Tag Archives: county

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

Rugged Rocks, Soberanes

September 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Rugged rocks and surf along the Big Sur coastline at Soberanes Creek.

I’m not certain if this spot has a real name or not, but it seems like it might be something like Soberanes Cove or perhaps Soberanes Bay, since it is at the outlet of the stream that comes down to the Soberanes Canyon from tall, steep coastal hills before entering the Pacific in this rugged, rocky area of the northern Big Sur coast not far below Carmel. Here, as the Coast Highway heads south, it makes a bit of an inland turn to cross the stream and then turns back toward the ocean to rise over another prominence that extends further toward the water. As it does so, a view opens back across the coastal bluff and over this rock-filled section of water toward the rocky coastline.

This was an “interesting” light evening along the coast – in some ways very difficult light, but with short-lived sections of more light that was very beautiful. The fog was hugging the shore line, sometimes extending a bit inland to the coastal hills, cutting off all of the late-day light. But occasionally, where the shore curves inland a bit, as in this cove, the overcast opened up a bit and perhaps even pulled away from the immediately coast and allowed some filtered light to strike the rocks and the water and the shoreline.

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: Ocean & Coast

Dusk Haze, Stinson Beach

September 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dusk haze from northern California forest fires colors the sunset sky above Stinson Beach.

The typical wildfires of September and October are a mixed blessing. They are most certainly tragic for those whose homes and livelihoods are affected by them, and Californians have learned to take their dangers very seriously. At the same time, fire is a natural part of the ecology in this part of the world, and a healthy environment for forests and grasslands seems to require periodic fire. In any case, the fires can also seem like a mixed blessing. If you go to areas affected by the smoke at this time of year – and it happens essentially every year – looking for clear vistas, you may well find them impeded by smoke and haze. On the other hand, if you look at this phenomenon just a bit differently you may find that the hazy atmosphere can produce its own visual magic – and especially at sunset.

This is another of several photographs I made at the end of the day just below Stinson Beach, as we climbed into the headlands hills of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area near sunset during our drive back down the coast from the Mendocino area. With this sort of atmosphere it is hard to know in advance just how things will evolve – will the day simply come to a quiet and gray conclusion, or will the golden hour light illuminate and color the atmosphere in brilliant sometimes almost unbelievable ways. The entire sky did not look like this, but down close to the horizon and right above the shoreline extending from Stinson Beach it did light up with a very colorful glow, so I used a long lens to limit the angle of view to the most colorful portions of the sky and haze.

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

Muir Beach Overlook, Sutro Tower, Dusk

September 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

San Francisco’s Sutro Tower is visible in the distance beyond the Muir Beach Overlook in dusk light, in the Marin Headlands.

A few moments before making this photograph, I had decided that I was done for the evening, as the light was fading very fast and the brilliant and intense sunset and post-sunset colors were draining from the scene. But a turn or two up the road I came upon this overlook, with its view traversing the steep headlands toward the south to where the low hills of San Francisco just outside the Golden Gate were visible, Sutro Tower stood high above these hills, and subtle shades of blue and rose light were still visible.

So we pulled over, and I quickly got set up – again! – and made a few exposures in this dying light. This light is just about as subtle and difficult to photograph as it gets. In fact, I almost didn’t bother! On the scene, it was quite dark – darker than this rendition would suggest. And in that darker dusk, the haze that here partially conceals the San Francisco hills made them almost invisible.

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

Tree and Pinnacle, Pacific Sunset

September 6, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last evening light falls on a tree and a rocky pinnacle high above the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco, California.

On the return drive from our late-August sojourn to the Mendocino Coast, we returned to the Bay Area by the less efficient but more spectacular route and drove the coast on Highway 1, the “coast highway.” For the most part the road hugs the coastline, alternately dipping down to the shoreline and climbing to the tops of very tall coastal bluffs, and occasionally running inland for a short distance. We stopped in Point Reyes Station for dinner (and we can now heartily recommend Osteria Stellina!) and then continued on – and as we did I began to get a sense of where we might be for the golden hour light. It seemed like we would likely pass Stinson Beach – which seemed fine, since I didn’t have an interest in photographing there – and be somewhere south of there in the Marin Headlands.

As we ascended the high and steep road perched along the cliffs south of Stinson Beach, a lot of stuff started happening all at once. I knew that we were getting very close to “that” light, when we spotted a lone coyote along a ridge above the road… right below a large ridgeline rock and above which the nearly full moon had just appeared. Really! So we obviously had to stop and see what we could do with that subject – which turned out to be more difficult that I had thought. At about this time other likely “targets” started to appear, and I photographed back towards Stinson Beach, directly into the sun-lit haze from northern California forest fires. Then I looked closer to my location and saw this windswept tree catching the last bit of light, with a single rugged pinnacle behind it, and beyond that the surface of the Pacific Ocean, fading into the mist and picking up the pink tones of the setting sun.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: county

Rugged Rocks, Soberanes

Like this:

Dusk Haze, Stinson Beach

Like this:

Muir Beach Overlook, Sutro Tower, Dusk

Like this:

Tree and Pinnacle, Pacific Sunset

Like this:

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

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

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