Winter Clouds and Light, Big Sur Coast. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Cloudy, hazy atmosphere with dissipating fog and light ahead of an incoming Pacific storm along the Big Sur coast.
Every time I visit the Big Sur coastline, to be honest, I think that I’m going to discover that there isn’t much new to see. After all, I’ve been visiting for literally decades, since I was a child and my parents took us there on family trips. Yet every single time I find something I haven’t seen before — a new overlook, a different condition of atmosphere and light, a side road I hadn’t noticed, a cliff-side home where I had not see one, some new color in the water.
I’m pretty sure that I’ve stopped and photographed in this spot or close to it before, but this light was different from anything I recall. It was an unusual combination of conditions. In the far distance the clouds of an incoming weather system darkened the southern sky. (Typically, it remains light in that direction longer as fronts approach.) There was a bit of fog under an inversion layer… which I wouldn’t usually expect to see as an arriving front increases the onshore winds. Despite the darker clouds, a bit closer to me there was filtered sunlight reflecting off the water. And the entire scene was softened by a slightly opaque atmosphere.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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I’m glad you noticed that! In scene with such unsaturated colors, I thought that looked pretty cool, too.
Dan
I love the soft green color of the water closest to the rocks! Excellent photography!