Tag Archives: cove

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

At the Wrack Line

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At the Wrack Line
Material washed up by the tide at Weston Beach, Point Lobos

At the Wrack Line. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Material washed up by the Pacific Coast tide.

It had been too long since my last visit to the coast. The Pacific Ocean is barely more than a half hour away, and the Big Sur coast is only about twice that far. This coast has been part of my life since my parents took our family there when I was a child. When traveling, two things make me nervous – being too far from mountains and being too far from the coast. So this morning, after too long of an interval, I headed over there and ended up at Point Lobos.

Much to my surprise, my first stop was at the place known as Weston Beach. (It always feels like it should be called Weston Cove, but I digress.) As I began photographing I felt a bit like perhaps I was revisiting a place that has been done, and overdone, and overdone again. But I have a personal connection to this little cove and its rocks and pebbles, and I ended up enjoying a rather long period of slowly poking around, checking out rocks, looking for stuff washed up on the shore. (About that title: I had to look up what to call this stuff, and I learned that the closet thing to an official term for natural things washed up on the beach is “wrack.”)

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

Black Sands Beach, Coastal Cliffs

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Black Sands Beach, Coastal Cliffs
Black Sands Beach and the Lost Coast, Shelter Cove, California.

Black Sands Beach, Coastal Cliffs. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black Sands Beach and the Lost Coast, Shelter Cove, California.

Previously I have shared my dark secret: for decades I barely visited the portions of California north of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Tahoe line. Sure, I visited Lassen National Park with my family when I was young, and I’ve been on Mt. Lassen a few times, and — of course — I have driven north out of the state on Interstate 5. But the Northern California coast remaining mostly off my radar for decades. A decade or two ago this began to change — slowly — as we visited areas in Mendocino County and along the path to and from there, and when we pushed a bit further north from that base on some day trips.

Finally, during the last decade or so, I began to get more serious about this wonderful region and, among other things, I began photographing in the redwoods. (I have photographed closer redwoods for decades.) And then I pushed out toward the coast. On this year’s visit we finally made it to the edges of the Lost Coast area below Eureka, a portion of the coast so rugged that even “the coast highway” takes an inland jog. In the middle of this region lies the isolated (but surprisingly large) community of Shelter Cove. Black Sands Beach extends from this local toward the northern section of the Lost Coast, and no roads touch the coast again for many miles.

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, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Sea Stacks and Bluffs, Fog

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Sea Stacks and Bluffs, Fog
Thinning morning fog above sea stacks and bluffs along the Big Sur coast.

Sea Stacks and Bluffs, Fog. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thinning morning fog above sea stacks and bluffs along the Big Sur coast.

Because I am fortunate to live close to some rather famous places I often find myself at certain photographic icons. Over time I have developed an odd relationship with such places — a sort of love/hate relationship. I recognize why they have become icons, and acknowledge that in many circumstances they are truly amazing places, locations that any visitor to these various parks and other locations will want to see. But over a long period of time two things changed in my thinking about them as a photographer. First, there are so many photographs of such locations that it is probably not a good use of my time to rephotograph them. (To new photographers, it certainly can be a good exercise to photograph them, if for no other reason that to think about how the great photographs of these places were made.) The second change is that, to a certain extent, they start to seem less special.

I have written before about, for example, how I most often drive past the famous tunnel view in Yosemite without even stopping. (I’ve also written about a memorable occasion when witnessing someone else’s reaction to seeing this view for the first time reminded me of what an astonishing thing it is.) Because I have visited the Big Sur coast for decades, I’m less and less inclined to stop for icons… and I’m more likely to stop at random, odd turn-outs just to see what new thing I might find. But this week as I drove past this spot and looked to my right the combination of blue water, drifting fog, and thin light on the foreground rocks persuaded me to quickly pull over and photograph this… icon.

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

Rat Rock, Winter Morning

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Rat Rock, Winter Morning
Rat Rock and morning clouds reflected in San Pablo Bay.

Rat Rock, Winter Morning. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rat Rock and morning clouds reflected in San Pablo Bay.

Despite living in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly my entire life, it wasn’t until perhaps a decade ago that I “discovered” this location along the shores of San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of the San Francisco Bay. I had joined up with a group of (too many) photographers — one of those early Google Plus crowds — to photograph in various places north of the Golden Gate, and eventually we ended up here. I had seen photographs of this small island before, but I did not know its location. And, yes, it really is called “Rat Rock.”

I made this photograph on a return visit a few years later, this time by myself. Considering all of the possible sky and weather conditions in this location, I was incredibly lucky to arrive for this lovely sky and relatively calm waters to reflect the clouds. Some years ago I created a version of a very similar photograph from the same day, but I recently reviewed the raw files and decided that I like this one a bit better now.

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.