Tag Archives: county

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

Monterey Cypress and Coastal Cliffs at Bluefish Cove

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Monterey Cypress and Coastal Cliffs at Bluefish Cove
Monterey Cypress and Coastal Cliffs at Bluefish Cove

Monterey Cypress and Coastal Cliffs at Bluefish Cove. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 8, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Monterey Cypress trees grow atop cliffs above Bluefish Cove at Point Lobos State Reserve.

One fun thing about photographing places that I have visited for nearly my full life is that it sometimes encourages me to learn things about places that I had taken for granted – like names of features and places. Although I’ve been to Point Lobos since I was a child and I have seen this area of the reserve many times, I had no idea there was a place called Bluefish Cove, much less that this was it. More accurately, the small patch of water at the foot of this wonderful bit of rocky cliff and cypress forest is Bluefish Cove. I am surprised to note that the point itself seems to be unnamed, at least according to several maps I checked, each of which names many lesser places. The ridge rises from the water to form a peninsula between Bluefish Cove and the larger Whalers Cove. Beyond and above are some of the first coastal hills at what I think of as the north end of the Big Sur coastline.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Twilight Surf

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Twilight Surf
Twilight Surf - Long exposure photograph of shoreline surf in twilight, Pacific Grove

Twilight Surf. Pacific Grove, California. December 19, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Long exposure photograph of shoreline surf in twilight, Pacific Grove.

Many times the most interesting late-day light comes after the sun set, and I have learned to stick around as long as I can in these situations. The colors can become more intense as the details become softer, especially when the low light allows me to use longer exposure times with moving subjects in the very low light. By the time I made this photograph my exposure time was up to four seconds. (Shortly after this it was too dark to continue shooting – I could hardly see my camera any more!)

This image falls into my “minimalist seascape” category, without any particular central subject – though there are some points in the scene that do, I think, draw a bit more attention. There is a certain element of chance in these photographs since, obviously, I cannot control the waves. However, by watching their patterns and thinking about how their sharply defined shapes might form more diffused shapes over the longer exposures, I can make some reasonable guesses about when to trip the shutter release. Besides the sky, there are three things in the water portion of this scene that “worked” for me: the single darker wave just below the horizon, the row of three parallel waves in the middle of the frame, and the blurred and reflective area closest to the shore.

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: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Evening Clouds and Rocks, Point Lobos

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Evening Clouds and Rocks, Point Lobos
Evening Clouds and Rocks, Point Lobos

Evening Clouds and Rocks, Point Lobos. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 8, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening clouds over the Pacific Ocean and offshore rocks at Point Lobos State Reserve.

It always strikes me as odd that at the most beautiful time of day at Point Lobos, almost all of the park visitors have left. In the evening as the sun goes down over the Pacific and the fog may or may not roll in, there are often only a handful of people left in the park, a good number of them photographers. On this Sunday evening it may have been that some were discouraged by the low clouds that had come in earlier in the afternoon, but sometimes these clouds dissipate or are lit up from behind at sunset – at that is precisely what happened on this evening. The low clouds began to thin and as they did so beams of light came through the breaks in the clouds and painted the surface of the Pacific with patchy light. A bit later, after I made this photograph, the clouds thinned even more and high, pink sunset clouds appeared briefly. And there was not another person anywhere near me to see it.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
Flickr | Twitter (follow me) | Facebook (“Like” my page) | LinkedIn | Email

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: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Monterey Cypress Forest, Point Lobos

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Monterey Cypress Forest, Point Lobos
Monterey Cypress Forest, Point Lobos

Monterey Cypress Forest, Point Lobos. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 8, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter light on the Monterey Cypress forest growing on a hillside at Point Lobos State Reserve.

This is perhaps an absurdly complex photograph – I think it is going to have to end up as a large print at some point. This is a section of Monterey Cypress forest that I’ve walked through many times on the trail along the north shore at Point Lobos State Reserve near Carmel, California. These trees grow along the tops of rocky bluffs above the ocean and in some sheltered places can grow tall and straight.

I made this photograph in what almost amounted to midday sun, though there were a few fog clouds floating around to mute the harshest character of the light a bit. But I knew that the photograph was going to be tricky. The first challenge was finding a location from which to shoot it – most angles are blocked by closer trees or are inaccessible. I finally found a spot along the trail where I could shoot between trees using a longer focal length. Then there was the problem of the light, or more accurately the dynamic range between the clouds and a bit of blue sky and the much darker backlit and shadowed trees in the foreground. Finally, it is just a very complex scene, and making any kind of coherent composition out of it was tricky. I don’t know yet whether it succeeds or not, but the idea was to use the angled division between the darker and very complex lower right side and the lighter upper left side with its vertical tree trunks, and to let the darker foreground tree connect it all together. That was the idea, anyway!

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II (at B&H)
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 94mm (at B&H)
ISO 100, f/16, 1/40 second