Tag Archives: clouds

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

Precursors to a Storm

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Precursors to a Storm
High clouds over the Pacific Ocean herald an incoming weather front.

Precursors to a Storm. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

High clouds over the Pacific Ocean herald an incoming weather front.

To be honest, the storm whose arrival was heralded by these clouds did not turn out to be much of a storm at all. It rained a bit further north in the state, but not much happened south of San Francisco. Unfortunately, it looks like California is headed for another very dry winter, with virtually no rain so far as we start into December, the heart of our rainy season. And there is no rain on the horizon according to long term forecasts.

Nonetheless, thinking that the sky might be interesting, I took a day trip down the Big Sur coast to see what I could find. It was, as is typical when a Pacific front is on its way, a lovely, sunny, and relatively warm day. These precursor clouds extending out ahead of the weather front were beautiful, and this particular formation convinced me to stop and make a series of photographs juxtaposing it above the calm ocean extending to the horizon.

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

Central Valley Winter Sky

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Central Valley Winter Sky
Pre-sunrise winter sky and thin fog above Central Valley wetlands.

Central Valley Winter Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pre-sunrise winter sky and thin fog above Central Valley wetlands.

These days it is hard to precisely put my finger on the character of California’s Great Central Valley, comprised of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys and the delta where they merge with the San Francisco Bay. Many years ago a drive though the valley was all about agricultural communities, but today things are less homogeneous. Some areas seem more like extensions of the urban San Francisco Bay Area — see towns along the busy I80 corridor and the “bedroom communities” from which long-distance drivers commute in each day. Other towns further into the Valley, including many along Highway 99, have become so large that their agricultural roots seem more distant. To be sure, agriculture remains pervasive in the Valley, as a drive though almost any portion of it will make clear.

Among the features that continue to define this valley for me are its flat geography and the vast expanse of uninterrupted sky. This photograph focuses on both. I chose to place the horizon very close to the bottom of the frame since that’s were it is when we look up at skies like the one in this photograph. It was very early on a late-winter morning, before the sun had come up. The light was blue and thin dawn tule fog was dissipating above these wetlands.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Pacific Sky

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Pacific Sky
“Pacific Sky” — High clouds above the Pacific Ocean are harbingers of an approaching weather system.

Trips into the field to photograph have been difficult during the past few months. Aside from a fair amount of local photography — literally in the neighborhood — visits to more far-flung locations have been rare. I managed to get to the Sierra a couple of times. I recently went looking for migratory birds. And a week ago I did a down-and-back drive to the upper Big Sur coast, going just a bit further south than Lucia. I did not make a lot of photographs, but I stopped for a few… and it was just good to get out and photograph almost as if the world was normal again. (It most emphatically is not normal yet, but there are some reasons for optimism.)

I had “interesting” weather on this visit — which, of course, is the best kind of weather along the coast. Perfect blue sky days are, to be honest, a bit boring. On this morning I raced the lead clouds of an approaching Pacific weather system as I drove south, trying to stay just ahead of the more dismal light behind the actual cloud shield. I stopped here for this beautiful layer of offshore clouds, put on a wide-angle lens, and just took it all in.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

San Pablo Bay

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San Pablo Bay
Old pilings in tidal flats along the edge of San Pablo Bay.

San Pablo Bay. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Old pilings in tidal flats along the edge of San Pablo Bay.

This photograph comes from a wonderful visit to a spot along the shoreline of San Pablo Bay, which is essentially a lobe of San Francisco Bay. While the entire Bay Area, especially those areas that are right along the water, is typically a busy urban area, there are still locations where you can almost completely escape that vibe. This is one of those spots, at a park that walls off almost entirely any signs of urban or modern industrial development, and where the long views obscure those things in the distance.

In this particular location the edges of the bay are more or less tidal flats, and the water along the immediate shoreline tends to be very shallow, often emerging at low tide. The old pilings are a remnant of an earlier time when there was a settlement here and when it was the site of an active shrimp harvesting industry. On this morning, it was mostly a very quiet and still place.

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.