Tag Archives: cove

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

Colorful Pebbles, Weston Cove

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Colorful Pebbles, Weston Cove
Colorful Pebbles, Weston Cove

Colorful Pebbles, Weston Cove. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. October 23, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful pebbles washed up near the water line at Weston Cove, Point Lobos.

This is another “wandering around on the beach with my eyes open” photograph, made at Weston Cove at Point Lobos. This little circular cove has a pebble beach so there are lots of small pebbles of all colors and shapes along the edge of the water. As I wander about this spot I find the pebbles fascinating, both visually and for the sound they make as they are dragged back toward the sea by the retreating waves. While there are pebbles everywhere – in every small hollow or crack, at the surf’s edge, even further up the “beach” where they were left by higher tides and storms – interesting juxtapositions of the pebbles are a bit harder to find. I was fascinated by this little collection, both because of the linear and curving relationships between their positions and because of the very different and colorful types of rock against the background of sandstone.

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.

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

Kelp and Rock, Weston Cove

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Kelp and Rock, Weston Cove
Kelp and Rock, Weston Cove

Kelp and Rock, Weston Cove. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. October 23, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dried kelp on rocks near the surf line at Weston Cove, Point Lobos.

On this late-October Saturday I traveled to the Monterey Peninsula for the opening of Charlie Cramer’s ‘Earth, Water, Light’ show and lecture at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel. (You should go if you are in the area! The show runs from now through the end of the year and perhaps a week or so beyond.) With a winter-season Pacific storm coming in I wasn’t certain of what to expect from the weather, but ended up shooting in some wonderful light at Point Lobos.

There are many subjects to shoot there, and the light is one of the main factors (along with the season, the time of day, and random inclinations…) determining the subjects I’ll focus on. With the edge of the high clouds from the approaching storm diffusing the light it seemed like a good opportunity to shoot the rocks and kelp and other subjects along the shore line. When I shoot these subjects, especially in and around Point Lobos, I often have to slow down and just wander and look before I can really see the possibilities. A quick glance more or less gets me no farther than, “Look! Kelp! And rocks!” But if I wander around slowly and look carefully I’ll usually find some things of special interest among the piles of stones and kelp and other stuff that washes up. I often seen the thick tubular kelp forms like the one at the bottom of this frame, but seeing it with the more delicate material still attached – much less spread out this way on the rocks – is unusual, so I spent some time working with this subject.

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.

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

Bird Island from Weston Beach

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Bird Island from Weston Beach
Bird Island from Weston Beach


Bird Island from Weston Beach. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 16, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Photograph from Weston Beach of wild winter seas near Bird Island and surrounding rocks along the California coastline at Point Lobos State Reserve as high clouds from an approaching winter storm begin to spread across the sky.

Since I decided to make this short mid-January visit to Point Lobos on the spur of the moment (after discovering that predicted rain was going to arrive later than expected) I had no idea what the tide conditions would be like. It turned out that the tide was in when I arrived and familiar locations like Weston Beach, the location from which I made this photograph, were fairly inundated by the tide and the high surf from the approaching weather front. So rather than trying to shoot the smaller details of the beach/cove – I saved that for later in the day – I decided to see what I could do with the longer views of the huge surf and the backlit haze and light fog that emphasized the rocks and bluffs receding into the distance. The light was very changeable, and the sky in this image explain why – for the most part there was a thin layer of high clouds, but there were also scattered thicker clouds that cast moving shadows across the water.

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.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

South Beach Harbor, Morning Fog

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South Beach Harbor, Morning Fog

South Beach Harbor, Morning Fog. San Francisco, California. July 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog begins to clear over sailboats moored at South Beach Harbor, San Francisco, California.

On the first day of July – near the start of my summer break – I took the Caltrain to San Francisco very early in the morning and did one of my “photography walks” starting at the train station. I followed my most common route, walking past AT&T Park and then up The Embarcadero towards the Ferry Building. South Beach Harbor is just past AT&T, and at this early hour it is a very still and quiet place. On this morning it was still very foggy, but the fog was beginning to thin out over the bay, creating some interesting diffused light.

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

keywords: san francisco, california, usa, summer, city, urban, travel, morning, fog, clear, light, south beach, harbor, dock, boat, yacht, sail, water, reflection, cove, sky, deck, mast, cats paw, ohana, embarcadero, barbary coast, shore, bay, cityscape, urban, sport, landscape, stock