Tag Archives: creek

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

Big Sur Coastline at the Rocky Creek Bridge

January 13, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

Black and white photograph of winter surf and rugged cliffs and rocks along California’s Big Sur coastline at the Rocky Creek Bridge.

I have photographed this scene before, so it was on my list of places to check out as I drove down the Big Sur coast on the second day of the new year. When I arrived I found very different lighting from that in the linked photograph – that one was shot in the morning with back-light and heavier mist. On this afternoon the surf was big (but not huge) and some mist was being thrown up by the waves, but the late afternoon light more clearly illuminated the rocks and the bridge. I also found a slightly better spot for seeing the natural arch in the foreground rocks. The only difficulty was that a herd of cattle was grazing on the top of the bluff right in front of this scene, and I had to wait for them to move before I could shoot – they were obstructing the arch!

I first thought this would be a color photograph, but the more I worked on it the more I liked the monochrome rendition. To me it seems to take the focus away from the colors and force it more towards the abstract and overlapping forms of the rocks, surf, bridge, and hill beyond.

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.

keywords: big, sur, coast, coastline, winter, season, seascape, pacific, ocean, california, usa, sea, water, surf, wave, stock, rocky, creek, bridge, rugged, rock, bluff, cliff, cave, tunnel, arch, natural, road, highway, one, haze, mist, spray, fog, afternoon, light, crashing, landscape, nature, hill, mountain, black and white, monochrome

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Creek, Muir Woods

January 5, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Water cascades over moss covered rocks along Redwood Creek at Muir Woods National Monument.

I made this photograph on a low-light end-of-autumn day at Muir Woods where the first bridge on the main trail loop crosses over Redwood Creek. It was no problem getting a long enough exposure in this low light – in fact, the main technical issue here involved waiting for a break in the tourist hiker traffic across the bridge, since the bridge is small and tends to bounce!

I love Muir Woods during the dark and damp season of late fall and early winter. The direct sunlight does not often make it down into the bottom of this cold canyon at this time of year. The light is almost always soft and diffused and when everything is a bit wet – e.g. most of the time – the colors becomes intense and saturated.

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.

keywords: california, usa, travel, scenic, san francisco, bay, area, golden, gate, national, recreation, area, park, stock, fall, season, autumn, water, cascade, redwood, creek, leaves, leaf, stick, moss, flow, motion, soft, muir, woods, monument, bridge, 1, rock, nature, landscape, forest, grove

News

A Brief Note About Upcoming Posts

January 3, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Posting a new photograph here every day isn’t easy! I usually try to work ahead so that I have a number of photographs queued up in advance. (No, I’m not really up at 4:00 a.m. Pacific every day finishing up and posting a new photo… ;-)

About a month ago I found myself in the difficult position of having no new photograph ready for the next day’s post on more than one occasion. Fortunately, this happened at about the time of my annual ritual of reviewing all of my photographs from the previous year. This year that amounted to more than 10,000 frames. Not surprisingly, I found a few interesting photographs that I had forgotten or which didn’t make sense to me originally.

During the past few weeks I’ve had more opportunities to get out and shoot. In fact, right now I have nearly two weeks of photographs queued up for posting here. I had the opportunity to spend a rainy afternoon at the Getty Center in Los Angeles at the end of December, and a series of photographs from that adventure will appear soon. I also had the chance to make a quick visit to the Big Sur coast yesterday and I have a few new photographs from that trip that will appear soon – including a new shot of the Rocky Creek Bridge area that I think I like a lot.

Stay tuned!

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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

Beach Walker, Evening, Waddell Creek Beach

December 31, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A solitary beach walker at sunset approaches a flock of gulls at Waddell Creek Beach with clouds reflected in foreground pond.

This seemed like a good “last day of the year” photograph.

Just as the sun dropped to the horizon a lone beach walker came across this strand between this reflecting pond and the surf beyond and approached a flock of sea gulls. If I look at this photograph just right I can imagine that it is wholly a photograph of sky with a narrow “beach bridge” crossing through the middle.

This is one of a short sequence of photographs I made on this evening. I had spent the entire afternoon more or less looking for the right photographic subjects and had come up with nothing. I had just made what I figured would be my last stop for the day at the “official” beachfront parking lot at Waddell Beach. I got out, looked around, enjoyed the wind and sound of surf, but didn’t see anything that quite inspired me to take out the camera. I got back in the car, turned south on Highway 1… and a few seconds later as I crossed the bridge over the creek I saw the pool reflecting the sky. I quickly turned around and parked the car and made a few exposures in the fading light.

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