Tag Archives: clouds

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

Island, Coastal Bluffs, and Distant Shore

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Island, Coastal Bluffs, and Distant Shore - A steep and rocky island backed by coastal bluffs and a distant shoreline, northern California coast, Mendocino County
A steep and rocky island backed by coastal bluffs and a distant shoreline, northern California coast, Mendocino County

Island, Coastal Bluffs, and Distant Shore. Mendocino County Coastline, California. August 29, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A steep and rocky island backed by coastal bluffs and a distant shoreline, northern California coast, Mendocino County.

The last time I passed by this section of the California coast highway in Mendocino County, I also stopped to photograph this scene – but was less happy with the result. This section of the coastline, like much of the meeting between California and the Pacific Ocean, consists largely of high coastal bluffs, interspersed with the steep canyons where creeks and rivers meet the ocean, with many rocky islands ranging from tiny to huge. The two-peaked island in this large cove fits more into the huge category and it is backed by two fingers of land where the high bluffs extend toward the ocean. In the far distance, a section of curving coastline is barely visible through the haze.

Recently someone asked me about how I decide whether a photograph will be black and white rather than color. I admitted – and it turns out that many feel the same – that often I am not certain when I make the exposure. Roughly speaking, the black and white photographs come about in perhaps three ways. Sometimes I like the subject but the color rendition just isn’t working the way I had hoped, so I try it in black and white and “discover” that I like it that way in post. On other occasions, at the time of exposure I sort of wonder if it might work in black and white and I make mental note to try it that way in post. In the third case, I “know” (with only a small amount of doubt) that the image is going to end up in black and white and I shoot the scene with that in mind. This is one of those photographs – I was almost certain that it would end up in black and white as I stood high on a bluff next to highway 1 making the exposure.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees and Granite, Morning Light

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Trees and Granite, Morning Light - First morning light on trees and granite slabs near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.
First morning light on trees and granite slabs near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

Trees and Granite, Morning Light. Yosemite National Park, California. August 12, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First morning light on trees and granite slabs near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

I made this photograph a year ago, almost exactly, in August of 2011, while on a trip of several days devoted to photographing the High Sierra, mostly in the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite. A year later I do not remember all of the details of this morning, though I recall that I had gone very early to the Olmsted Point area to photograph the glacial erratic boulders and some rugged trees growing on the granite slabs found in the area. Perhaps this was among the first photographs I made, before heading off to shoot my primary subject, since the series it comes from includes the very first light to strike these trees, while its angle was still small enough to hit the trees but not the rock.

When I came upon this photograph in the old raw file archive this week, one thing that struck me is the fact that it does include a Yosemite icon (seen from an iconic angle that is often photographed), yet that icon is almost an afterthought and most certainly not the primary subject of the photograph. I posted something here yesterday about photographing icons (“Photographing Icons or Not”), and one of the ideas that you might take away from that post is that it is possible to see iconic sights in ways that do not necessarily repeat the familiar iconic views. (Not to fear, I have the iconic view of this subject, too.) I’m willing to bet that I was thinking a whole lot more about the warm first light on the foreground trees, the way it contrasted with the cooler blue tones of the deep canyon and shadowed ridges beyond, and the texture and shapes of the foreground granite slabs that are so characteristic of this part of the Sierra.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Ocean & Coast

Rocky Point, Sea Stacks

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Rocky Point, Sea Stacks - Sea stacks near Rocky Point on a foggy evening along the Big Sur coastline.

Rocky Point, Sea Stacks. Big Sur Coastline, California. August 13, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sea stacks near Rocky Point on a foggy evening along the Big Sur coastline.

This photograph was made along the Big Sur coastline roughly in the area between the Rocky Creek and Bixby Creek bridges, about as far south as we managed to get while wandering around before a 8:00 p.m. dinner reservation back in Monterey. (Hey, it was my birthday!) The Peninsula extending into the Pacific in the upper section of the frame could be any of probably hundreds of similar peninsulas where the steep hills of the Big Sur coast drop to meet the ocean – but this one happens to be Rocky Point. The foreground sea stack could be any of thousands (or tens of thousands? I see perhaps a dozen or more in this scene alone…) of similar features found almost anywhere you look along this coast.

The light was both interesting and challenging. In most cases, I would rather try to photograph this interesting, foggy atmosphere than shoot perfect blue-sky conditions. (The latter can occur, though not as often as photography might suggest! Fog is more common.) It was very late in the day, probably around 7:00 p.m, and the sun was low and mostly hidden behind the off-shore fog bank. Here and there the fog backed off a bit from the shoreline or thinned a bit, and slightly more light appeared. The sea stack was in one such spot, and around and beyond the point there is also a bit more light.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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

Evening Fog and Rocks, Big Sur

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Evening Fog and Rocks, Big Sur - Muted light on the surface of the Pacific Ocean and rocks along the Big Sur coastline as evening fog moves in.
Muted light on the surface of the Pacific Ocean and rocks along the Big Sur coastline as evening fog moves in.

Evening Fog and Rocks, Big Sur. Big Sur Coastline, California. August 13, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Muted light on the surface of the Pacific Ocean and rocks along the Big Sur coastline as evening fog moves in.

Having a couple of free hours late in the day, we ended up driving down the upper section of the Big Sur coastline below Monterey, to the area around the Rocky Creek and Bixby Bridges. (Though we stopped a bit short of the latter.) The light was alternately gray and murky, soft and misty, and sharp and bright – the fog was lurking near the coast, and depending upon which bend we drove around it covered the coast highway and the inland hills or it ended just off the coast.

This kind of coastal light creates some of the most transitory and ephemeral effects of all the subjects I shoot, similar perhaps to shooting the clouds of a dissipating winter storm among the aretes and spires of Sierra peaks. The variables in play are numerous: the point of the fog line off the shore or inland, whether or not the fog is thin enough to allow a bit of light so shine directly through, the appearing and disappearing pools of offshore light where the clouds thin, and the motion of the sea itself. Often I’ll spot what looks like absolutely gorgeous light, stop, grab gear and set up… and then look up to see that it is gone. Or that it is appearing in some other location where there was nothing a moment ago.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.