Tag Archives: area

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

Winter Mist, Tomales Bay

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Winter Mist, Tomales Bay
Morning mist rises above Tomales Bay on a cold winter morning.

Winter Mist, Tomales Bay. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning mist rises above Tomales Bay on a cold winter morning.

One advantage of living near iconic locations (in this case, the Point Reyes National Seashore) is that I can go there on short notice at times when few other visitors are around. Being only a short distance north of San Francisco and less than an hour’s drive from some populated areas of the greater Bay Area, a visit here on a summer weekend can be considerably less than a solitary experience. But on a freezing cold (literally!) late-winter weekday morning you might find yourself all alone in such a place.

I have passed by this spot many times, and this was not the first time I stopped to make photographs here. (Nearby and just out of sight are a couple of iconic regional photographic subjects.) On this morning it was the light that stopped me, along with the new grass on the coastal hills along the far shore. (Winter is our green season in much of California.) As I worked, the thin morning fog above the waters of Tomales Bay drifted slowly, backlit by the low-angle morning light.

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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Marin Hills Fog

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Marin Hills Fog
Pacific ocean fog drifts among forested ridges north of San Francisco.

Marin Hills Fog. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pacific ocean fog drifts among forested ridges north of San Francisco.

This is a reworking/rethinking of an older photograph from 2013. The previous interpretation was black and white — at that time I was shying away from cloudy, foggy images with a blue cast, but I’ve come to accept and like them now. (Going to black and white is often an attractive option when I can’t quite see how to make it work in color.) Somewhat unusual for me, I also may have darkened some elements of this version of the image. Perhaps a bit of darkness seems appropriate in this time of sheltering-in-place…

I made the photograph on a quick day trip across the Golden Gate Bridge and a ways north up the coast. My recollection is that I followed coastal roads up to about Stinson Beach, stopped there to grab a a bite, and then decided to take a hillier route back home. It reached a sufficient elevation to get me up onto the shoulder of a ridge where I was above the bank of fog extending back out over the Pacific Ocean.

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: Northern California

Fisherman’s Shed

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Fisherman's Shed
A shed used by fisherman at the historic China Camp, San Pablo Bay.

Fisherman’s Shed. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A shed used by fisherman at the historic China Camp, San Pablo Bay.

The subject is a small building on a pier at the historic settlement of China Camp, on the San Pablo Bay lobe of San Francisco Bay. Beginning in the 1800s this area was the home to many immigrants from China and the location of a thriving shrimp fishing and drying operation. Today it is an unusually quiet location along the edge of the very busy San Francisco Bay Area.

This is not a new photograph. In fact, an earlier version of it sits somewhere in my archive with a different title. Over the past few months I have been revisiting my extensive raw file archives, mostly to find images that I originally overlooked, but in a few cases to rethink my original reinterpretation of previously shared photographs. One of the changes here came from a conversation with my friend David Hoffman, who suggested a better way to crop the photograph.

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: San Francisco

Pier, China Camp

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Pier, China Camp
An old pier at the historic China Camp State Park, San Pablo Bay.

Pier, China Camp. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

DeAn old pier at the historic China Camp State Park, San Pablo Bay.scription

China Camp, along the shores of the San Pablo Bay lobe of San Francisco Bay has a remarkable history, one that I was unaware of until perhaps a decade ago despite living the Bay Area almost my entire life. The name recognizes that the location was a settlement of Chinese immigrants in the 1880s, and there was a substantial village here that developed a shrimp fishing industry. Although that began to fall apart early in the 20th Century, the last resident was still there late in the 1900s before the area became a park, saving it from industrial or suburban development.

Today it is a remarkably quiet place in the midst of a very busy Bay Area. Buildings and other elements of the earlier village still exist and have been restored, and it is interesting to ponder the lives of the people who lived there. This photograph features an old pier that extends out into the bay from the area of the remaining buildings.

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.

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