Tag Archives: boulders

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

Surf, Weston Beach

March 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Long exposure photograph of surf and boulders, Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve

This part of a small series of photographs I made at Weston Beach, Point Lobos on a mid-January day. The location is very familiar to me, to the point that I recognize many specific rocks and formations here. I have photographed quite a few times, but I continue to find new things to see here. Part of that is from visiting in different seasons and conditions of weather and light, part from looking more closely, and part from thinking of different ways to photograph the familiar subject. More than once I’ve had a feeling that I was “done” with the location, only to go back and find a new way of seeing it to investigate.

I was playing with several ideas when I made this series of photographs. Obviously, I was working with long exposures that allowed the motion of the waves to blur in various ways, smoothing out the surface of the otherwise-rough water and turning shoreline waves into transparent mist. I was also working with a different sort of light than that which I would usually seek out here. More often I look for soft light, produced by some overcast, an early/late hour, or even fog. But it was very clear on this mid-morning visit and the light falling on the rocks was somewhat stark and harsh, especially when I shot almost into the sunlight. It seemed to me that the edginess of the brightly lit rock might be a counterpoint to the softness of the long-exposure blurring of the water. Obviously, I also went with black and white here. Also, a bit unusual for me, I worked with an ultra-wide angle focal length, getting quite close to the foreground but letting the distant subjects be small and accentuating that by placing the horizon very close to the top of the frame.

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

Rocks and Surf, Weston Beach

January 17, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A long exposure photograph of shoreline rocks and surf at Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve

I had been a while since I had photographed along the California coast south of Monterey, but I finally made it back down there on this mid-January morning, ending up at the Point Lobos State Reserve. This is a location I shoot frequently since it is barely more than an hour from my home, and I’ve gone there since I was a kid. Today was perhaps not the ideal day to photograph there – it was (literally) freezing cold in the morning and then the skies were almost completely clear. Clear skies are not my favorite for photography. I much prefer some fog or clouds. In this photograph I dealt with that by pointing the camera down and placing the horizon very close to the top of the frame.

Arriving at the reserve, I first headed down to the familiar location of Weston Beach. (I still cannot quite figure out which this place is called a “beach” – rocky slabs slope down to the water and the closest thing to sand is a bit of rocky gravel. But I digress…) When I arrived, the early morning sun was almost back-lighting the islands and sea stacks to the south of here, so I walked back up the road a bit to find higher ground to shoot in that direction. While shooting from there I saw that it could be interesting to shoot below this trail and much closer to the water, using a very wide-angle lens and perhaps a 9-stop neutral density filter to extend the exposure. Rather than hoping the fence to get to the likely spot 20 feet away, I was a “good soldier” and I walked back a hundred yards or so, took the “official” trail down to the “beach,” and then worked my way back to the rocky spot that I had spotted from above. I lined up some shoreline rocks and a crack that allowed a bit of surf to come in closer, positioned the horizon very close to the upper edge of the frame, added that 9-stop neutral density filter, and made several long exposures that would allow the surf to become flat and almost misty. Usually I might not want the very harsh light on the rocks, but here I like the way it contrasts with the smooth and filmy quality of the water.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Granite, Autumn

January 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Aspen trees with golden autumn leaves grow among boulders on a rocky eastern Sierra Nevada slope

Before my single day of eastern Sierra Nevada aspen photography this season, I had been concerned about the quality and timing of the color – and reports by some other photographers who visited just before I was there were not encouraging. Reports mentioned trees that had turned earlier than usual (true) and trees that turned without producing special color and so forth. Compounding my concerns just a bit was the fact that my schedule required me to be there a bit earlier than the time I would typically regard as being prime for aspen color. But I’d rather shoot one day of less-than-stupendous aspen color than miss the entire show, so up into the eastern Sierra above Bishop, California we drove.

I was pleased to find that there was actually a lot of great color. Some of the usual “hot spots” that people seem to flock to were perhaps not as amazing as they can be, but after photographing the aspens for some years I have found some odd little personal places where I could find good color – and in a few places color that was downright excellent. I photographed these trees rather late in the day, perhaps after many people who prefer to photograph aspens in the sun had already left. I intentionally sought out an area that I knew would be in shade since I often prefer the muted and softer light this brings. Here the trees are not quite so thick since they grow on very difficult and rocky slopes. But what they lacked in density they made up for in color!

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Juniper Tree and Sandstone Cliffs, Evening

December 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft evening light on a single juniper tree among boulders at the base of tall sandstone cliffs, Capitol Reef National Park

This photograph was a serendipitous one that resulted from going to a somewhat unlikely place, and going there without a whole lot of enthusiasm, having only modest success at that place, and then while leaving happening to look up at the right moment and spot some very interesting and somewhat unusual post-sunset light. The plot began with an evening last-minute decision to go shoot “somewhere” in Capitol Reef, but without a specific objective in mind. We perhaps had some thoughts about shooting along the descent from Torrey, Utah toward the park boundary, but this is tricky late in the day due to the way the terrain slants up to the west, causing the sun to drop below the elevated horizon rather early and stealing the light from the foreground terrain.

When we passed the park boundary we still didn’t have a clear idea of what the evening’s “target” might be, so we drove slowly into the park, looking at many things but not seeing quite the photographic opportunities that might have caused us to stop. We finally decided to investigate a large canyon and drove to its entrance, parked, and walked in a ways. Because of the orientation of this canyon, the light here also left us rather soon. We made some photographs – a few of which might even turn out to be interesting – and then headed back out of the canyon. The way passed along the base of a very tall sandstone cliff formed from one of the thicker layers of sedimentary rock. Typically the rock would appear darker and redder, but the soft post-sunset light changed the tones to an almost pastel effect – and we both quickly decided to stop and do some shooting. This lone juniper trees was growing improbably in the middle of a pile of very large boulders that had fallen from the cliffs, and those cliffs were catching the late and soft light from the west.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: boulders

Surf, Weston Beach

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Rocks and Surf, Weston Beach

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Aspens and Granite, Autumn

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Juniper Tree and Sandstone Cliffs, Evening

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

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