Tag Archives: headlands

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco

The Golden Gate, Morning

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The Golden Gate, Morning

The Golden Gate, Morning. San Francisco, California. December 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of Marin Headlands, north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and the Bay Bridge.

Icon alert! Yes, that bridge.

I had business in San Francisco later in the day so I decided to start early and spend time north of the bridge and then return through the City in the evening. As I cross the bridge I almost always assess the possibilities for photography, as often as not decided to not stop since, as beautiful as the view of the Bay is it is not always worth photographing. On this morning though the conditions were a bit special and of a type that we usually only see in the winter months. There are mainly two types of fog in the Bay Area. First there is the “streaming into the Golden Gate type of fog” – which was not present this day – that comes in off the ocean. Then there is the winter tule fog which rises from wet ground on cold winter mornings – and the atmosphere on this morning was affected by that condition.

I made several photographs of the Bay, the bridge, and the City – but this one is perhaps a “triple icon” (for better or worse!) shot in that it includes the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and the Transamerica Pyramid centered in the north tower of the Bridge. I’ve known about the possibility of this shot for quite a while – but until now I managed to resist! Here I gave in and decided to figure out the location. It is almost embarrassingly easy to find and shoot once you figure it out, but you do need a fairly long lens. (In the full resolution original I can clearly see a couple standing on the overlook at bottom left and admiring the view.)

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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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Fort Mason Buildings, The Golden Gate

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Fort Mason Buildings, The Golden Gate

Fort Mason Buildings, The Golden Gate. San Francisco, California. August 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Golden Gate Bridge stands in the distance beyond the buildings of historic Fort Mason in San Francisco, California.

A few weeks ago I accompanied my wife to Fort Mason, where she was playing in the orchestra for Merola Opera, and I took advantage of the time to spend a few hours wandering around doing photography in the area. Mostly I photographed the old Fort Mason buildings and details of their structure, but I also wandered – along with the throngs of out-of-town tourists – up and over the nearby hill towards the Aquatic Club and the fringes of the Fishermans Wharf area.

At the top of the path over this hill there is a great panorama looking back towards the Golden Gate over the tops of the historic buildings of Fort Mason.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Coastal Meadow and Clouds – Davenport, California

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Coastal Meadow and Clouds - Davenport, California
Coastal Meadow and Clouds. Davenport, California. March 1. 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

This simple minimalist landscape juxtaposes the horizontal form of coastal fields and meadows with interesting cloud formations in the wake of a late-winter storm along the California coast.

The location is just outside of the small coastal town of Davenport, just north of Santa Cruz on the coast between San Francisco and Monterey – an area that combines coastal scenery with farmland.

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

Cliffs, Surf, and Fog – California Coastline

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Cliffs, Surf, and Fog – California Coastline. South of San Francisco, California. January 12, 2008. © Copyright 2008 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fog and winter light on cliffs and Pacific coast surf in winter. South of San Francisco, California

I have always been fascinated by light shining directly through the atmosphere, coming straight on towards me – the brighter and more luminous the glow the better. You frequently find me aiming my camera almost straight toward the sun. (I’ve become a master at shading lenses with hands, hat, pieces of paper, you name it.) I also love atmospheric recession, the illumination of distance by the haze, as more distant subjects lose contrast and detail. This scene had all of those things, and perhaps even more.

I had been driving the coast highway (highway 1) between Santa Cruz and San Francisco on this winter day, and in places it was very foggy – but here it was the kind of fog that, while dense near the ground, is shallow enough that the light from the sun shines though and can even make looking at the clouds almost unbearable. I pulled over at a place where it looked like I might be able to walk out onto a shoreline bluff high above the water and see over the edge to the water and cliffs below and beyond. A saw this line-up of receding cliffs dropping to the surf and decided to shoot along them towards the sun. (I was surprised to find later that hidden in the fog is a small creek dropping from one section of the cliff in a small water fall.)

From the original post: “This high key image is a bit different from what I usually do. The fog was backlit by some fairly bright sunlight and, although it is nearly impossible to see in this little jpg image, there is a lot of detail in the frothy white surface of the water on the right side.”

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.