Category Archives: Photographs: Central California

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

Curving Beach, Fog

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Curving Beach, Fog
Fog retreats to the shoreline above a curving beach near Point Sur

Curving Beach, Fog. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fog retreats to the shoreline above a curving beach near Point Sur.

This is the same location where I made a couple of other recently posted photographs — a spot along the Pacific Coast Highway not far from the town of Big Sur, where a long, curving beach runs out toward a peninsula that has long been the home to an iconic California light house.

Much to my surprise, I encountered really beautiful conditions on this morning visit to the area. The forecast had called for essentially clear conditions, but I was instead greeted by a persistent fog bank that remained right along the coast, stubbornly intruding into the hills in some locations, while pulling back and allowing sunlight over the ocean in others. This scene was dynamic as I photographed it, with the fog intermittently rising and falling or drifting across this scene, located near the delta of a river that empties into the Pacific near the small hill sitting on the beach.

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

Near Point Sur

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Near Point Sur
Morning fog clears above a long beach and coastal bluffs near the mouth of the Little Sur River and Point Sur

Near Point Sur. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog clears above a long beach and coastal bluffs near the mouth of the Little Sur River and Point Sur.

The summer/fall seasonal boundary is not necessarily my favorite time to visit the California coast, but sometimes I get lucky! Although it may seem counter-intuitive to folks who aren’t familiar with this region, the beginning of autumn is generally the sunniest and warmest time of the year on the coast. And while that may seem like great news to people who go to the coast to visit beaches — and who want warmth! — as a photographer I prefer more “interesting” conditions: large surf, clouds, incoming and departing storms, or at least some fog!

The weather report wasn’t promising on this day — it looking like the coast would (literally) be “clear.” But since I had the morning free I headed towards the area south of Monterey anyway. The first hint that the weather reports might be wrong in a delightful way came halfway there when I entered thick inland fog that clearly had come from the coast. Monterey Bay was largely socked in, and below Carmel the fog was still reaching up into coastal hills. As I approached this familiar bay, where the Little Sur River reaches the ocean just above Point Sur, the fog was intermittently thinning and rebuilding, so I stopped in a high location and waited for the right conditions to emerge.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wildflower-filled Meadow

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Wildflower-filled Meadow
A wildflower-filled meadow in San Luis Obispo County, California

Wildflower-filled Meadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

wildflower-filled meadow in San Luis Obispo County, California.

This photograph has been sitting on my desktop for several months now, almost since the time we came back from a spectacular visit to California spring wildflowers, followed by several days spend photographing in Death Valley National Park. I share it perhaps less as a brilliant photographic object, and more as a witness to the excellent and extensive spring bloom we had this year, brought on by above-average rainfall in February.

This location is in the south-central California inland hills between the coast and the Central Valley. During much of the year this country of grassland and oak woodlands is quite dry, and portions of it would impress you as being nearly a desert. But in these wet years the place comes alive for a few months in California fashion. Sometime in winter, when much of the rest of the country is freezing and perhaps under snow, the rains come and new grasses and other plants sprout. Yes, we’re brown in summer here… but we can be “impossibly green” in winter. Over the next few month, typically up until the first part of April, there is a crescendo of green, climaxed by sometimes-astonishing wildflowers… like this bed of yellow flowers spreading across a meadow.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Drifting Fog, Hills

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Drifting Fog, Hills
Dawn fog pours across arid California hills

Drifting Fog, Hills © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn fog pours across arid California hills.

This is a somewhat unusual photograph — not the photograph itself, actually, but the fact that I’m sharing it. It is a black and white rendering of a photograph that I have previously shared as a color image. Most often I make a decision one way or the other, and I rarely ask “Is this better in color or monochrome?”, at least not publicly! But recently I have had reasons to look at the world in black and white a bit more than usual, so I decided to take an alternative view of this scene.

This was a remarkable morning in these inland Southern California hills where I had gone to photograph wildflowers. Early in the morning, a bit before sunrise, I headed from my hilly campsite toward a large valley filled with flowers… and I was very surprised to look look down and see the valley filled with fog. Of in the distance, gentle breezes were pushing the fog bank over and around these hills as the sky began to lighten.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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