Tag Archives: mendocino

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

Mendocino Bay Bluffs, Morning

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Mendocino Bay Bluffs, Morning
Morning light on Mendocino Bay and rocky coastal bluffs.

Mendocino Bay Bluffs, Morning. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on Mendocino Bay and rocky coastal bluffs.

Mendocino still seems to have some of the feeling of the California coast from some decades ago. When I was quite young my family used to visit Carmel, and back then it seemed like a very different and more intimate place than the touristy mob scene that it has become now. While Mendocino is most certainly a place that attracts and relies on the tourist trade, it still feels more like a real place than something contrived. It is small. There aren’t that many restaurants. Most of the lodgings are relatively unobtrusive.

It also is just about as close to the ocean as you can get in such a town along this part of the coast. To make this photograph I got out of bed, got dressed, (likely paused for coffee), headed out the door, and walked about five minutes to the edge of the coastal bluffs. There was hardly anyone else there — perhaps they were busy enjoying brunch still. The photograph looks along the edge of Mendocino Bay, back toward the outlet of the Big River.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature

Right Angle Leaves

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Right Angle Leaves
A plant with a pattern of successive leaves growing at right angles to one another.

Right Angle Leaves. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A plant with a pattern of successive leaves growing at right angles to one another.

Two years ago we made a trip up the California coast, with our ultimate goal being the redwood parks in the far northern corner of the state. Our primary goal was photography — redwood trees, the coast, rhododendron blooms — but we also regarded this trip as a bit of a vacation. With that in mind we split the northward drive into two parts, and spent a couple of days largely hanging out in the town of Mendocino. We did a bit of photography, but we also did a bit of restaurant dining and other touristy things.

The town of Fort Bragg is just up the coast from here, and it turns out that there is an extensive botanical garden there — it rivals and surpasses those of many larger urban centers. So we spent part of a day wandering the grounds and photographing flowers and plants, including this specimen. In the soft shadow light the yellow to green colors and the fascinating geometries of the plant are easily visible.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Sea Stacks, Cliff, and Beach

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Sea Stacks, Cliff, and Beach
Morning fog above a beach, cliffs, and sea stacks, and coastal hills, Mendocino, California.

Sea Stacks, Cliff, and Beach. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog above a beach, cliffs, and sea stacks, and coastal hills, Mendocino, California.

This photograph is not from this season’s California North Coast adventure — instead it comes from the visit before that during the last June of the pre-pandemic era. Our goal was the farther northern redwood parks, where we hoped to photograph the trees and rhododendrons, but first we stopped further south at Mendocino for a couple of nights.

There are worthy photographic subjects all up and down this remarkable coast, but it isn’t often that I’m so close to them that I can get up in the morning, walk out the door, and five minutes later be standing at the edge of a coastal bluff setting up my tripod. I was out early — of course! — and the area was fairly empty as I framed up this composition that looks toward the river that empties into Mendocino Bay. Morning fog obscured distant features, and the foreground landscape is formed by cliffs, bluffs, and the interaction of shadows, direct light, and the patterns of waves.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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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

Mendocino Bay, Morning

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Mendocino Bay, Morning
Waves wash onto the shoreline of Mendocino Bay on a foggy morning.

Mendocino Bay, Morning. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Waves wash onto the shoreline of Mendocino Bay on a foggy morning.

Recently I returned to the photographs from this visit to the North Coast of California, on which we spent a few days in Mendocino. This little town presents an interesting dichotomy between the old-school funky, hippiness of that part of the state and the semi-yuppified element that has grown in more recent years. In a sense, you “see it all” in this place.

On this visit we stayed in town, not more than a couple of minutes walk from the bluffs overlooking the bay just south of the peninsula on which the town sits. On this morning we wandered over there in the morning before the morning fog and haze had completely clearer, and I made a series of photographs looking inland along these bluffs to the outlet of the river that drains into the bay.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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