The White Rock. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.
A solitary white rock, wedged into a gap between coastal strata near the tide line.
These little Pacific Ocean shoreline scenes fascinate me when I slow down and spend time taking in their details. It is easy to focus on the big landscape and miss them, but they often reward slow, eyes-open wandering with plenty of surprises — colorful rocks, bits of shells, occasional sea critters, and more.
There’s a lot going on in this little scene — more than I can fully understand, much less explain. The underlying rock is stratified and upended, so that the lines of contrasting colors run along the surface, in places carved into curving shapes by the sea. That pile of small rocks in the lower half of the frame includes a remarkable variety of rocks and a few bits of shells and other things washed up from the sea. The rocks are wet, indicating just how close to the waterline I was working. As near as I could tell, the big white rock was the only one like it in this spot, leaving me a bit mystified about its source.
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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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That’s an interesting question! I’m not even sure who to ask. (I know local experts on such things in some other areas, but not at Point Lobos.) Perhaps I’ll see if the docents can set me in the right direction the next time I am there.
Interesting point about “heads down” subjects. I have done some large scale landscape images there, but most of my work at Point Lobos involves what I might call middle distance images (trees, formations, bits of landscape) and even smaller scope, as in this one. One of the issues with grand landscape photographs there is that we tend to find ourselves standing ON the grand landscape and looking at something that is less grand, with the possible exception of some of the formations south of the reserve.
Dan
Hi Dan, another interesting Weston Beach image. Certainly more of a “heads down” than “heads up” location.
So many fascinating intimate details to be found. I had noticed on my visits to Point Lobos, many of the cigar shaped elements as can be seen on the right side of your image. I had wondered what these were and research would indicate they are burrows of ancient sea creatures that had filled with sand.
Look forward to seeing more of your Pacific coast images.