Tag Archives: break

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

Headlands, Cliffs, and Winter Surf

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Headlands, Cliffs, and Winter Surf
Wiinter surf breaks along a wide beach at the base of coiastal cliffs and headlands, Big Sur Coast.

Headlands, Cliffs, and Winter Surf. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Winter surf breaks along a wide beach at the base of coiastal cliffs and headlands, Big Sur Coast.

Even after decades of exploring and photographing along this section of the California coast, I still find new viewpoints on almost every visit. I don’t know that there is an actual infinity of such places, but there surely are enough of them to keep one busy for an entire lifetime. As I drive along the Coast Highway I’m constantly on the lookout — sometimes to the distress of my passengers — for a new pull-out, a trail leading toward the bluffs, a high point that might provide a view, a variation on a view that I’m familiar with.

On this January visit I passed this area twice as the result of looping back to check out another possible location. So when I approached the second time I was thinking about this wide beach and trying to spot a place that might overlook it. I stopped and made a short walk out to this camera position — staying even farther than usual away from cliff edges, given their less-than-reliable condition after all of the recent rain!

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

Clearing Coastal Fog

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Clearing Coastal Fog
Morning coastal fog begins to break up over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.

Clearing Coastal Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning coastal fog begins to break up over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.

Conditions were both odd… and very normal for June on this recent visit to the Pacific coastline between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. The odd? In some spots the drizzle was heavy enough to almost count as rain, something quite unusual in these parts of California in June. The usual? We have a term for it here: “June Gloom,” when the influence of cooler ocean waters creates a lot of coastal fog, often sufficient to spread inland throughout the Bay Area.

The three things that will usually bring me to the coast to photograph are fog, a storm, and/or high surf. This was obviously a foggy day, and my general strategy is to photograph in the moody, murky fog until it begins to clear. At that point I chase the fog line, where all kinds of wonderful things happen with light and color. The blue of the sky intensifies the color of the water, and the contrasts grow between shaded ocean and the places where it is either still in fog or catching the first sun.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People, Photographs: Photographers

Desert Lunch

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Desert Lunch
G Dan Mitchell and Patricia Emerson taking a break from photography in the backcountry of Death Valley NP.

Desert Lunch. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell and Patricia Emerson take a break from photography in the backcountry of Death Valley NP.

This is not the kind of photograph I typically post here, but why not!? On our late-March visit to Death Valley National Park we headed up this backroad for the day after morning photography in another location. While midday photograph is sometimes possible in the desert, these aren’t typically the best hours from a visual perspective. So midday is a great time to explore, to scout locations, to travel to places for photography later in the day… and sometimes just to take care of camp business or hang out.

We drove slowly up this road, stopping along the way at various points of interest. (Despite the midday light, we did make some photographs along the route, too.) As so often in Death Valley, the road ends at the remnants of the historical mining era. We explored a bit and then it was time for a backcountry lunch. (It looks pretty meager, but it was good. And those oranges? It is a tradition to bring oranges from my trees on these winter and spring Death Valley trips.)

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.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Breakfast, Manhattan, December 2021

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Breakfast, Manhattan, December 2021
Breakfast on the window sill, Manhattan, December 2021.

Breakfast, Manhattan, December 2021. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Breakfast on the window sill, Manhattan, December 2021.

On one level this is a photograph of a half-eaten breakfast roll on the paper bag it was packed in, sitting on the window sill of a Manhattan hotel room on a cloudy winter morning. We can look at it as a little still life, I suppose, though perhaps a less appealing one than the traditional images of fruit and such. But there’s a story behind it.

For us a typical Manhattan breakfast might be coffee and pastry picked up somewhere on the street or, if we had the time and inclination, a “real breakfast” with eggs and more in a restaurant somewhere. (We follow a “two-and-a-half-meals-per-day plan when traveling, where the half meal could be morning or midday and is usually espresso plus something small.) But this visit was during the start of the Manhattan holiday omicron surge — what a strange description! — and those crowded little restaurants and shops were not so appealing. Fortunately, the Mille-Feuille Bakery was on the ground level of our hotel, so we’d head down there, pick something up, and return to our room… where the morning ritual was to start the covid rapid test, then sip coffee and eat pastry while the 15 minutes passed.

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.