Tag Archives: flats

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

Bluff, Tidal Flats, Tomales Bay

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Bluff, Tidal Flats, Tomales Bay
Evening along the shoreline of Tomales Bay

Bluff, Tidal Flats, Tomales Bay. Near Point Reyes National Seashore, California. October 15, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening along the shoreline of Tomales Bay

This is another photograph from our very recent visit to areas of California just north of San Francisco. If you follow the news, that description perhaps calls to mind the recent (and current, as I write this) major wildfires burning in California, including the disastrous fire in the Santa Rosa area that killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes and other structures. In fact, we were very close to that area on this trip. We might not have gone at all, except that one of the reasons for going there was to participate in a wedding — and since the wedding went on despite the first, we went. We had planned a few days after that for photography, and we decided to stick to that plan, too.

The effects of the fires were obvious in many ways: signs in shops and elsewhere about people needing a place to stay or raising funds for fire relief, the traffic heading to the coast to try to find relief from the smoke, and the constant presence of that smoke in the air. We ended up doing much less photography than we usually would, but on one day we did manage to make a few photographs. We had driven north up that coast a ways, turning around just north of Jenner where the smoke became quite severe, and we were returning to the area around Point Reyes National Seashore. We arrived alongside upper Tomales Bay, which separates Point Reyes from the rest of California, not long before sunset. Here the smoke thinned a bit, mostly just producing some atmospheric haze, and the scene was quiet and still in the early evening light.

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.
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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Pier, Low Tide

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Pier, Low Tide
A pier extends across tidal flats at the edge of Tomales Bay, Inverness, California

Pier, Low Tide. Inverness, California. July 23, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pier extends across tidal flats at the edge of Tomales Bay, Inverness, California

In late July I took a day to visit Point Reyes. My main goal was a long hike over the barren bluffs above Drakes Estero, with my plan being to follow a route all the way to the coast at Drakes Bay, hopefully arriving at just about the time the fog cleared. It was a wonderful hike, with some clearing early on, but ultimately it never did clear at the coast. On a day when merely a few miles inland the temperatures rose into the 90 degree range, here in the fog and wind it never got out of the fifties, and it was almost like enjoying a winter day in July.

Before I began my hike I drove along the shore of long, narrow Tomales Bay, where the road mostly travels right along the shoreline, often only feet from the water. This bay is very sheltered, with a narrow entrance and then a long distance from there to its inner reaches. At the upper end the tides regularly turn the bay into a mudflat. I always am on the lookout for photographs as I drive this route, and as I passed this spot I caught a glimpse of the stark backlight and the brilliant reflections on the mudflat — so I turned around and headed back to make a few pictures of this pier and the building out over the way.

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.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Low Tide, Drakes Estero

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Patterns emerge and reflect the sky at low tide on a foggy morning at Drakes Estero
Patterns emerge and reflect the sky at low tide on a foggy morning at Drakes Estero

Low Tide, Drakes Estero. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. July 23, 2017© Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patterns emerge and reflect the sky at low tide on a foggy morning at Drakes Estero

Although I have been visiting the Point Reyes National Seashore, just north of San Francisco, for quite a few years, it has sometimes been a challenging place for me to photograph. Perhaps it is because, with some exceptions, it generally doesn’t feature the same sorts of iconic and spectacular Pacific coast subjects found in places such as the Big Sir coast. instead there are coastal lowlands with most-treeless bluffs, thick and impenetrable forests further inland, and grand vistas across low-lying landscapes. But given enough time and patience and persistence, I think ti begins to be possible to discover a way of seeing almost any landscape, and I’m starting to understand how to see this place.

I knew it that there would be fog on this visit, and my plan/hope was that I could get there at the right time to place myself along the boundary between sun and fog, where interesting things often happen with the light. I decided to take a rather long hike (about 13 miles roundtrip) to a location that I have long wanted to visit, and I arrived at the trailhead just as the fog was beginning to thin there. After dropping through forest I arrived and crossed one arm of Drakes Estero as the tide was at its low point, revealing mud flats along the shoreline. The trail climbed again and I came around another high headland to see a more expansive view toward the fog over the ocean to the west. The low tide revealed remarkable patterns in the estero, and the shallow water reflected the deep blue sky and the thinning fog clouds.

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.
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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Rock-Covered Hill, Desert Haze

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Rock-Covered Hill, Desert Haze
A small hill covered with rocks, the salt flats, and distant mountains, Death Valley National Park

Rock-Covered Hill, Desert Haze. Death Valley National Park, California. April 5, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small hill covered with rocks, the salt flats, and distant mountains, Death Valley National Park

I distinctly recall my somewhat unusual first view of Death Valley. It was perhaps about twenty years ago. My oldest son was in a school “hiking and biking” club, and their annual “Big Trip” was to be an adventure in Death Valley involving hiking, backpacking, and more. Most of the group traveled to the park on a small bus, though I joined a group of parent chaperones and the club adviser/teacher in an old Chevy Suburban, highly modified and loaded down with backpacks and other gear for more than thirty people. We drove all day and entered the park after sunset. Because it was late we stopped at the first available camp ground, the Emigrant campground along highway 190 partway down the route below Towne Pass. We set up camp in complete darkness, unaware of our surroundings, in a landscape that I had never before seen.

Early in the morning, perhaps shortly after dawn, I crawled out of my tent and in this light saw the immense light-filled space of this great Valley for the first time, a view that extended down the gigantic fan on which we were camped, the distant valley floor thousands of feet below, and the rugged mountains on the far side of the valley. I had never seen a raw landscape like this before, with no visible plant life and its geology laid bare — a place of rock, sand, haze, juxtaposed shapes, textures, often-subtle colors, and huge distances. There is, I think, a bit of that in this photograph, which includes a dark, rocky hill that I have looked at many times, its ridge sloping the opposite direction from the distant dark hills across the valley, barely visible through the opaque atmosphere.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.