Evening Fog, Pacific Ocean

Evening Fog, Pacific Ocean
Fog begins to appear near dusk along the Pacific Coast below San Francisco.

Evening Fog, Pacific Ocean. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fog begins to appear near dusk along the Pacific Coast below San Francisco.

Today’s photograph is… quiet… and peaceful. While the world at large is never completely that way, I suppose that the intensity of the craziness has been dialed back at least a bit during the last week or so, and I’m glad for that.

I’ve long had a fondness for this “big landscape with horizon” photographs that don’t really feature any single, central element. Instead they hope to evoke the experience of being quietly in such a place and slowly taking all of that in. The lack of an identifiable primary visual focus is perhaps even the point. I had headed over the hills to the closest section of the coast on this spring day, and as dusk came on the fog gradually began to appear again above the quiet sea.


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Bench and Shadows

Bench and Shadows
A bench and shadows, photographed through a window, Portland, Oregon.

Bench and Shadows. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A bench and shadows, photographed through a window, Portland, Oregon.

This photograph may be a bit difficult to explain, especially to the satisfaction of those who might be looking for the usual landscape and nature images. For the most part, I don’t think I will try to explain it too much, except to say that perhaps it isn’t just about benches, and that for me it seems like it has a connection to work created by an artist that I like quite a bit.

Having said that — not a lot, but that’s all I got! — I can mention a few facts. I made the photograph on a visit to Portland, Oregon. We were out wandering around the edges of the central downtown area, and I was photographing all varieties of street subjects that I saw. This must have been a fairly quick shot, as street photographs can be, since it wasn’t a subject I lingered on.


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Leaves in Rain

Leaves in Rain, Portland
“Leaves in Rain” — Leaves in rain, Portland, Oregon.

Californians have been dealing with strange weather patterns for more than a decade now — a five-year drought, a few years of way above average rainfall, and then the current season that has been almost completely rainless up until now. As I write this the pendulum is apparently about the swing the other direction, and the forecasts for my part of the state predict an “atmospheric river” storm later this week that has the potential to bring absurd amounts of rain over the course of a few days. It seems to be feast or famine, though the amount of recent rain famine has been the biggest concern.

While this photograph is evocative of the weather we’re about to have, it comes from a naturally wetter place a few hundred miles to the north, namely Portland, Oregon. On a spring visit a few years back we ended up in one of that cities urban parks on a cloudy and wet day, and as we wandered though gardens I stopped to photograph these leaves.


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.

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Point Reyes, Clearing Fog

Point Reyes, Clearing Fog
Morning fog clears aove the hills and bays of Point Reyes National Seashore.

Point Reyes, Clearing Fog. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog clears aove the hills and bays of Point Reyes National Seashore.

Living in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the Point Reyes National Seashore is merely a longish day trip for me. I haven’t been there since the onset of the pandemic, but in more normal times I make up there during every season of the year — mostly to photograph, but also to see the elephant seals, to escape inland heat… and to stop for morning pasty and coffee at Point Reyes Station.

The park mostly wraps itself along and around Drakes Bay, with the “point” being the furthest terminus of a long peninsula extending into the Pacific Ocean. To make this photograph I stopped near the base of that peninsula and drove up a narrow road toward a high point on the ridge that runs roughly parallel to Tomales Bay. From here I could look across nearby tree-covered hills, past the lower rolling hills, over Drakes Estero, and toward Point Reyes, barely visible in the thinning morning 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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

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