Black and white photograph of rough surf and rugged coastal rocks and cliffs along the Big Sur Coastline of California at Garrapata State Park.
This is, to my mind, an astonishingly rugged and wild bit of coastline at Garrapata State Park, south of Carmel, California in the northern section of the Big Sur coastline. I made the photograph from the edge of a bluff above the rocky coast, at a spot where I could shoot south along the shoreline and toward a section of coastline where the contour headed back towards the west. While it was a clear morning with only a bit of fog along the tops of the nearby hills, the surf was big enough to fill the air with a thin mist which created the atmospheric recession effect in this photograph.
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.
A natural bridge in front of manmade Rocky Creek Bridge along the Big Sur Coastline, California.
This scene is becoming a sort of personal icon in my photography of the California coastline. I have made a couple black and white photographs of the location that are among my very favorite photographs, but I’ve been meaning to work on a color photograph of this spot. There are at least three general conditions in which this spot gets what I regard as interesting light: fairly early morning when the light slants down toward the ocean from over the coastal Big Sur hills, late afternoon in warm light, and during various types of cloud and fog conditions. This version is from the first of these – photographed relatively early in the day when portions of the scene are backlit but some light hits parts of the scene directly after the sun rises above the tall mountains to the east.
Believe it or not, I still don’t think I’ve fully worked this scene – and I have several other ideas of how I would like to shoot it when the conditions are just right.
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.
Black and white panoramic format photograph of a moving rock at Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California.
This photograph probably belongs in the “trying to turn lemons into lemonade” file. I’ve had wonderful luck with great light on all of my previous visits to the remote Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, the site of the “moving rocks” that have left tracks in their wake across the playa surface. However, my string luck seemed to run out on this late March visit. Earlier in the day as I contemplated whether or not to head out there I noticed some budding lenticular clouds to the north and made the decision to go. My preference is to have some clouds at the Racetrack, as perfectly clear sky isn’t as interesting in my view. Plus I always have in mind a particular previous visit when I photographed the playa at dawn with beautiful lenticulars building over the mountains to the north of the playa, and I think I’m always hoping for similar conditions again.
The plan on this visit was to arrive in the mid-afternoon to shoot the Grandstand, a formation near where the road first arrives at the playa, and to then photograph the beautiful evening light, the full moon (in the evening and then again before dawn) and finally the dawn light. The conditions continued to look great as I did the long washboard drive to the playa, and I arrived and photographed the Grandstand as planned. However, as I finished up here a high band of clouds moved across the sky and flattened out the light. As evening came on I was out on the playa, but the clouds remained and the light was not remarkable. I finally wandered back off the playa after dark, hoping that the clouds would clear and allow full moon photography. This never happened, and when I returned to the playa early in the morning the overcast was still present, with only a thin area of blue sky far to the west.
But I photographed anyway. Softer, overcast light has its potential, and since I was there I was certainly not going to waste the opportunity. In the end, I wasn’t thrilled with what I brought back for the most part, though I do like the effect of the overcast and the softer light on this black and white photograph of one of the more recognizable rocks. (By the way, the rest of my Death Valley visit went much better than this one night!)
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.
New spring growth on oak trees against perfect blue sky, Castle Rock State Park, California.
This is a simple photograph of a group of oak trees starting to get spring leaves with a deep blue spring sky in the background. I made the photograph along a trail just past Goat Rock at the Castle Rock State Park along the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As I walked along this trail I had been looking down, trying to find potential photographs of the many wildflowers along this hillside – but without a lot of success, given that the late morning hour was making the lighting quite challenging. I happened to look up as I continued on the trail and the silhouettes of the group of trees caught my attention, along with the juxtaposition of the bright colors of the new growth against the color of the sky
This has been a wetter and colder winter in the San Francisco Bay Area than we have had for a few years. Even though the calendar says we are well into spring, the weather has continued to be (what, in California passes for) winter-like, with rain storms still coming in from the Pacific. However, this morning felt like the first real spring day of the year with bright sun and warm temperatures.
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.
Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 35mm
ISO 100, f/11, 1/80 second
keywords: castle rock, state, park, santa cruz, mountains, california, usa, north america, blue, sky, perfect, leaves, yellow, gold, new, spring, season, trunk, branch, silhouette, nature, landscape, scenic, travel, morning, light, pattern, grove, stock, plant, flora, foliage
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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