Tag Archives: evening

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

America’s Pastime

January 2, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Baseball fans along the outer walkways of San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park, with scoreboard, commercial messages, and twilight sky.

This photograph comes from a couple of years ago, and is one that I “found” again recently during a scan though a half dozen or so years worth of old files. I tend to be rather cautious about deleting old files, but I finally decided that some of the older files really not worth keeping – and the side benefit of cleaning out some of the photographic cobwebs is that I often rediscover photographs that I had forgotten.

We go to a few San Francisco Giants games every season. While I like the baseball, other things also draw my attention. In addition to the garlic fries and beer (!), AT&T Park also provides a lot of interesting photographic opportunities. At some point during every game I tend to just wander around the facility and see what might make an interesting photograph. Most often I use the elevated vantage points around the park to photograph San Francisco and the Bay, but sometimes I also photograph subjects within the stadium, too.

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, Photographs: People

Strolling Along Asilomar Beach, Sunset

December 29, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Walkers stroll along misty Asilomar Beach at sunset, Pacific Grove.

Although this might momentarily evoke thoughts of summers at the beach in sunny California… this was shot in the middle of December, and it was rather cold! (The hardy beach-walkers in shorts and bare feet might make you think otherwise.) During the better part of a week spent in the Carmel Valley area I had a number of opportunities to visit nearby coastal areas, and on this evening I had just enough time to make it over to this area at Asilomar State Beach before the sun set.

The winter surf gives this section of the coast a very different look than it has in the winter. In general, the surf is a lot rougher. Along much of this section of coast in Pacific Grove the edge of the water drops off quickly in rocky terrain, but here there is a beach and the beach becomes wider and less steep as it works its way south from this spot. The winter air was a bit hazy and the surf added some mist, creating this colorful glow right about the time of sunset. There were quite a few people out walking on the beach, many with their dogs, so I found an interesting composition shooting along the edge of the water and its reflected sky and then waited for individual walks to place themselves in interesting parts of the frame.

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

Sea Stacks, Rocky Point

December 28, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Sea stacks dot the rugged Big Sur coastline at Rocky Point in evening light.

Continuing with the theme of evening light on the Big Sur coastline, I made this photograph along a favorite section of this portion of the California coast not long before sunset. (I left enough time after photographing this scene to drive back up the coast to more or less the small road-cut just visible in the upper right corner of the frame, from which I made another photograph shooting back into a large cove that is out of the range of this photograph to the right.) At this time, perhaps a half hour or so before sunset, the color of the light was warming and intensifying but had not yet reached that obviously red stage that comes right at and right after actual sunset.

The peninsula in the upper part of the photograph is known as Rocky Point and, among other things, is a spot many may know because of a restaurant perched there above these stunning views of the Pacific coast. (I hear it is pricey!) My camera position was at a pull-out along the Pacific Coast Highway at a spot where the road rises to pass around another bit of land that extends to the west, and this high camera position let me aim the camera down to minimize the sky and fill the frame with the ocean, the rocky sea stacks and cliffs, and the “point” itself. With the main variable being the unpredictable patterns in the surf, I made a series of exposures at what I thought might be likely moments and then selected from among them in post. I like the series of diagonal lines in the foreground surf and the way the low sun picks off the tops of the waves.

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

Rocky Creek Bridge, Sunset

December 26, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Sunset light illuminates the Rocky Creek Bridge, winter surf, a natural arch, and a rugged section of the Big Sur coastline.

This is, for me, essentially the prototypical Big Sur coastline photograph. The Rocky Creek bridge spans, not surprisingly, the canyon holding Rocky Creek, located in a bay not far from the well-known Rocky Point south of Carmel, California along the coast highway. This little scene holds most of the elements that we identify with this area: the old coast highway bridge with its curving support structures, turbulent surf, headlands and bluffs, a small beach, steep cliffs dropping into the ocean, and sea stacks, rocky islands, and natural arches.

I have photographed almost this exact same scene many times, but with the variables of season, weather, light, and surf I keep coming back. I have several black and white photographs of the scene that are among my favorites, but I have been trying to get a color photograph for some time. It turns out to be a bit trickier than it might seem. I wanted sun, but not too much sun. In the wrong light, the colors in the scene can be difficult with a lot of neutral gray, brown and dark greens. In the morning the light comes from behind the bridge, in the midday hours the light (when it isn’t foggy!) can be overly harsh, and in the evening fog and offshore clouds can interrupt the light.

On this visit to the Monterey Peninsula area I had several opportunities to photograph this spot in mostly clear weather and near sunset when the light comes from the right side and takes on the warmer, saturated “golden hour” quality. I shot it on two evenings. On one the light went flat too quickly when the sun dropped behind clouds parked well off shore. The same thing almost happened on this evening and, in fact, shortly after I made this exposure the light went flat. But before that happened I got a few moments of this beautiful, warm, low angle light coming from the sun as it dropped toward the horizon and lit up the bridge and portions of the rocky terrain.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: evening

America’s Pastime

Sea Stacks, Rocky Point

Rocky Creek Bridge, Sunset

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