Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Pacific Coast Highway, Spring

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Pacific Coast Highway, Spring
Spring grass and wildflowers on the California Coast along the Pacific Coast Highway below Carmel

Pacific Coast Highway, Spring. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring grass and wildflowers on the California Coast along the Pacific Coast Highway below Carmel.

Just another spring day along the Big Sur coast. Really. I had the morning free so I headed down the coast, getting as far as the upper Big Sur coast, where spring was coming on strong. The hillsides were green (they will be brown soon enough!) and there were wildflowers everywhere.

This cove is a familiar one, located in the upper section of this part of the coastline, below Carmel and above the settlement of Big Sur. It is often a lovely spot, with the cove on one side and a point extending into the ocean on the other, and with rugged rocks and sea stacks everywhere. On this morning I looked at this scene across the headland, covered with spring greenery and yellow flowers.

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

High Peaks Trail

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High Peaks Trail
The High Peaks trail passes trees and cliffs, Pinnacles National Park

High Peaks Trail. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The High Peaks trail passes trees and cliffs, Pinnacles National Park.

This trail and this park have a special place in my California outdoor experience. I’ve live in the state since I was four-years-old and my parents moved here from Minnesota. From the earliest I can remember my family visited a bunch of outdoor locations in the Northern and Central California area, and I always regarded a trip to Pinnacles National Park (then Monument) as a special treat. It seemed like a very long drive to the east side entrance, and once we got there a visit to the caves was always the highlight. But we also took longer hikes, including memorable walks up to and across the “high peaks.” I continued to visit over the intervening years, but I’ll save a few of those experiences for another post.

The Pinnacles get their name from the striking rocky outcroppings found in the park. In the “high peaks” area they literally sit on the summit ridge, but they are found elsewhere in other settings, including the walls of some small, deep canyons. The trail mostly crossed familiar chaparral terrain, but here it passes beneath some impressively large rock faces and under the branches of some trees with new spring growth.

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: Nature

Golden Desert Snapdragon Flowers

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Golden Desert Snapdragon Flowers
Golden Desert Snapdragon blooming in rocky terrain, Death Valley National Park

Golden Desert Snapdragon Flowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Golden Desert Snapdragon blooming in rocky terrain, Death Valley National Park.

Wildflower photography isn’t typically my main focus, especially in the desert. (An exception has been during one or two “super bloom” years, when there were sufficient wildflowers to make them a major part of the landscape.) However, traveling to such places with my wife, Patricia Emerson Mitchell, has made me much more aware of this component of the desert world. From watching her photograph wildflowers, often using a macro lens, I learned that there are flowers in places that I had regarded as being essentially desolate.

There are several things I like about the desert snapdragon. The very name reminds me of when I was a child, and I was intrigued by the snapdragon flowers that my mother grew in her yard. This desert version is nothing like those yard plants — it seems to pop up suddenly in the most unlikely places, pushing thick green leaves through remarkably rocky terrain and soon sending out these lovely little yellow flowers.

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.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Sea Stacks And Headlands

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Sea Stacks And Headlands
Sea stacks and rugged headlands along the upper Big Sur coast.

Sea Stacks And Headlands. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sea stacks and rugged headlands along the upper Big Sur coast.

California’s coastline is quite varied, but nearly always interesting. There are flat and gentle areas in the south, areas exposed to wind and covered with trees in the far north. And then there is the (loosely speaking) Big Sur coast south of Monterey. it is an area of very tall coastal mountains, vast open views of the Pacific, and a shoreline that is often rugged and rocky.

I had a few free hours on this spring day so I headed south from the San Francisco Bay Area with the plan of getting some distance down the Big Sur coast… but not so far that I couldn’t be back by mid-afternoon. I’m a bit familiar with these formations, having stopped to photograph here in the past. This time I was struck by the color of the water, the springtime green of the plants, and the lights softened by very thin coastal fog.

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.

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