Tag Archives: mist

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

Tree and Pinnacle, Pacific Sunset

September 6, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last evening light falls on a tree and a rocky pinnacle high above the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco, California.

On the return drive from our late-August sojourn to the Mendocino Coast, we returned to the Bay Area by the less efficient but more spectacular route and drove the coast on Highway 1, the “coast highway.” For the most part the road hugs the coastline, alternately dipping down to the shoreline and climbing to the tops of very tall coastal bluffs, and occasionally running inland for a short distance. We stopped in Point Reyes Station for dinner (and we can now heartily recommend Osteria Stellina!) and then continued on – and as we did I began to get a sense of where we might be for the golden hour light. It seemed like we would likely pass Stinson Beach – which seemed fine, since I didn’t have an interest in photographing there – and be somewhere south of there in the Marin Headlands.

As we ascended the high and steep road perched along the cliffs south of Stinson Beach, a lot of stuff started happening all at once. I knew that we were getting very close to “that” light, when we spotted a lone coyote along a ridge above the road… right below a large ridgeline rock and above which the nearly full moon had just appeared. Really! So we obviously had to stop and see what we could do with that subject – which turned out to be more difficult that I had thought. At about this time other likely “targets” started to appear, and I photographed back towards Stinson Beach, directly into the sun-lit haze from northern California forest fires. Then I looked closer to my location and saw this windswept tree catching the last bit of light, with a single rugged pinnacle behind it, and beyond that the surface of the Pacific Ocean, fading into the mist and picking up the pink tones of the setting sun.

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.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rocks and Surf, Point Lobos

August 20, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Long exposure black and white photograph of offshore rocks, surf, and fog at the Point Lobos State Reserve, California

This photograph is from last summer and a visit to Point Lobos when I decided to work with very long exposures in daylight muted by coastal fog. A set of these photographs has sat in my raw file collection since then, as I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to render them in the post-processing stage. I used a 9-stop neutral density filter to darken the scene a great deal and permit the very long exposure that allowed the surf to blur and become diffused. However, these filters invariably have an effect on color balance that is not very lovely – they add a slight almost purple cast to the image. As I thought about them as color images, I could not find a color balance that worked – so I put them aside.

Last week, spurred by another rapidly filling hard drive, I began to go through more of my older raw files to see what could be deleted. Indeed, there were quite a few files that could go – duplicates, errors, some images that really will never live up to what I had expected them to be. But as I do every time I engage in this activity, I found several photographs that I had either overlooked originally or which needed to be processed in ways that I hadn’t thought about at the time. It occurred to me that this one might become one of my “minimalist seascape” photographs if I went for a high key interpretation in black and white.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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: Wildlife

Birds, Evening Fog, Rodeo Lagoon

August 13, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Evening fog obscures the landscape of Rodeo Lagoon, Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

There is a somewhat unlikely story behind this photograph, but a pleasant one. Earlier on this day I had been in downtown San Francisco, in the heart of one of the more urbanized (and not in the good sense of the word) areas of the town. The reason for my visit was a pleasant one, and I do like San Francisco a great deal, but it was a very urbanized experience. I planned that after my downtown event concluded I would go do some evening and perhaps night photography elsewhere within an hour or so radius of The City, since I needed to be back there at about 11:00 p.m. It was mostly sunny in San Francisco, though there were a few wispy fog clouds present, so I started driving more or less west to see what might turn up.

As happened the last time I tried this pattern earlier this summer, as I drove I ended up in more fog rather than less. I recalculated and, again, thought that I’d try to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and see if I could get above the incoming fog by climbing into the Marin Headlands. The fog on the bridge was very thick and it was quite windy. At the north end of the bridge I headed up the hill – there was tantalizing, glowing light somewhere out there in the fog that suggested some clearing to my west and south, but the road itself was completely socked in. Optimistically (or foolishly!) I continued on to the area near Point Bonita, but I could not get out of the fog. It was now getting very close to actual sunset – though I could only detect this by a general darkening of the murky gloom – and I figured I might as well drive down towards Rodeo Beach to see what was there. As I crossed the upper end of Rodeo Lagoon I looked to my left and saw this small group of birds congregating not far from the shore, and in the fading light I decided that it was going to be this shot or no shot at all. I pulled over, took out the camera with the prime lens that I had used earlier for street shooting still in place, attached camera to tripod, and walked over close to the edge of the water.

After all of this driving, I was suddenly conscious of the quiet of this place in the evening light. The thick fog was blowing rapidly up the lagoon from the beach and glowing in the backlight as the light was fading, and three fog horns producing the tones of a minor triad (!) were slowly and mournfully sounding as I made several exposures of this scene. I finished, the light became very dark, and I drove a bit further so that I could walk across the beach to stand at the edge of the surf in the wind and fog before leaving.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Cloud Shrouded Cliffs and Snow, Yosemite Valley

May 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late season clouds shroud snow-covered cliffs high above Yosemite Valley, California.

Among my very favorite conditions in Yosemite Valley are those of winter or late-spring days when there is snow along the cliffs high above the Valley and clouds float along the cliff tops alternately revealing and hiding trees, cliffs, and granite spires. The story behind this photograph is, as is often the case, one of being distracted from the obvious thing by some other small thing that I could have overlooked if I hadn’t looked in the right direction at the right moment.

I was in the Yosemite Valley area for a day, primarily to shoot wildflowers in Merced Canyon below the park. Between my morning and evening shooting along the Merced, I headed up into the Valley to see what I could find. Frankly, although it is always beautiful to be in the Valley, I wasn’t seeing much of anything that inspired me to make photographs. I enjoyed my time there, but eventually decided to go to a slightly different area to see what I could find. On my way back to the Valley from that other place, I passed through Wawona Tunnel, had some extra time, and decided to at least pull out briefly at tunnel view and have a look around. The scene is always tremendous, with the astonishing Valley and all of its impossible features spread before you – but it isn’t always worth trying to turn this into a photograph. I’m spoiled enough that I don’t always even take the camera out when I stop there, and this was one of those days. I left my gear in the car and just walked to the overlook to, well, look for a minute before driving on. I have a habit of looking all around when I’m in such a place since sometimes a subject can be found that is not the primary iconic thing. So I looked around… and high above and way off to the side I saw the clouds gathering around a few of the granite spires, with an occasional beam of light shining through. Ignoring the Valley itself, I now quickly returned to my car, put a long lens on the camera, put the camera on the tripod… and from the back of my car and in the parking lot (sigh… ;-) I made a series of photographs of these fog-shrouded snowy cliffs.

I understand that this weekend a number of photographers, including quite a few that I know, will assemble in the Valley for a “photo walk.” I won’t be there, since I have another thing that I have to attend to elsewhere. So consider this photograph to be my “best wishes for a great shoot.” Oh, and it is also a personal photographic celebration of the fact that Tioga Pass will open on Monday, making the high country my home away from home for many days over the next few months.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: mist

Tree and Pinnacle, Pacific Sunset

Rocks and Surf, Point Lobos

Birds, Evening Fog, Rodeo Lagoon

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