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

Kelp and Stone

February 27, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Kelp washed up on sandstone rocks at Weston Beach, California

I met a group of photographer friends at Point Lobos on this mid-February day, where we spent the entire morning photographing before taking a midday break, followed by a quick visit to another location a bit further down the Pacific Coast Highway, and then a return to Point Lobos in the early evening. Perhaps to no one’s surprise, we started shooting near Weston Beach – but perhaps to everyone’s surprise, we were still shooting there when lunchtime rolled around! Fortunately, the light was somewhat cooperative, with some high clouds muting the sun that would otherwise have been too intense by that time of day.

We did not limit ourselves entirely to Weston Beach, and we wandered a bit north and south along bluff and rocks at times, photographing the huge winter surf. Eventually I ended up back at the “beach” (which seems not very beach-like at all, being mostly layered rock and big gravelly rocks) where I always like to look around slowly for interesting arrangements of whatever the sea throws up here. In one spot I found a pair of marble-round rocks, one pink and the other deep blue. Here I found a beautifully twisted and curved bit of kelp sitting on top of deeply patterned rocks not far from the edge of the water. In fact, it was so close to the water’s edge that I was only able to make a couple of exposures before a wave came far enough up on the beach to wash this kelp back out into the sea.

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: Wildlife

Two Cranes, Sunrise

February 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Two cranes fly in front the rising sun above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

On New Years Eve 2013 I arrived back in the San Francisco Bay Area from New York after 10:00 PM. 8 hours later (2 hours of unpacking, four hours of sleep, and two hours of driving) I was in the Central Valley, where I met friends to greet the (literal) dawn of 2014 in the company of wild birds. We arrived before sunrise to find light fog drifting about and to hear the sounds of thousands of birds coming from every direction.

We made a few initial photographs before dawn from very close to our meeting location, and then we headed out into this wildlife area to find locations from which the birds (geese, cranes, herons, pelicans, and more) would be more visible. A few minutes later I looked over my left shoulder to see the very first sliver of the sun barely glowing through the layers of fog as cranes and other birds flew across the horizon above the marshland. I quickly found this spot where there was a small tree and where a bit of the further water was visible and I photographed though the sunrise, until the sun rose above the low mist and became to bright to include in the frame. There was a constant flow of birds across the scene – sometimes hundreds of them and sometimes, as in this scene, only a few.

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

Colorful Pebbles, Layered Sandstone

February 25, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two colorful pebbles rest on layered shoreline sandstone, Point Reyes Reserve

As I mentioned in an earlier post, when I visit Weston Beach at Point Lobos I often spend some time wandering around near the edge of the water, looking for interesting bits and pieces of “stuff” washed up by the winter surf. The stuff can range from small stones to kelp. Many of the stones are, not surprisingly, well-rounded from being rolled around in the surf. Occasionally a very colorful stone will show up… but here I got lucky and found these two, one deep blue and the other an intense pink-burgundy, sitting side by side in an indentation in the textured and layered shoreline sandstone.

It takes a bit of luck–and some observation–to find such things, but that isn’t quite enough. The light has to be right, too, and that isn’t always a sure thing here. It can be foggy, though that wasn’t the concern on this mid-February winter day. Since we arrived well into the morning hours, it was quite possible that as the sky cleared we would find the light far too harsh. However, luck was with us, and a high, thin layer of clouds moved in and muted the intensity of the light. I framed up this little composition and just waited for subtle changes in the light that would provide a soft shadow that was filled in with soft light.

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

Tree and Fog, Dawn

February 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary tree reflected in the still surface of a San Joaquin Valley pond beneath winter dawn sky

This in another of those photographs that reminds me that much of what happens in a photograph is not subject to planning. We had traveled to the Central Valley to photograph migratory birds and the flat and often atmospheric landscape of this area, and we were anxious to be here since these seasonal conditions are not likely to last a whole lot longer this year. It was crystal clear as we drove into the valley but, not unexpectedly, we began to encounter thick ground fog ten or fifteen minutes before reaching our goal. It was still dark when we arrived, with just a hint of coming light to the east, and soon friends joined us and we started looking for photographic possibilities.

Our friends Michael and Claudia drove ahead as we readied our cameras, and by the time we caught up with them I saw that Michael had left the vehicle and taken off for the edge of a nearby pond, were he was barely visible silhouetted in the fog against the very early light in the sky. I made a “photographer at work” picture of him in this scene (shared here earlier), and only then started to wander that direction of myself. Unless it is the sort of fog that sits heavily and doesn’t move, fog is one of the most ephemeral and transitory atmospheric conditions. It changes continually, becoming thicker and thinner, transmitting more or less light, becoming thinner here and thicker there, and glowing with varying levels and colors of light. When I reached the edge of the water it was thick and glowing with deep pinkish-purple colors of dawn light. I found a composition that included a solitary tree and some foreground reeds and made a few photographs. This one was just a moment later in the series, but by now the fog had thinned slightly to provide a view of higher clouds to the east and the intense colors had become more subtle.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Kelp and Stone

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Two Cranes, Sunrise

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Colorful Pebbles, Layered Sandstone

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Tree and Fog, Dawn

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

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