Tag Archives: big

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rocky Coastline, Surf and Mist

Image Leave a comment
Rocky Coastline, Surf and Mist
Big winter surf raises spray and mist along the Big Sur coastline at the Rocky Point Bridge.

Rocky Coastline, Surf and Mist. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Big winter surf raises spray and mist along the Big Sur coastline at the Rocky Point Bridge.

As many times as I have photographed this subject, you might think that I would eventually have had enough of it and just pass it by. But when I visit the Big Sur coast it is almost inevitable that I’ll stop here at least briefly, and as a result I have photographed this scene in lots of different conditions — stormy surf, brilliant sun, fog, and more. Once I even angled the camera down just a bit to include the but of pasture that I usually keep outside the frame… and some cattle made an appearance in my photograph.

If you look closely through the mist raised by the gigantic winter surf you can make out the Rocky Point Bridge in the distance, one of the famous bridges on this old highway. It is not the most famous structure on this route — that reputation belongs to a different bridge a bit further to the south. On this morning there was big winter surf, and sometimes waves arrived that were big enough to almost overwhelm the foreground rocks.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Edge of the Light

Image Leave a comment
Edge of the Light
Light at the edge of a Pacific Coast fog bank on a summer evening.

Edge of the Light. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Light at the edge of a Pacific Coast fog bank on a summer evening.

By this point I am quite familiar with this coastline below California’s Monterey Peninsula — I’ve been visiting almost continuously since I was a child and my parents took the family down there for day trips and rare overnights in Monterey. We went to Point Lobos all the time, where I spent days investigating tide pools and hiking trails along the shoreline.

All of this may partially be my way of explaining why I might make a photograph like this —not a typical “tourist shot” of the rugged Big Sur coast, but something much quieter. The fog is a near-constant presence here, often coming onshore and muting colors and light and condensing the visual world. When it isn’t over the land it is often just off shore — perhaps far enough out that you have to look for it or, as here, right along the shoreline. The edge of the fog bank can be a place of amazing light — dark in distance beneath the clouds and surprisingly bright along the edges and where beams of light reflect off the water.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Leaves in Shade

Image Leave a comment
Leaves in Shade
Large leaves photographed in shade, Portland, Oregon.

Leaves in Shade. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Large leaves photographed in shade, Portland, Oregon.

This is an update and a little bit of a reinterpretation of a photograph from 2012 and rediscovered during my pandemic review of old image files. I made the photograph back in 2012 on a vacation visit to Portland, Oregon. Photographically speaking, I travelled light on the trip, carrying only a single lens and no tripod. I made this photograph on a visit one of the many Portland-area public gardens.

Photographs of foliage like this both attract and challenge me. I’m immediately attracted to the overlapping forms, the textures, and the colors. But often as I look at the subject more closely I find “issues” that turn what had seemed like easy, obvious photographs into something more challenging — a flaw in the leaves, a gap opening to detail-free shadows, issues with light, and so forth. But this little scene — with a bit of post-processing assistance — seemed to work.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Curving Beach, Fog

Image Leave a comment
Curving Beach, Fog
Fog retreats to the shoreline above a curving beach near Point Sur

Curving Beach, Fog. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fog retreats to the shoreline above a curving beach near Point Sur.

This is the same location where I made a couple of other recently posted photographs — a spot along the Pacific Coast Highway not far from the town of Big Sur, where a long, curving beach runs out toward a peninsula that has long been the home to an iconic California light house.

Much to my surprise, I encountered really beautiful conditions on this morning visit to the area. The forecast had called for essentially clear conditions, but I was instead greeted by a persistent fog bank that remained right along the coast, stubbornly intruding into the hills in some locations, while pulling back and allowing sunlight over the ocean in others. This scene was dynamic as I photographed it, with the fog intermittently rising and falling or drifting across this scene, located near the delta of a river that empties into the Pacific near the small hill sitting on the beach.

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.

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