Tag Archives: coast

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

Sea Stack, Bluffs, Coastal Mountains

June 4, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A quiet evening along fog shrouded the Big Sur coastline

I think my favorite times along the Big Sur coast are in the supposed off-season, the non-summer months when the ocean tends to be a bit wilder, the winds blow stronger, and the visitors are fewer in number. Summer is often busy and not as scenic, with thick coastal fog in the morning and evening a frequent occurrence. Especially during fall and winter the passing Pacific weather fronts periodically scour out the clouds and the bring spectacular surf conditions.

Yet this photograph comes from summer. We had started back up the coast late in the day, a process that always has me contemplating a plan for the brief evening light interval — where do I want to be and what do I want to photograph. My plans often don’t play out exactly as I expected: the fog might block the sun, I might get held up photographing some unexpected subject. I made this photograph before the time for the last photograph of the day — those came a very short time later. From this spot the view overlooked a big action of the coastal waters, unusually calm and quiet, as the late afternoon light fell on the coastal bluffs and the afternoon haze turning into fog.

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: Ocean & Coast

Headlands, Fog, Ocean

May 19, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Gathering fog along rugged Big Sur coastal cliffs

One more photograph from my May Day quick visit to the Big Sur Coast and the lower Monterey Peninsula. I visited fairly early in the morning — not as early as dawn, but certainly before most of the tourists showed up along this popular coast on this weekend day.

I started with a plan to visit Point Lobos — and I did later end up there — but I was distracted by the formation of thing fog right along the waterline. More typically I would expect to see thick fog in the early morning, left over from the night before, with murky conditions until some clearing happens later on. But on this morning the pattern seemed reversed. It started out clear and then as the morning wore on the weather changed and a beautiful misty quality appeared along the coast, in places leading to the formation of fog.

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: Ocean & Coast

Surf, Bluff, Sea Stacks

May 15, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Surf, a steep bluff, and sea stacks lead toward a foggy horizon, Big Sur Coast

I sometimes forget how long this coast has been a part of my consciousness, but a visit or two quickly remind me. I have lived in the San Francisco Bay area since I was four-years-old. Weekend and summer visits to the Monterey Bay beaches and the tide pools of Point Lobos were regular events, and the effect of those visits remains all these years later — and all it takes is a quick visit to remind me of what it means to live this close to the Pacific Ocean.

On this first day of May I made a morning visit to the upper Big Sur coast, getting to some of the best parts before the inevitable weekend crowds arrived. It was a beautiful day, at first looking like it might turn out to be “yet another blue sky day,” but soon becoming more interesting, at least from the photographic point of view, as thin fog began to form just about the meeting of the ocean and land. When I made this photograph looking south down the coastline, it was still early enough that the bluffs and coastal mountains cast shadows along the surf line.

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

Rocks, Wave, Horizon

May 14, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shoreline rocks, an incoming wave, and the Pacific Ocean horizon on a gray morning

I knew I wanted to photograph today, but the conditions in the Bay Area were perhaps less than inspiring, at least for the subjects I had initially thought to explore. It was a gray morning all up and down the coast and the high fog extended well inland, producing lots and lots of flat light. I stalled for a bit and then, after reading a weather forecast offering the hope of some breaks my late morning, I headed over the hills to the coast and began to work my way north from the Santa Cruz area. Some days the photographs just seem to appear almost of their own accord, but this was not going to be one of those days.

There are several ways to deal with this eventuality. One is, of course, to give up and go home — and, in truth, sometimes that is the most reasonable choice. There will always be another day with better conditions. A second option is to continue to look, holding out hope that something special will eventually happen. (I can tell plenty of stories of unpromising conditions that offered up astounding light surprises.) A third is to look for some completely different subject. For a moment today I thought about doing some urban photography. A fourth — and this may be the best in the long run — is to try to “see” the conditions as they are and find some way to photograph them, perhaps even going with the gray, so to speak. So that is what this photograph is — a very simple and quiet image that perhaps reflects the nature of this day.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: coast

Sea Stack, Bluffs, Coastal Mountains

Headlands, Fog, Ocean

Surf, Bluff, Sea Stacks

Rocks, Wave, Horizon

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.