Tag Archives: arch

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

Headlands, Surf, Natural Bridge

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Headlands. Surf, Natural Bridge
Storm surf raises spray among rocky headlands along the Big Sur coast

Headlands, Surf, Natural Bridge. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Storm surf raises spray among rocky headlands along the Big Sur coast

This is a scene that is very familiar to me at this point, though it is never exactly the same twice. Even when I try to resist the urge to rephotograph the familiar scene, I almost always end up stopping at least briefly. One reason is that I recall fondly the serendipitous story of the first time I photographed there. I had gone somewhere else initially, but it was too early for that location so I decided to go somewhere else before returning. I made a more or less random decision to head south — I think that a right turn was easier than a left — and headed down the coast to discover, to my surprise, that the surf was raising a cloud of spray along the shoreline. I happened to stop at this spot and I happened to have a new lens, without which the particular photograph would not have been possible.

Above, a mentioned that this location is never the same twice. I’ve been there in every season, during storms and fog and clearly, sunlit days. On the occasion when I made the photograph seen here it was rather nice weather, but the sea was angry, with swells of up to forty feet rolling onto the rocks and headlands, raising fog of ocean spray that was backlit by the low angle, late-autumn sun. I timed this exposure to be just after a big set of waves, and while the surf had calmed a bit the spray still filled the air.

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: Austria, Photographs: People, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Child In The Street

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Child In The Street
A toddler walks in the street in front of arches, Vienna

Child In The Street. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A toddler walks in the street in front of arches, Vienna

There are probably multiple ways to think about this photograph. It is, obviously, a photograph of a small child in a roadway. Is the child actually alone? Why is he/she in the street? Why did I make a photograph rather than running to protect the child? I’m not going to answer those questions here — partly because I think it is better to let the viewer wonder, and partly because there is no scandal in any of the actual answers. But questions remain? What IS this child doing? What, if anything, does this mean?

On a practical note, this is an example of the sort of photograph that would be pretty much impossible to make using the equipment or techniques of my landscape and similar photography. A scene like this happens instantaneously, usually with little or no warning, and it is gone almost as soon as you see it. For this sort of thing I work with a small handheld camera with a prime lens, which lets me respond to such scenes almost without taking (much) time for conscious thought.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People In Landscape

Hiker, Desert Canyon, Natural Bridge

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Hiker, Desert Canyon, Natural Bridge
A hiker passes under a natural bridge in a Death Valley National Park canyon

Hiker, Desert Canyon, Natural Bridge. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A hiker passes under a natural bridge in a Death Valley National Park canyon

Timing seems to matter a lot when photographing and hiking in Death Valley. A whole range of factors come into play: distances between locations, times of day with best light, concerns about temperature, and so on. Over the years I have come up with the rough outlines of a daily schedule — which I frequently violate! — to adapt to the general patterns. I usually start the day with a pre-dawn and sunrise location, and then move to a second early to mid morning place. In many cases I take a midday break — when camping I use this to lounge around camp, eat, nap, or else to drive to more distant spots — Then there is often an afternoon location, followed by a sunset and early evening spot. The dawn and sunset angle is probably obvious to most readers, but what about the mid-morning and afternoon spots? These are often in canyons, which can be a bit too dark at the edges of the day, but which often get nice light a bit after sunrise and before sunset. Bonus benefit: they produce shade during hot parts of the day.

On this day we were using this plan, so we took a mid-morning hike up this narrow canyon, enjoying the opportunities to escape the direct sun and the beautiful light in the bottom of the canyon, as it bounced down from above and between the canyon walls. Here a hiker (my wife Patty) went ahead of me beneath this big natural bridge and headed on towards the mouth of the canyon not far beyond.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Clearing Fog, Point Sur Shoreline

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Clearlng Fog, Point Sur Shoreline
Sun shines on the shoreline near Point Sur Lighthouse as morning fog thins

Clearing Fog, Point Sur Shoreline. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sun shines on the shoreline near Point Sur Lighthouse as morning fog thins

Most of the photographers I know have their “home territory,” the “local neighborhood” where they have photographed for a long time and to which they like to return. For some it may literally be their neighborhood, and they may photograph right around where they live, perhaps even within walking distance. For others it might be a place they no longer live but which they regard as “home” when they go back. My photographic home is rather large, and for almost my entire life it has included California territory from the Pacific coast and redwoods through the Sierra Nevada. Within this larger area, I have to think that the California coast is probably the strongest “home” for me. I’ve gone since my family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when I was four-years-old, and we used to visit state beaches and explore tide pools and coastal trails at Point Lobos.

I still live close enough that I can get up early, drive to the coast, photograph for a few hours, and be home by early afternoon. That’s exactly what I did today. I always check weather forecasts before heading over, and today’s imagined that the coastal fog would break up around 8:00 AM. Wrong. But, no problem, I simply headed a bit farther down the coast, looking for that region of special light on the border between thinning fog and hazy sunlight. I found that boundary and made this photograph of a familiar area where the rocky headlands and beaches lead toward the old Point Sur Lighthouse. There was plenty of filtered sunlight, and still a few cloud shadows when I made the photograph.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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