Tag Archives: big sur

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Clouds and Light, Big Sur Coast

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Winter Clouds and Light, Big Sur Coast
Cloudy, hazy atmosphere with dissipating fog and light ahead of an incoming Pacific storm along the Big Sur coast

Winter Clouds and Light, Big Sur Coast. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cloudy, hazy atmosphere with dissipating fog and light ahead of an incoming Pacific storm along the Big Sur coast.

Every time I visit the Big Sur coastline, to be honest, I think that I’m going to discover that there isn’t much new to see. After all, I’ve been visiting for literally decades, since I was a child and my parents took us there on family trips. Yet every single time I find something I haven’t seen before — a new overlook, a different condition of atmosphere and light, a side road I hadn’t noticed, a cliff-side home where I had not see one, some new color in the water.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve stopped and photographed in this spot or close to it before, but this light was different from anything I recall. It was an unusual combination of conditions. In the far distance the clouds of an incoming weather system darkened the southern sky. (Typically, it remains light in that direction longer as fronts approach.) There was a bit of fog under an inversion layer… which I wouldn’t usually expect to see as an arriving front increases the onshore winds. Despite the darker clouds, a bit closer to me there was filtered sunlight reflecting off the water. And the entire scene was softened by a slightly opaque atmosphere.

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

Winter Sky, Big Sur Coast

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Winter Sky, Big Sur Coast
Winter storm clouds, fog, and light along the Big Sur Coast of California

Winter Sky, Big Sur Coast. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter storm clouds, fog, and light along the Big Sur Coast of California.

The right kind of summer day along the Big Sur coast of Central California can be beautiful in every way. Imagine a morning with a bit of fog, mid-morning clearing, then brilliant sunshine and comfortably warm (sometimes even hot) temperatures, with a fog bank appearing offshore close to sunset. The ocean would likely be calm and — this is critical — you would probably stop along the way more than once, for coffee, for lunch, and perhaps for dinner.

As lovely as that sounds, it is my least favorite season along this coast. I prefer the changing and sometimes moody conditions of winter. The surf may rise to 30 feet or higher, storms may threaten to (or actually) close the main road, winds sweep across the tall headlands, whales pass close to the shore, and clearing weather may bring towering clouds. I made this photograph on the first day of March, when another Pacific weather front was just arriving, using a wide angle lens to include the sky above a bit of the headlands landscape.

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

Storm Approaches

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Storm Approaches
Approaching storm, sunlight on water, clearing fog along the Big Sur coast

Storm Approaches. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Approaching storm, sunlight on water, clearing fog along the Big Sur coast.

While summer is the most popular time for tourists to visit California’s spectacular Big Sur coastline, I’d rather go there in the winter — which is just what I did today. This is the season of the most interesting and dynamic conditions — storms approaching and departing, big surf, clouds and mist, and the low sun reflecting on the water.

To be honest, I initially thought that I might get ahead of the next Pacific weather front, which was scheduled to arrive in the evening. The weather forecast was calling for partly sunny morning conditions, and I planned this little trip with that in mind. But as I headed south from the Carmel area it was obvious that there were plenty of clouds to the south and offshore. Here and there the clouds thinned enough to bring a bit of directional light or reflect off the surface of the Pacific, but overall the sky leaned in the “ominous” direction. I stopped briefly at this familiar spot to photograph this cliff descending steeply into the water, with a few thinning fog clouds dissipating along the ridge of the mountains extending to teh south.

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

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

Morning, Fog, Surf

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Morning, Fog, Surf, Big Sur
“Morning, Fog, Surf” — Bright morning light illuminates fog along the Big Sur coast as storm wave run up against the cliffs

The fog in this photograph doesn’t come from the usual source. Typically, along this section of California’s Big Sur coastline, fog rolls in from the ocean in big, fluffy, low-level clouds. That fog is a dark, damp, gray thing, and — with the exception of the moments while it is clearing — it generally does not let in much light. The “fog” in this photograph, which might more accurately be called mist or spray, comes from gigantic waves from a winter storm breaking along the coast in windy conditions. The waves produced this mist on this day of surf up to 40 feet high.

The photograph could also serve as an example of looking away from the most obvious thing. The location is at or just before a very popular and iconic stopping place along the Coast Highway in the Big Sur region. In fact, many people making a quick trip down from the north choose this spot as their turn-around point. I stopped a bit before the throng and pointed my lens in a different direction, down toward a familiar beach lying at the base of huge shoreline cliffs. The beach isn’t visible — the giant waves were so strong that they ran all the way up to the base of the cliff. I decided on a high key interpretation of this scene in order to reveal the glowing backlight slanting across the cliff from above.

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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