Tag Archives: bay

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpine Shoreline, Autumn Plants

Image September 30, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shoreline plants with early autumn colors along the back of a backcountry lake.

For all of the usual reasons, our group base-camped at a high, subalpine lake during our recent week in the Sierra Nevada backcountry. What are those reasons? Some are, of course, scenic — many lakes provide open vistas, reflections, an easy way to walk their perimeters (though not always!), meadows, and access to other nearby locations. “Our” lake had a large and convoluted shoreline. Most of it was covered with trees and mead owing areas, though one side was comprised of the base of a giant talus slope leading down from the nearby peaks.

I walked much of the lake’s perimeter, revisiting sections a number of times during our stay. On this morning I had set out to reach the farthest point of the lake, where a rocky outlet stream led to further meadows and more lakes. I had a lot of ideas about what I could photograph there, but central in my mind was to photograph a couple of bays like this one, surrounded by rocky terrain and early autumn vegetation, and with the distant peaks of the Sierra crest in the background.

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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

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

Photographs: San Francisco

South Beach Harbor, Morning

February 3, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on South Beach Harbor and buildings of downtown San Francisco

On this late-January morning I was up — you know the drill… “hours before dawn” — to catch a train up the Peninsula to San Francisco for a morning of street photographer and a visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where an extensive show of Walker Evans photography was nearing the end of its run. (At some point I should write a bit about my response to the show. A quick summary: great show, some brilliant work, some work I identify with personally, some work that makes me wonder why it is on the wall.) For these trips I’m usually up around 4:00 AM, giving me a half hour for coffee and a quick breakfast before I walk to catch a bus to the train station, where I catch one of the “baby bullet” express trains that has me in San Francisco an hour later.

The weather was in flux, and when by the time I arrived it was clear that a dome of solid high clouds was over San Francisco. However, as I left the train just before sunrise I was able to see some light on the underside of the clouds that was apparently coming from a gap in the cloud cover across the Bay to the east. I quickly headed over to the nearest shoreline location and ended up at the South Beach Harbor. I found some unusual light here as the sun rise. The light was coming through a narrow gap between the western edge of the cloud shield and the low, East Bay hills. Meanwhile, the clouds over and to the north of San Francisco kept the sky there somewhat dark. As the light hit the shoreline area where I had gone, the foreground boats and buildings and so forth were lit by this lovely filtered light and set off against that darker sky. The conditions did not last long — soon the sun rose above that cloud gap and the light soon became gray and flat.

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

Pasture, Estero, and Drakes Bay

October 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking across pastureland and Drakes Estero toward Drakes Bay and the California coast

I have a confession to make regarding Point Reyes. Although it is, relatively speaking, “in my local neighborhood” and I’ve gone there a lot, I have yet to fully wrap my mind around the place to the extent that I feel that I have fully photographed it or fully understand its character. I do have some photographs of the place that I like quite a bit, but when I go there I often find it more difficult to photograph than places like the Sierra, the Big Sur coast, California’s deserts, and similar. I love photographing the ocean, but here the features of the coast are perhaps more subtle, tending more toward beaches and bluffs and bay than to dramatic and rocky coastline. There are hills, but many are rather short, tend to be covered almost completely in forest in many cases, and tend to lack rocky outcroppings. The light can be very interesting, but there is often a fine line between too much and too little sun.

To summarize, I’m still working to figure out my vision of the place. Our most recent visit, in the middle of October during the northern California wildfires, was provided no exceptions to the challenge. There was no fog and the sky was almost clear… except that wildfire smoke often tended to blanket the terrain, producing a sort of yellow quality to the light. Because it is October, most of the green of meadows is long gone, and instead open areas are a kind of muted brown. Yet, I still want to photograph the place, and I know I’ll eventually “get it.” We did spend some time looking for photographs in the park this time, and this lovely inlet from Drakes Estero caught my attention as we traveled out toward the location of the Point Reyes Lighthouse. After we stopped and I looked more closely, I found the old stock fence to be an interesting addition to the photograph.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: bay

Alpine Shoreline, Autumn Plants

Rocky Beach, Big Sur Coastline

South Beach Harbor, Morning

Pasture, Estero, and Drakes Bay

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