Tag Archives: big

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

Big Creek Bridge, Big Sur Coast

January 25, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on the Big Sur Coast and the Big Creek Bridge

I have to admit that when it comes to available photograph subjects… I am spoiled. I knew I was going to go make photographs today, but when I awoke well before dawn I had not decided for sure where I would go. I considered going north across the Golden Gate to Point Reyes National Seashore, but it sounded like a weak weather system was going to pass through that area late in the day. I thought about heading to the Central Valley where my favorite winter subject, migratory birds, can be found — but I generally prefer to go there when I think there will be at least some fog. So I headed south, beginning my morning with a few hours at the Point Lobos State Reserve and then heading further south down the Big Sur coastline.

When I arrived at Point Lobos the light was interesting and the surf was still huge. Over the next few hours the surf diminished a bit and a thin overcast drifted in overhead and began to thicken. I figured that I might get somewhat clearer light a bit further south, so off I went on the Pacific Coast Highway. On the way south I stopped at this spot and considered it as a possible subject for the sunset hour, and then I continued on down the coast. Later I checked the time, estimated I had enough to make it back to this spot before sunset, and headed back up the road, arriving here perhaps ten minutes before the good light arrived. The bridge, dwarfed by the immense landscape of coastal mountains and ocean, spans the outlet of Big Creek.

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

Photographs: Nature

Colorful Giant Leaf

December 15, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A giant leaf with brilliant fall colors, photographed lying on the ground

I have no clue what kind of leaf this is, and the location where I found it gave no hints. Usually if I find such a thing I can just look up and see the tree from which it came, but when I looked up from this leaf I could see nothing nearby with leaves even close to this one.

The leaf is huge — in my recollection it was well over a foot long. It was on the ground between some cacti and/or succulent plants in a desert garden at the Huntington. The colors were wild, and if there had been a tree full of huge and intensely colorful leaves like this one I would not have missed it! Initially I was attracted by the bright yellow color and the size, but the closer I looked the more I found that the other surprising colors caught my attention — bits of green, a spot of purple, and red highlights along some of the vein structure.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Big Wong Restaurant

August 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

New York City street scene, as people pass in front of the Big Wong Restaurant in Chinatown

To an outsider, there are many things that seem to characterize New York City — the noise, the energy, the density of people, the constant motion, the often gritty character of many areas, the unique neighborhoods that bump into one another, the huge number of people out walking, the food, and much more. I’m more familiar with the famous San Francisco Chinatown (which is at least as crowded), and New York’s Chinatown feels vaguely familiar but also quite different. It certainly seems, for the most part, a lot less geared to tourists.

We went there for dinner one evening. After a week of too many expensive dinners we were looking for something both good and less expensive, so we ended up at a place near here that one of our group knew about. After dinner we went out on the streets, where it was now close to twilight. We decided to wander up towards Little Italy, and on the way we quickly passed though more of Chinatown’s narrow streets, and I managed to slow up our progress by stopping to photograph people and storefronts, including this wonderfully named restaurant with a few people and piles of trash outside on the sidewalk.

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

Point Sur Lighthouse Station

August 14, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The historic lighthouse station atop Point Sur along the California Big Sur coastline

Point Sur, with its historic lighthouse station, is an iconic feature of the northern section of the Big Sur coastline along the Pacific Coast Highway in California. The distinctive “hill” (which I now know is known as a “morro”) is visible from far up the coast as you approach from the north, and once you get closer the tall, rounded hill at the far end of a sandy peninsula has a nearly unique appearance. (Not literally unique, as there are others, such as the eponymous Morro Rock further south at Morro Bay.)

Today the morro itself, with its lighthouse station structures, plus an old naval facility nearby, are part of the state park system. The surrounding land is still in private hands, but Californians and others can hope that it, too, may eventually expand the public land along the coast. The lighthouse station was constructed in the late 1800s, when this was a very remote section of the California coast, and the lighthouse staff and their families had to be nearly self-sufficient. The area is exposed to significant winds and surf, as it is exposed to the north. Today the lighthouse still works, though with a modern replacement for the original light. If you look closely you may be able to see the light along the descending ridge on the right side of the morro.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: big

Big Creek Bridge, Big Sur Coast

Colorful Giant Leaf

Big Wong Restaurant

Point Sur Lighthouse Station

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