Tag Archives: central

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

Sea Stacks, Big Sur Coastline

May 14, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Sea stacks line the rugged California Big Sur coastline below the Pacific Coast Highway.

I had some free time on Friday morning, so I decided to head over to the coast below Monterey. I had some discussions with someone earlier this week about photographs featuring coastal fog and hills, and I think that may be what planted the idea in my mind, though it turned out that conditions were not quite ideal for that particular sort of thing. However, it was a beautiful spring morning along the Big Sur coast, with the bright sun somewhat modulated by some atmospheric haze and a bit of fog here and there along ridge tops.

For those who may not have heard, driving this section of the Coast Highway is a bit tricky right now due to washouts and closures. I had to wait for a pilot vehicle to lead scores of us through one large section, and in another spot the road was reduced to a single lane by a large landslide. I understand that further south the road is actually closed completely, necessitating an inland detour.

The unusual traffic situation did create one advantage for me, however. Usually there is enough traffic on this famous route that driving along at very slow speeds annoys other drivers – so I sometimes have to keep going right past places I might otherwise want to stop and investigate. However, yesterday I quickly figured out that with 20-30 minutes between waves of traffic as the road opened and closed, all I had to do was pull over after passing one of the blockages, wait for the other cars to pass, and then drive in a more leisurely way with plenty of opportunities to stop.

So as I drove past this area that I had not really looked at closely in the past – it is between a couple of other spots that I know well – I was able to drive slowly, pull over to look more carefully, backtrack, and generally get to see it more than in the past. I first pulled off near this spot simply to turn around to go back and check a spot I had just passed. As I did so I noticed a painter packing up his gear. I did my “turn around,” looked at the spot I had passed, decided it wasn’t promising after all… and came right back to the spot where I had seen the painter. A short trail led down to the edge of the bluff and provided this view along the coast to the south.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Hills and Sunrise Haze, Death Valley

April 17, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Sunrise light shines through morning haze to silhouette low hills in central Death Valley.

On the last morning of my late-March Death Valley shoot, I was on top of a low hill in roughly the middle of the Valley, not far from the “Devils Cornfield” area, mainly to photograph the Mesquite Dunes and the nearby transverse dunes against the backdrop of the Cottonwood Mountains. But this spot gave me a 360 degree panoramic view of a huge section of the central Valley, so while I waited for “just right” light on my intended subjects I also had time to see and photograph other subjects.

These low hills, mostly bare but sprinkled here and there with a few small plants or even a creosote bush or possibly a mesquite tree, were in the morning haze that sometimes settles in the bottom of the Valley before the daytime winds clear it out. The sun had just come over the Funeral Mountains to the east and was shining at a very low angle through this haze, so I pointed the camera (with a 400mm focal length lens!) almost straight into the sun (shading the lens with my hand) and made a few shots of these hills receding into the hazy distance across the Valley

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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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Flock of Snow Geese, Winter Sky

March 27, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of snow geese against the partly cloudy winter sky above the Merced National Wildlife Reserve, California.

Yes, yet another in the series of photographs of migratory birds above the Merced National Wildlife Reserve made on a winter evening in February. While I missed the “fly in” (though saw it happening a ways north of my position) I did watch hundreds and hundreds of birds of all types pass overhead. Every time I would start to wonder “where are the birds?” or worry about whether I would miss the fly in, another flock would appear and traverse the sky above me.

It was my good fortune – certainly little careful planning was involved! – to be out here during a brief evening window of interesting light and sky as a storm cleared. In fact, as I drove towards the Refuge I at first thought that some of the larger clouds to the west might block the evening light or even bring a bit of rain. However, as sunset approached the clouds continued to thin and I ended up with a beautiful sky full of broken clouds that were gently illuminated as the day ended.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Weeds, Slough

February 4, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Weeds growing in brackish water of a slough near the Cosumnes River.

It is a photograph of weeds! In a slough! ;-)

During my late January visit to the Cosumnes River Wildlife Preserve, the day began with extremely thick “pea soup” tule fog. As the morning wore on it stuck around, though gradually began to lighten a bit. As this process continued I wandered along the railroad tracks beyond the visitor center and at one point I passed by a quiet and slightly muddy slough… where I noticed these interesting (and so far anonymous) plants growing in the water.

I was intrigued by the pattern produced by their stems and the complementary reflections in the water. I also noticed that if I looked more closely I could see the outlines of some underwater specimens of the same plant and that a few odd oak tree leaves were floating here and there on the surface of the still water.

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