All posts by G Dan Mitchell

G Dan Mitchell, photographer and visual opportunist focusing on the Pacific coast, the Sierra Nevada, redwood forests, California oak/grasslands, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography and more. Posting daily photographs since 2005, along with articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rocky Point, Sea Stacks

August 17, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sea stacks near Rocky Point on a foggy evening along the Big Sur coastline.

This photograph was made along the Big Sur coastline roughly in the area between the Rocky Creek and Bixby Creek bridges, about as far south as we managed to get while wandering around before a 8:00 p.m. dinner reservation back in Monterey. (Hey, it was my birthday!) The Peninsula extending into the Pacific in the upper section of the frame could be any of probably hundreds of similar peninsulas where the steep hills of the Big Sur coast drop to meet the ocean – but this one happens to be Rocky Point. The foreground sea stack could be any of thousands (or tens of thousands? I see perhaps a dozen or more in this scene alone…) of similar features found almost anywhere you look along this coast.

The light was both interesting and challenging. In most cases, I would rather try to photograph this interesting, foggy atmosphere than shoot perfect blue-sky conditions. (The latter can occur, though not as often as photography might suggest! Fog is more common.) It was very late in the day, probably around 7:00 p.m, and the sun was low and mostly hidden behind the off-shore fog bank. Here and there the fog backed off a bit from the shoreline or thinned a bit, and slightly more light appeared. The sea stack was in one such spot, and around and beyond the point there is also a bit more light.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Columbus Tower

August 16, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The green exterior of Columbus Tower, San Francisco.

This striking “flatiron” style building stands on a thin corner along Columbus Avenue which angles across San Francisco between the financial district, through North Beach, and eventually toward the waterfront. I had seen the building for many years, but hadn’t stopped to wonder about its story at all until I made this photograph. It was apparently constructed right after the 1906 earthquake, making it now over a century old. Much later in its interesting history it apparently begin to fall into disrepair. Eventually it was purchased by Francis Ford Coppola, who used it for his businesses.

On one of my “personal photo walks” though sections of San Francisco, I passed by after stopping for coffee in North Beach and heading back toward Market Street. The building is striking in many ways. The flatiron design always stands out, as the building is very narrow and very tall and stands at the end of a very narrow block of buildings. The intricate exterior would be worthy of attention even without its striking copper green color. I photographed the building from very close – an approach that I’ve been working with recently – placing a street lamp in front of the building and allowing the perspective distortion to remain in the shot.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Ideas, Locations, Stories

I Feel Fall Coming

August 15, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

It happens every year at about this time, close to the middle of August. Even though I have learned to expect it, I’m still happily surprised when it occurs. There is inevitably a day when I am outside and I sense something different in the world and I know (really know, not just know by looking at the calendar) that the seasonal trajectory is now beginning to leave summer behind and head inevitably toward autumn.

This is not a bad thing, by the way. I happen to love autumn.

Dry Creek at Fletcher Lake - A dry creek surrounded by golden autumn meadow grasses and illuminated by early morning light winds through a clump of small trees near Fletcher Lake, Yosemite National Park, California. — A dry creek surrounded by golden autumn meadow grasses and illuminated by early morning light winds through a clump of small trees near Fletcher Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

It often happens for me in the Sierra. I usually spend weeks there between June and October – the time of year when camping and backpacking are possible. The beginning of the season is marked by tremendous changes. Snow melts, rivers rise, meadows flood, plants emerge, flowers bloom, campgrounds open, trails clear, tourists arrive, plans are made and executed and many things are new, or at least new once again. Then on that August day, something changes. I cannot put my finger precisely on the nature of the change, but it is unmistakable and it often stops me momentarily in my tracks when it happens. For some reason I often associate it with the way the air seems to move and with the way it carries sound – I may notice something different in the sound of the breeze or the way it amplifies the sound of a cascade across a valley. There is something about the light that I think of as a kind of soft quality and a feeling that the color of the light might be a bit cooler. At about the same time I often notice certain other more concrete indications for the first time, too, such as the way that more of the corn lily plants start to become brown or even yellow and that grasses are less and less green and more and more brown.

I was not in the Sierra when it happened this year. This year, the past few months have not been a time for a lot of travel to places like the Sierra. I have only been to the Sierra on a single multi-day visit, and that was over a month ago. (Don’t worry – I will be going back soon!) So this year it happened at home, on a morning earlier this week – my birthday, actually – when I walked into our yard in the morning to take a look at the vegetable garden, and I notice that vague but unmistakable quality of light, quietness of the breeze, and softness of the atmosphere.

The calendar may say summer, and for more than a month to come, but I’m ready for autumn.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Big Sur Coast at Soberanes Point

August 15, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Evening fog comes in as the rugged Big Sur coast stretches north from near Soberanes Point, California.

Talk about photographic geekiness – we ended up making photographs on my birthday! Because of a variety of factors, this turned out to be a bit of a low key birthday this year – despite some earlier plans to do all sorts of wild and crazy things. (Completing the JMT or going to Alaska will perhaps wait a bit… ;-) After a quiet and lazy morning we decided to head down to the Monterey area for a birthday dinner, which turned out to be quite nice by the way. (Thanks, Patty!)

Since we arrived a few hours before our dinner reservation. After stalling around a bit, thinking about this and that option, we decided to do the usual, obvious thing and head south on the Highway 1, the “coast highway,” into the upper portion of the Big Sur coastline area. While it is a very familiar area and one I visit a lot, it is never the same twice – all of the variables of light and atmosphere and season and weather are in play and you almost never know quite what you’ll find. On this early evening, the most important factor was that the edge of the ocean fog was positioned very close to the shore. This meant that sometimes it extended just a bit inland, creating light that ranged from slightly luminous to gray and murky, while in other areas it was just offshore, allowing light to hit the coast and even to light the surface of the ocean a bit. Here at the cove where the creek comes down Soberanes Canyon to meet the ocean, we found one of those boundaries – quite gray along the immediate coast in the distance, sunlight on the bluffs and hills at the right, and that wonderful boundary light in between. And above that, the barely perceptible difference between the soft clouds of fog and the light blue of the late-day sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

All posts by G Dan Mitchell

Rocky Point, Sea Stacks

Columbus Tower

I Feel Fall Coming

Big Sur Coast at Soberanes Point

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.