Tag Archives: fog

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

Winter Surf, Mountains

August 6, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Powerful winter surf washes over rocks at Point Lobos.

I have gone to Point Lobos for decades, beginning when I was a child and my family would visit. I especially remember exploring the accessible tide pools. Today I especially like to go there on foggy days or in the winter, when the raw power of the Pacific Ocean is most visible, with winter storms churning up huge surf.

It was on such a day that I visited last January — in fact, reports of high surf were almost certainly what made me decide to visit that day. Because this coastline faces west, in the morning the coastal hills, being to the east, are often in shadow. To make this photograph I found an outcropping from which I could look back to the southwest toward the shore and juxtapose the rear of a huge wave washing over offshore rocks with the dark and ominous face of the mountains rising behind in shadow.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Wetlands, Morning Fog

July 13, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning fog clears from Sacramento Valley wetlands on a winter morning

I love these winter mornings out in California’s Great Central Valley — cold, damp, perhaps foggy or perhaps clear, with the sights and sounds of migratory birds all around. This was my first visit to this wildlife refuge up in the Sacramento Valley, and I was in exploration mode on this visit, trying to get my bearings and begin to understand the rhythms of the place. It was a mostly clear morning, with high clouds from Pacific Ocean weather above and pockets of tule fog below.

It is easy to imagine that the wildlife refuges are wild places, someone along the lines of small wilderness areas. But the truth is more complex, at least at the refuges I’m familiar with. They are actually managed landscapes, with water levels carefully controlled to support various kinds of wildlife and even the growth of plants managed for their benefit. Those beautiful foreground curves of stubble in the water are the result of management — over the course of the season such grassy areas are cut down to ensure an optimum balance of open water and tall grasses. Beyond the water lies another peninsula lined with trees, with fog beyond and that winter sky high above it all.

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

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

Fog, Mist, Ocean, and Sky

July 3, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking westward toward the Pacific Ocean horizon and dissipating fog

I have something of an obsession with views to the west from the California coast, especially those in which details gradually fade toward and a distant and indistinct horizon. As a person whose family moved to this state when I was very young, and the son of a father who gradually worked his way west from New York through the midwest and the west to finally arrive on this coast, there is still, no doubt, at least a remnant of whatever it was that moved Americans across a continent — to arrive at its edge and look east to the unknown.

Minimalist Pacific Ocean views like this one have long intrigued me, especially when the light is extremely bright, to the point that the atmosphere glows so brightly that it almost hurts to look into it. This was an interesting day, one on which I escaped the hot inland weather to drive down the coast, where the fog was never far away. Here, at a spot high above the water, only thin remnants of the fog were present, along with a soft haze just above the water leading to a fog bank far off shore.

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

Western Horizon, Fog Clouds

July 1, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Clearing fog clouds above the Pacific Ocean western horizon

While I often am inclined to photograph the coast in the very early and very late hours, when the light is often at its most beautiful, I frequently see a special kind of light over the ocean in the middle of the day when I look to the west. Dissipating fog and the general moisture of the ocean, sometimes augmented by higher clouds, can give the backlight atmosphere a luminous and glowing quality — one that I often think of a light so intense that I can barely look into it. The ocean may lead off toward a horizon that simply disappears in this mist and luminosity.

This was a challenging day photographically, though the circumstances of making this photograph were quite mundane. I begin photographing at a slough many miles to the north, in the early morning when things were still foggy and gray. Eventually I moved down the coast, finding alternating fog and sunshine, but always high winds. It was a wonderful day to be out and about along this coast… but not an easy day for photography, and I had made very few photographs when I finally hit my turn-around point and stopped for coffee and a snack before stating to drive back to the north. After I parked and got my snack I came back to my car and noticed the small dissipating clouds of fog just offshore. The road was narrow, with no room for me to safely set up a tripod, so I shot handheld, thinking more about capturing scene data for a concept I wanted to work on in post than about capturing an “accurate” straight out of camera image.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: fog

Winter Surf, Mountains

Wetlands, Morning Fog

Fog, Mist, Ocean, and Sky

Western Horizon, Fog Clouds

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