Tag Archives: light

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

Rocky Coastline and Haze

June 26, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Low fog and spray from surf mute the morning view of coastal rocks and bluffs along the rugged California coastline

This photograph was made on a beautiful early spring morning along the Pacific Coast Highway in the upper section of the Big Sur area, just below Carmel. On many days when the weather is nice elsewhere in California, fog covers the coastline – but on this morning the fog was barely there and the morning sun came across the summit of the coastal mountains to shine down into the very thin coastal mist. To my surprise, winter having ended so recently, I found myself shooting in shirtsleeves!

This is a particular spot that I return to quite often since I live close enough to this area to visit frequently. A few years ago I made some photographs of a fisherman sitting on a rock above astonishingly wild surf. I recalled the general area where I made the shot, but I hadn’t made an effort to remember the exact location, so I was surprised when I looked at this scene more closely and realized that this is the exact spot from which I shot, give or a take a few feet of walking along the coastal bluffs.

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

Pacific Ocean, Evening Sky and Fog

June 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Thin evening fog clouds drift above the Pacific Ocean along the California coastline.

This is a favorite sort of view of mine along California’s coastline – a calm (almost) summer evening near dusk, but only a few wisps of fog trying to collect themselves along the shoreline, but not quite making it. So much of what I photograph has at least some green in it – so this palette limited to shades of blue and pink seems special.

Although it was not quite so still when I made this photograph – I was along the edge of a bluff not far from the highway – the visual image captures for me the feeling of timelessness that I sometimes experience at the coast. I’ve lived in these areas almost my entire life, so I’m no stranger to the coast and beaches. (Though I continue to see and learn new things. But most such experiences are tied to roads and parking lots and even to urban areas. A few years ago, believe it or not, I had a very different experience with the ocean when I walked perhaps four miles to a point along the sheltered waters of Point Reyes, and coming to the coast on foot I felt, for the first time at the ocean, this sense of deep time and I felt that what I was seeing had probably changed little, if at all, in millennia. I can literally count the number of times that I’ve had the profound realization, and I was alone on each occasion – the Point Reyes experience, on a still evening away from camp above timberline in the Upper Kern River region of the Southern Sierra, and on one memorable day on my first (two-week!) solo backpacking trip when I found myself sitting on top of a 12,000′ Sierra pass for several hours.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Leaves, First Light

June 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light on aspen trees and fall foliage, eastern Sierra Nevada, California

This past fall I had exactly one day to photograph aspens in the eastern Sierra Nevada. This was a bit odd for me, since I usually spend quite a number of days chasing fall aspen color up and down the east side of the range. But this year my target was a bit further away in Utah, and we merely paused for an extra day on the “east side” on our way to that other state. Fortunately, we hit great conditions, in terms of good aspen color and fine weather that didn’t prevent us from getting up to those trees.

Very early in the morning we headed up to an area that I have photographed many times. There are a couple of iconic photographic subjects at this location, but I mostly got them out of my system some years ago and now I look for somewhat less obvious subjects when I go here. I began by shooting some trees near the outlet stream of a lake, with early morning light behind the trees. After working that tricky but beautiful light for a while, I decided to go around to the far side of the lake to where a large stand of small but densely packed aspens stands at the base of a hillside. I got there before the sun came to this spot, so I quickly schlepped my gear up the hill a ways and into the end of the grove, setting up just before the sun arrived. Before the sun’s rays hit the tree, everything had a distinctly blue tone. As the edge of the shadow arrived, the aspen leaves began to glow more and to cast shadows on the trees in the background. These shadows quickly transitioned from soft and subtle to quite contrasty and sharply defined in a matter of seconds. This photograph was made just as the sunlight arrived but before it became intense, and the soft shadows of the leaves on the slender background trunks lasted just a moment.

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

Beach and Rocks

June 20, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late afternoon light on a rocky beach near Pescadero, California

Last week I finally was able to get out and do a bit of landscape photography along the California coast south of San Francisco. (Various other obligations and activities have minimized time in the field recently, and may continue to do so for a few more weeks – but then… lots of time “in the field!”) This area is one of my quickest “gotta get out and shoot” locations, as I can be there in less than an hour, and “there” is one of the most spectacular coastlines I can imagine, ranging from calm and peaceful to towering cliffs and raging surf.

On this visit, things were relatively quiet – nothing like the winter surf of a few months ago. My hope was to find a coastal location in that border zone between fog and sunlight, where interesting and variable things can often happen with light. Starting from the Santa Cruz area, where it was almost perfectly clear, we headed north while keeping a watch on the fog bank hanging just off shore and appearing to get closer to the coast to the north. Eventually, near the Pigeon Point lighthouse, it looked like we might get to the point where the fog and the coast converged, but as soon as we arrived the fog pulled back a bit. In this late afternoon photograph, the sun was low enough that its light was beginning to be somewhat softened and warmed by passing through the thin layer of mist and fog.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: light

Rocky Coastline and Haze

Pacific Ocean, Evening Sky and Fog

Aspen Leaves, First Light

Beach and Rocks

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