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

High Tide at Weston Beach, Approaching Storm

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High Tide at Weston Beach, Approaching Storm
High Tide at Weston Beach, Approaching Storm

High Tide at Weston Beach, Approaching Storm. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 10, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

High tide and storm surf under clouds of an approaching winter storm at Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

This photograph was made from near the edge of Weston Beach during high tide on a day when a large Pacific storm was approaching. In more benign conditions and at low tide you would might exposed rocks and relatively quiet water in the area near the bottom of the frame – but not on this day! While I’ve ventured out onto the rocks at the left edge of the scene at low tide during the less-active summer months that would have been a very foolish thing to attempt on this day!

As with the photograph I posted yesterday, I thought that this might end up as a black and white image – and I still think it might. However, for now I have decided to go with the “barely-color” rendition. Because of the overcast and the haze created by the spray from the large surf, the colors in the original scene were very muted.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Incoming Winter Storm, Point Lobos

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Incoming Winter Storm, Point Lobos
Incoming Winter Storm, Point Lobos

Incoming Winter Storm, Point Lobos. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 10, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of the leading edge of a winter storm passing over the Pacific coastline at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

On this morning I thought the weather was going to be too rainy and cloudy to shoot – and I slept it. When I got up and saw that maybe it wasn’t going to be quite that bad I made a quick decision to head south and out toward the coast, and ended up at Point Lobos. The huge storm surf was beating against the coast and the leading edge of the incoming cold front was just passing over the coastline, putting some impressive clouds about the coast and the spray/mist from the big waves, and letting me shoot almost straight toward the sun.

Not all of my black and white photographs start out that way. In truth, while I sometimes have a pretty good idea that a particular shot is heading in the monochrome direction when I make the exposure, with other images I don’t “discover” this until I begin my work in post. With this one I had a pretty clear idea that the clouds and that receding layers for rock and bluff would work in black and white.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Kelp Detail #1, Weston Beach

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Kelp Detail #1, Weston Beach
Kelp Detail #1, Weston Beach

Kelp Detail #1, Weston Beach. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 18, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of kelp and other debris (“wrack”) washed up by winter storms at Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

This is another of the close up shots of kelp washed up on the shore at Weston Beach following a winter storm. There are several things that caught my eye on this pile of washed up sea trash… ;-) First, the shapes and colors of the kelp “floats” are intriguing, and I think more photogenic during this wetter time of year. I also liked the curving steps of the plants that wind through the frame from the left and up toward the right. Mixed in with this are some larger leaves with deeply ridged texture. Underlying all of this is the faintly colored sandstone and a few odd colorful stones.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Bird Island from Weston Beach

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Bird Island from Weston Beach
Bird Island from Weston Beach


Bird Island from Weston Beach. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 16, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Photograph from Weston Beach of wild winter seas near Bird Island and surrounding rocks along the California coastline at Point Lobos State Reserve as high clouds from an approaching winter storm begin to spread across the sky.

Since I decided to make this short mid-January visit to Point Lobos on the spur of the moment (after discovering that predicted rain was going to arrive later than expected) I had no idea what the tide conditions would be like. It turned out that the tide was in when I arrived and familiar locations like Weston Beach, the location from which I made this photograph, were fairly inundated by the tide and the high surf from the approaching weather front. So rather than trying to shoot the smaller details of the beach/cove – I saved that for later in the day – I decided to see what I could do with the longer views of the huge surf and the backlit haze and light fog that emphasized the rocks and bluffs receding into the distance. The light was very changeable, and the sky in this image explain why – for the most part there was a thin layer of high clouds, but there were also scattered thicker clouds that cast moving shadows across the water.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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