Category Archives: Photographs: Northern California

Photographs from Northern California

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Pacific Coast Highway, Clearing Fog

May 30, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning fog clears above Rocky Point along the Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur, California

I spent a good part of this beautiful spring day photographing along the upper half of California’ Big Sur coastline along the Pacific Coast Highway. On this potentially (and ultimately!) very busy holiday, I made a point of arriving early, since this area is so popular, especially on a day like this one when it was mostly sunny but with just enough fog to make it picturesque.

This photograph includes the area around Rocky Point which, while not being the main iconic view in this spot perhaps does come close to having that distinction. From the small arch in the foreground to the curving coast and seas stacks to the taller coastal mountains, the scene has many of the features that define this coastline. The fog was trying valiantly to maintain itself—driving into it the temperature dropped by many degrees and the wind whipped up—but the sun was winning.

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.

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

Clearing Fog, From Hurricane Point

May 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light begins to shine through clearing fog above Bixby Bridge, Big Sur coast

On Memorial Day this year I figured that I might be able to rise very early and beat the worst of the holiday crowds to the Big Sur area of the Pacific Coast Highway south of Monterey and Carmel. And I was right—when I arrived there very early in the morning it not busy at all. (But a few hours later, after breakfast I presume, the crowds swelled impressively, and my drive back home took about twice as long as the early morning drive to the coast.)

This was one of a string of slightly-out-of-character clear weather late spring days along this coast. As many have discovered to their surprise and perhaps dismay, all of those beautiful sun-soaked photographs of summer along the Big Sur coast are also a big lie! In reality, you are far more likely to encounter fog. (If you want a better chance at clear skies, dress warmly and come in the winter between storms.) But this day was forecast to be warm and sunny along the coast and, in fact, the weather I first encountered was boring and blue. But a bit further south a stubborn bit of fog clung to the ridges above Bixby Bridge and a few other high points further south along the road. Entering these areas the winds whipped up to near gale levels and the temperature dropped as much as 20 degrees. The fog was not pervasive and in many places, such as this one, the sunlight was straggling through in spots. Some of the most beautiful light is found when filtered sunlight makes its way through the thin areas at the edges of fog banks, intensifying colors and bringing soft light into the shadows. Here the sun was peaking through closer to my position at Hurricane Point, though the fog was nearly obscuring the view further north at the famous Bixby Bridge.

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

Mountains, Sea, and Haze

May 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring haze, morning light, and rugged mountains meeting the Pacific Ocean, Big Sur coast

This spot marked the furthest south that I travelled on my brief photographic foray along the Big Sur coast earlier this week. Here, as in a number of other spots along this section of the Pacific Coast Highway, the route rises high above the ocean to pass through a section of very steep cliffs where the coastal mountains and the ocean meet abruptly. From this overlook the spines of a few nearby ridges were just to my south, and beyond the shoreline disappeared into the glowing atmospheric haze to the south.

One of the advantages of modern digital cameras is that they permit more flexibility and allow us to make aesthetic choices about our photographs more freely. Although I mostly “see” in color, sometimes a subject works better in black and white. Sometimes I don’t even realize this at the time of the exposure. Which is OK, since digital allows us to sometimes think less of “making the photograph” in the field and perhaps more about “bringing the image back” for full realization in the post-processing stage. In some cases, it allows us to focus more on pure capture and to put off some of the decisions we might have had to make at that point until later. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing! However, this is an example of a photograph that I knew was going to be black and white as soon as I saw the scene. Looking south along this coast on a day like this one, the air is filled with a haze made luminous by backlight. Colors are often so muted that they might as well be black and white, and the haze itself can take on a strong blue cast. Here I didn’t want that blue haze effect, but I did want the glow and the strong shapes of the ridges dropping into the sea.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

White Faced Ibises, Clouds and Sky

May 20, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of white-faced ibises is silhouetted against early spring evening sky above the San Joaquin Valley

I have what almost amounts to a tradition of making a weeklong visit to Death Valley near the end of March and beginning of April, that time of year when this desert landscape oscillates between winter and summer conditions and when the flowers bloom.. After a week or so in that austere landscape I am usually quite ready to see green and a greater density of living things. I’m also ready to get home! On a typical final day of the trip I do a bit of photography in the morning and then leave the park well before noon and start the long drive home. During the last few years I have made it my practice to leave early enough that I can just make it to one of my favorite San Joaquin Valley bird locations before the sun sets.

It has been a series of drought years in California and this was the worst one so far. When I drove do Death Valley things were still just as dry as we would expect in such a year. But while I was in the park a series of winter storms swept across the state—finally! I saw some rain and snow in DEVA, but by the time I got to the Central Valley is was clear from the puddles and ponds that a real storm had come through. I drove on up highway 99 and turned west toward my destination and found fields that were actually green. And on arriving at the wildlife refuge I was greeted by the smell of damp air and plants and the sounds of birds. What a contrast to Death Valley! Close to dusk we found a large flock of dark-colored birds in the shallow water nearby, and a closer inspection showed them to be white-faced ibises, settling in where the now departed geese would have distracted us from such quiet birds a few weeks or months earlier. As the evening wore on, large groups flew in, circled, and then descended to join the flock… including this group that passed in front of delicate dusk clouds and blue hour sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Northern California

Pacific Coast Highway, Clearing Fog

Clearing Fog, From Hurricane Point

Mountains, Sea, and Haze

White Faced Ibises, Clouds and Sky

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