One More from Sunday

Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/5.6, 8s, ISO: 100

Into the Woods

Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/5.6, 3s, ISO: 100

Muir Woods is one of those places where everyone seems to be taking photos.  I've found that it's a tough to get satisfactory photos there.  That's one of the reasons I only go when it's raining.  Besides thinning out the crowds a little, cloudy skies (or in Sunday's case a thick fog layer over the park) evens out the light.  Basically the entire place is dark rather than having some spots being dark with spots of bright light mixed in.  I was able to use a three second exposure here.  On a sunny day, the creek and path would have been lit up but the trees would have quickly disappeared into black.  Well, unless I overexposed the creek and path, that is.  Point being, this would have been a very difficult shot to pull off on a sunny day.  With the thick fog layer overhead, though, it was fairly simple.  This was the brightest spot and shortest exposure I used all day on Sunday.

The other thing rain does to Muir Woods is a bit more obvious.  It makes everything wet.  The place looks like a rain forest when it has been soaked by a good rain.  This might just be the Oregon native in me, but this is what I think a forest should look like.  Green.  Wet.  Big trees.  Water.  Salmon even spawn in that creek in winter.  So I've read, anyway, I've never witnessed any fish in the creek.  It's muddy because it's running high from the rain.  The water is often much clearer.

Big Trees

Muir Woods National Park, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/6.3, 10s, ISO: 100

If you like big trees, Muir Woods is a pretty nice place to go.  It's got a beautiful selection of old -growth redwoods.  These aren't the largest redwoods you can find, but they're big enough to drop a few jaws and the setting with redwood creek running through the valley is unbeatable.  The vegetation is more dense than what you'll find in some of the Northern groves which adds to the beauty on a wet day.

Redwood Creek

Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/7.1, 10s, ISO: 100

Redwood Creek runs through Muir Woods National Monument.  Signs along the creek said that Coho Salmon were spawning in the creek.  I didn't see any and it seems like a strange time of year for it but what do I know?

Muir Woods

Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM, 1/5s, f/4, ISO: 100

I suspect that 150 years ago there wasn't anything all that special with Muir woods.  Today, with only five percent of California's old growth redwood forest intact, its presence has taken on meaning.  It's one of the few places South of Mendocino County where these old redwoods--the tallest and formerly the largest trees in the world--can be seen in their own pristine glory.  Muir Woods is a place of beauty and introspection, a place where we can understand the cost of our modern lifestyles.

Otter Crossing

Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 1/250s, f/4, ISO: 6400

This is the first entry in what I hope will be a fun little series of animals crossing signs that I come across.  I hesitated to start off with this sign or even include it at all because it isn't a permanent metal sign, but it does have the National Park and California State Park logos on it, so I figure it's official enough.  I've yet to see a river otter in the wild, so I drive extra slow through this stretch of road just in case.

More Muir Trees

Muir Woods National Monument, CA

Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 1/2s, f/4, ISO: 100

I took a few dozen pictures on Sunday that I really like.  There is nothing particularly interesting about any of them.  There's just trunks and leaves and dirt and ferns and sometimes a creek, but I'm drawn to them.  Who knows, in a month or two I may find them dull or even embarrassing in their amateurish nature, but right now these seemingly humdrum photos enchant me.

There Is Unrest in the Forest

Muir Woods National Monument, CA

Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 1/4s, f/4, ISO: 100

I don't know how these other types of trees are able to thrive underneath the redwoods.  The redwoods seem to gather up most of the light, yet the forest is rich with smaller trees.  The smallish ones (smaller than redwoods, anyway) growing along the banks of the creek makes some sense to me, after all the creek forces a little bit of space between the larger trees.  Others tucked in among the redwoods, though, I don't know how they do so well.  Tough little buggers.

Muir Woods National Monument

Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 4/5s, f/4, ISO: 100

I love Muir Woods in the rain.  There are many more interesting places to go in California when the weather is nice, but when it's wet few places can compete with Muir Woods.

Gray skies mean soft, dark light inside the redwood forest.  This is a challenging place to take pictures, but when it's overcast a DSLR and a tripod can work wonders.  The tripod is the key because to get the most out of this light the camera is going to have to be set for some long exposure times.

Listen to me, talking like I know what I'm doing.  Pfft.

Muir Woods had been something of a nemesis for me until recently when I decided it was time to master more than the basic settings of my camera.  For this trip, my camera was locked at an ISO of 100 and the f-stop was maxed out at 4.0 on all of my shots.  I managed the exposure solely with the shutter speed.  The fastest shutter I used all day was 1/10 of a second, and a few pictures were taken with up to four seconds of exposure.  I ended up with some wonderfully colorful shots.

Redwood Creek

Redwood Creek, Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, 1/4s, f/4, ISO: 800

I got a lot of moody pictures from my last visit to Muir Woods.  It was wet and overcast, and given it was the winter solstice the sun was at the lowest angles it would get all year.  I was experimenting with exposure times and was able to draw out a lot of greens and blues while maintaining the dark feel of the woods on that particular day.  I wasn't sure how I'd feel about these pictures over time, but almost a month has gone by and I'm still very happy with a few of them.  I want to go back soon for more.

Muir Woods

Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Zoom Lens, 1/13s, f/4.0, ISO: 800

It's almost always crowded at Muir Woods, especially on the weekends.  I hear if you get there early in the morning it's usually pretty quiet.  It's usually an afternoon trip for me, though.  Some days the crowds can ruin the experience, especially if they are loud.  At other times its not so bad, it becomes more of a shared experience.  My trip there a few weeks ago was more like the latter than the former.

Muir Woods

Muir Woods National Monument, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40 f/4L USM Zoom Lens, 1/10s, f/4.0, ISO: 800

I spent Sunday afternoon at Muir Woods.  It was crowded but the people were fairly quiet for the most part.  In my experience, seeing wildlife there is a rarity.  I heard exactly one bird on the entire hike and I never saw that one.  There's too many people in too small of a place, I think.  Still, it is a pretty walk and it provides some unique challenges for photography.