Tag Archives: beach

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Stream and Islands, Mile 337

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Stream and Islands, Mile 337
A stream crosses the sand to enter the Pacific Ocean among immense shoreline rocks and island and their reflections, Oregon coastline.

Stream and Islands, Mile 337. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A stream crosses the sand to enter the Pacific Ocean among immense shoreline rocks and islands and their reflections, Oregon coastline.

Last month we spent time in far Northern California photographing redwood forests and coastal subjects. Several things inevitably happen on these visits. One is that we always remark how this area feels more like Oregon than California. Another is that we often head up to and across the Oregon border. On the most recent trip we took a drive to the north one evening, but we mostly explored areas just south of the stateliness and when we reached the boundary we turned around. But this photograph comes from a previous trip on which one of these “short drives” took us a good distance up the Oregon coast.

This is a striking spot along that Oregon coastline — and it was even more appealing since there were a couple of people riding horses on this beach when we passed by. (They are not seen in this photograph… in case you were looking for them.) Like so many of these beautiful spots, this one is not marked as any sort of icon, and I did not know its name or even if it has one… so I made a photograph of milepost 337 when I finished photographing to help me remember.

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, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Sea Stacks, Cliff, and Beach

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Sea Stacks, Cliff, and Beach
Morning fog above a beach, cliffs, and sea stacks, and coastal hills, Mendocino, California.

Sea Stacks, Cliff, and Beach. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog above a beach, cliffs, and sea stacks, and coastal hills, Mendocino, California.

This photograph is not from this season’s California North Coast adventure — instead it comes from the visit before that during the last June of the pre-pandemic era. Our goal was the farther northern redwood parks, where we hoped to photograph the trees and rhododendrons, but first we stopped further south at Mendocino for a couple of nights.

There are worthy photographic subjects all up and down this remarkable coast, but it isn’t often that I’m so close to them that I can get up in the morning, walk out the door, and five minutes later be standing at the edge of a coastal bluff setting up my tripod. I was out early — of course! — and the area was fairly empty as I framed up this composition that looks toward the river that empties into Mendocino Bay. Morning fog obscured distant features, and the foreground landscape is formed by cliffs, bluffs, and the interaction of shadows, direct light, and the patterns of waves.

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, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Beach Monument, Lost Coast

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Beach Monument, Lost Coast
A monument of driftwood lumber on a Lost Coast beach.

Beach Monument, Lost Coast. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A monument of driftwood lumber on a Lost Coast beach.

On our recent visit to the far Northern California redwood country, we did a bit of exploring in places that were new to us. (While there are no hard and fast rules about this, I often enjoy trips that combine the discovery of new subjects with repeat visits to more familiar places.) One reason was simply that it is useful to head off in a different direction when the thing you thought you might photograph is not in an ideal state. But we also made some specific advance plans concerning locations like the one in this photograph.

Roughly between the Fort Bragg and Eureka areas there is a remarkable section of the Pacific Coast that is nicknamed the “Lost Coast.” Here the main highways (101 and 1) divert inland to avoid some particularly rugged sections. Few roads make it to the coast, and those that do tend to be narrow, twisty, and a bit less traveled. We drove one of those roads on a large loop that took us to and along this section of almost completely deserted coastline.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Black Sands Beach

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Black Sands Beach
Hikers and backpackers along the edge of the water at Black Sands Beach, Shelter Cove.

Black Sands Beach. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Hikers and backpackers along the edge of the water at Black Sands Beach, Shelter Cove.

The photograph comes from California’s “Lost Coast,” a rugged section in the far northern reaches of the state where the coastline is so rugged that few roads reach it and some sections are entirely roadless. Even the “Pacific Coast Highway” (Route 1) takes an extended inland jog here and travels through redwood country out of sight of the ocean. We explored two sections, one as part of a plan and the other on a literally last-minute whim.

For years we have passed the turn off to Shelter Cove and muttered something along the lines of, “Someday we really need to drive out there… but no time on this trip.” As I recall it, we were beginning to repeat that conversation as we approached the turn off on this homeward-bound drive — but this time we made a last-minute decision to turn of and take a look. This photograph looks northward up the coast from the edge of Shelter Cove, toward a 20-mile section that is accessible only on foot.

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.

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.