Big Sur River, Autumn. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fallen leaves and trees along the banks of the Big Sur River.

There is a little lesson or reminder in this photograph that I made earlier this week along a quiet stretch of the Big Sur River. I had planned to head south to photograph along this coastline. This is my favorite time of year along the California coast — the season when the surf can be huge, lots of spray gets thrown up, and there are often interesting clouds. Oh, and there are far fewer tourists in this sometimes-crowded location. However, the light was not cooperating, at least not with my original plan of photographing grand coastal landscape. A Pacific weather front was on its way, and the sky was rather gray and there was some ugly atmospheric haze.

However, as is so often the case, light conditions that may not be wonderful for one subject can work to your advantage with another. The high clouds were still thin enough that they allowed somewhat directional but very diffused light to pass. While that may not be great for those long landscapes, this light can be beautiful inside forests, even during the daytime hours when more typical sunny conditions can produce the nearly unphotographable “pizza light.” So I started looking for different sorts of subjects, and I soon noticed the green water of this river and the bare trunks of these trees standing above a carpet of newly-fallen autumn leaves.

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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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