Photographed below is a Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) curiously scanning the beach as it was swimming and feeding in the waves near the mouth of the Russian River.

Below a Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) extends its wings full span as it takes off and negotiates a strong coastal wind.

I snuck this shot in while taking a stroll with my wife (of 24 hours) on my mini-honeymoon. My wife isn’t the most patient so I had to rush to get this one in. As soon as I saw this scene I knew I had to photograph it though and for as much grief as I got about taking the photo it was later confided in me that this photo is now one of her favorites.