Tag Archives: america

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

Rocky Beach, Big Sur Coastline

Image August 20, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A rocky beach near Willow Creek, rugged Big Sur coastline

The color of the ocean varies immensely along this California Big Sur coastline. The causes are varied. The water reflects the light, and that light can be dark and dramatic, soft and misty, or bright to the point of brilliance. The surface of the water, affected by wind and weather, has an effect — the water can be rough and textured or nearly glass smooth. The depth of the water and what lies beneath change the color — rocks, sand, kelp beds.

I’m fascinated by these locations, often in small bays, where the water is much lighter, a color that reminds me of lakes below glaciers. My theory is that in these locations the water is not very deep, and that the bottom must be sandy. In some spots I think that runoff or the action of waves on the shoreline may add sediment to the water. The little bay in this photograph is a spot where I often pause along this coast. But this time, as I returned from the southern endpoint of this day’s drive, I stopped before I arrived there and photographed it from a distance.

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

Toward Morning Light

Image August 18, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of sandhill cranes flies toward the morning light

This group of sandhill cranes was flying almost into the early morning sun — it was actually just enough to one side to illuminate the side of the birds that was facing me. As the cranes came toward my position I was ready, and I tracked them as they crossed from left to right, repositioning themselves as they passed by.

Sandhill cranes hold a special place for me, and they did even before I had seen or heard them. Many years ago as college student, an enlightened science professor assigned us to read sections of Aldo Leopold’s “Sand County Almanac.” Leopold was completely new to me at the time — my vocabulary of “nature” writers was more orientated to the Sierra Nevada. But his descriptions of the cranes and the experience of seeing them stuck with me, and perhaps made the experience more magical when I finally saw them many years later.

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

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Tufa, Morning Reflections

Image August 17, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tufa towers and morning light reflecting on the surface of Mono Lake

The tufa towers are often the first subjects that people think of when they consider photographing at this location. I’ve photographed them many times and in may ways — up close, at a distance, in silhouette, in all kinds of conditions and at all times of day. I still find them fascinating, but I’ve come to see the lake as being more about other features now.

The greatest impression I get from the lake is immense space. This comes partly from the sheer size of this landlocked lake, but it may also come from a combination of often seeing it from elevated viewpoints and from the open and sometimes cloud-filled sky. And at early and late times of day the water takes on colors of sky and surrounding mountains, ranging from brilliantly intense to quite subtle. These colors are interrupted when the wind produces patterns on the surface of the water.

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

Big Sur Coast Headlands

Image August 16, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Thinning fog over the Big Sur coast beyond rugged headlands

This was a particularly “quiet” section of the coast on the day I visited. Elsewhere the wind was blowing, sometimes pushing fog across the roadway, and often making photography a bit of a challenge. But here there was shelter from the wind, and the ocean was relatively calm. A fog bank lay across the water in the distance, though it was nearly gone as the day warmed up.

There are impressive headlands all along this section of the Pacific Coast Highway through the Big Sur coast, but this area just south of the town of Big Sur has some of the tallest and steepest sections. I often take this landscape for granted, as I have lived nearby for almost my entire life — and then, every so often, it hits me that it must be one of the most monumental meetings of land and sea on the planet, both for the rugged landscape itself and for the distance across which it stretches.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: america

Rocky Beach, Big Sur Coastline

Toward Morning Light

Tufa, Morning Reflections

Big Sur Coast Headlands

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