Tag Archives: cliffs

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Cirque In Shadow

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Cirque In Shadow
A high country cirque in shadows, surrounded by a landscape of talus, cliffs and late-season patches of snow.

Cirque In Shadow. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A high country cirque in shadows, surrounded by a landscape of talus, cliffs and late-season patches of snow.

Over the past decade-plus I have traveled into the Sierra backcountry almost annually with a group of fellow photographers each summer. We’ve photographed from Yosemite to Sequoia-Kings Canyon and some non-park areas along the eastern edge of the range. Our practice has been to take a day or two to get to a suitable spot where we set up a basecamp and then photograph the heck out of the surrounding area. One plus of this approach, as contrasted with trying to cover more ground by moving daily, is that we get to become more intimately familiar with the rhythms of the place.

I made this photograph a few years ago on one of these trips. We camped in thin forest at a nice high-country lake mostly surrounded by rocky terrain. Over the course of the week we explored the surroundings, gradually uncovering what the area had to offer. This lake is one of several along the course of a small stream coming down from much higher country, and it lies in an east-facing cirque more or less at timberline. The late-season snow field in the talus field attracted me from the first time I saw it, and it was only after several visits that I decided to try photographing it in the deep shade from the surrounding peaks and ridges.

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

Bluffs, Surf, and Haze

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Bluffs, Surf, and Haze
Thin fog obscures distant views beyond coastal bluffs and waves along the Pacific Coast of California.

Bluffs, Surf, and Haze. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thin fog obscures distant views beyond coastal bluffs and waves along the Pacific Coast of California.

The scenes like this one that I photograph, visit and revisit… the more clear is the contrast between their timeless nature and the way we live our lives. This photograph comes from over almost a decade ago — which either feels like a very short time or a very long time right now — but it could have come from virtually any time in the past. There’s nothing obvious in it to link to any particular time.

The scene likely feels familiar to anyone who lives near or visits locations where coastal flatlands run up against the edge of the continent. The sea eventually wins the inevitable battle, and in the process produces a stark contrast between gentle, flat bluffs and the cliffs at their edges, which drop precipitously into the ocean and leave behind sea stacks and small islands. On this evening the sea was rather quiet and a thin fog was beginning to obscure distant views.

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

Winter Surf and Coastal Bluffs

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Winter Surf and Coastal Bluffs
Winter surf rolls in beneath steep shoreline bluffs along the rugged Big Sur coast of California.

Winter Surf and Coastal Bluffs. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter surf rolls in beneath steep shoreline bluffs along the rugged Big Sur coast of California.

Although I have been down this section of California’s spectacular coast in the past few weeks, this photograph comes from a few years ago — in a very different time when many of the things causing tumult in our world were almost inconceivable. Among them, back then the idea that a pandemic might change our attitudes about traveling to such places was not even on our radar. Let’s hope that we can return to a world more like that one soon.

I think of this as a somewhat generic photograph of the Big Sur coastline — not because it isn’t a spot of great beauty, but because such places are everywhere along this part of the western edge of the continent. The sun was out on this late winter day, but storms out in the Pacific had brought impressively large waves, raising a thin layer of sea spray along the edge of 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, 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: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rocky Coastline, Surf and Mist

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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.

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