Tag Archives: america

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

Seaweed and Pebbles, Weston Beach

July 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shoreline debris, including pebbles and seaweed, at Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve.

During virtually every visit to the Point Lobos State Reserve I end up shooting at Weston Beach (named after photographer Edward Weston) at least once. Perhaps the Weston name is part of what attracts me… though the easy parking might have something to do with it, too. ;-) But seriously, this beach is a special place that I have visited for decades, starting when my family went to Point Lobos so that I can my siblings could wander about and inspect the tide pools.

Weston Beach has always seemed to me to barely qualify as what I think of when I hear the word “beach.” That word, to me, suggests a strand of fine sand that runs along the edge of the ocean. But this beach is more of a cove, and the its shore is emphatically not that kind of “sand.” Instead, it is mostly rocky with broken ledges full of channels that run down and into the water. It is separated from the open ocean by another wall of rocks that almost closes it off from the rougher water, though wave spill in through the gap. Instead of fine sand, there is gravel, consisting mostly of smooth rocks that are almost golf ball sized. During much of the year, but especially in winter when Pacific storms bring the highest surf, all sorts of interesting stuff washes up on this beach – shells, drift wood, seaweed – and I love to walk here slowly, looking for seemingly random juxtapositions and forms that might make a photograph.

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: Abstract, Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Reflective Building

July 23, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I photographed the exterior of this building while walking in the financial district of San Francisco in the early evening. I was mainly shooting street subjects with a 50mm prime, but fortunately I had a telephoto zoom in my bag that I could use to isolate this section of the building from its surrounding context. In addition, I decided to take some liberties with the image in post, including some serious perspective adjustments that brought the vertical lines into nearly parallel alignment.

When walking around in an urban environment like this one, it is easy to focus on the grit and “reality” and noise and all the rest. But if you look past that you can find some astonishing images in this environment, some of which are quite abstract and perhaps border on hallucinations. This is a building – that is fairly obvious. But what in this photograph is actually the building? Not much. The thin, darker vertical lines are the frames around the window glass, as are the even thinner diagonal lines running upward from left to right. If you look closely you can see a few bits and pieces of what is inside the building, mostly in the form of interior lighting. But the main portion of the image is not really the building at all, instead consisting of warped and distorted forms that are the reflections of its surroundings, reflected in its glass surface.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning, Tuolumne Meadows

July 22, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees of Tuolumne Meadows in morning light, with forest ascending background slopes, Yosemite Naitonal Park.

As a photographer, I am often up and off to shoot some interesting subject well before dawn. When I am car-camping, as I was during my mid-July visit to Tuolumne Meadows this year, I have a loose ritual that I usually follow. The night before I come up with one or more subjects that I would like to photograph in morning light. Based on where those are – driving or walking distance, and closer or further away – I set an alarm for a much earlier time than I want to. Then I have everything ready for a quick and fairly brainless early start – anything I’ll need to take from the tent sits by the end of the zipper I’ll grab to open the tent, and other things are already in the car. The alarm goes off – way too early for my brain, of course! – and I try to sit up so that I won’t go back to sleep and then put on whatever clothes I need for the morning weather. On a good day, I’m out of the tent and in the car in 5 minutes. On a bad day it might take 15. (On a really bad day, I have been known to just go back to sleep! Hey, it happens… but not very often.) I get in the car and try to drive out of the campground as quickly and quietly as possible.

You may have noticed that something was missing from that routine – breakfast! Indeed, I usually don’t bother with breakfast before shooting, preferring instead to get to work while the light is good. As hard as it can be to get started, it usually doesn’t take too long to find some site so special and compelling that I forget how hard it was to get up so early. In fact, once I get going I am often surprised to find so few others out and about at this time of the most beautiful light. Frequently I may see only a few hikers and perhaps another photographer or two, and even a couple of hours later, as the best light begins to transition into the “blah” daytime light, many people are apparently still in their sleeping bags.

I didn’t have far to go on this morning. Tuolumne Meadows is just across Tioga Pass Road from the main campground. The early light was a bit hazy, and as the backlight lit up the meadow and fringed the many trees, this haze enhanced the sense of distance between the closer trees and the forest leading up the more distant hillside.

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

Harbor Seals, Point Lobos

July 21, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

California harbor seals interacting on a haul-out rock at the Point Lobos State Reserve.

The harbor seals are found in many areas of the California cost and elsewhere. These were lounging about on a haul-out rock at the Point Lobos State Reserve just south of Carmel and at the northern end of the Big Sur coastline. I have been going to Point Lobos for many years, and this particular rock is one I usually check out since it is quite close to the shoreline and there are often harbor seals about. Indeed, on this day there were perhaps a dozen of the critters on this rock, and more were hanging around nearby.

On one hand, it seems like a pretty lazy life they lead, especially on a calm summer day like this one. Haul out of the water and lounge about on rocks for hours. If they get hungry, the water is only a few feet away. But I suspect that the reality is much different. I have also gone to see them in the winter when the surf here can be astonishingly wild, and the ocean must be a very dangerous place. As I watched this group – which is sometimes an experience close to watching paint dry – eventually the middle seal decided to turn around and face the smaller one to the left. As it did so it arched its body to pivot around and the smaller one reached out with a flipper, suggesting a sort of friendly pat to the those with anthropomorphic tendencies.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: america

Seaweed and Pebbles, Weston Beach

Reflective Building

Morning, Tuolumne Meadows

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