Tag Archives: monterey

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Light and Dark Sandstone

May 16, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A bit or remaining red sandstone sits on top of an underlying layer of lighter rock, Point Lobos State Reserve

Near the end of April I found time for a quick visit to Point Lobos State Reserve, south of Carmel in the Monterey Peninsula/Big Sur region. This is a place I have photographed for many years, so I know specific rocks and trees quite well. Photographing here often provides a sort of tension between continuing to refine how I see things that I have known for decades and trying to locate new subjects. In addition to the constantly changing patterns of the Pacific Ocean itself and the mostly stable elements of the rocky shoreline and forests, the weather always changes and the wildlife provides unending variations.

When I decided to go there on this morning I should have remembered that this is the weekend of the annual Big Sur Marathon, which mostly closes sections of the coast highway in the area for an hour or more at a time. But I didn’t remember… until I got to the Carmel Valley road block. I lined up for the periodic car caravans that were scheduled to leave every 90 minutes, picked up a cup of coffee and waited. Eventually we followed a highway patrol vehicle down the highway, and I soon turned off into an almost entirely deserted Point Lobos State Reserve. The solitude I found on this day when few others came to the park made up for the delay in getting there! Because the light was filtered through high clouds I decide to spend some time photographing these beautifully sea-sculpted sandstone formations along the rocky shoreline.

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

Kelp and Stone

February 27, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I met a group of photographer friends at Point Lobos on this mid-February day, where we spent the entire morning photographing before taking a midday break, followed by a quick visit to another location a bit further down the Pacific Coast Highway, and then a return to Point Lobos in the early evening. Perhaps to no one’s surprise, we started shooting near Weston Beach – but perhaps to everyone’s surprise, we were still shooting there when lunchtime rolled around! Fortunately, the light was somewhat cooperative, with some high clouds muting the sun that would otherwise have been too intense by that time of day.

We did not limit ourselves entirely to Weston Beach, and we wandered a bit north and south along bluff and rocks at times, photographing the huge winter surf. Eventually I ended up back at the “beach” (which seems not very beach-like at all, being mostly layered rock and big gravelly rocks) where I always like to look around slowly for interesting arrangements of whatever the sea throws up here. In one spot I found a pair of marble-round rocks, one pink and the other deep blue. Here I found a beautifully twisted and curved bit of kelp sitting on top of deeply patterned rocks not far from the edge of the water. In fact, it was so close to the water’s edge that I was only able to make a couple of exposures before a wave came far enough up on the beach to wash this kelp back out into the sea.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Cove and Wave

September 13, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A wave washes into a small cove and onto a pebble beach along California’s coastline south of Monterey

I went down to the Monterey, Carmel, and upper Big Sur coast on what seemed like the first warm-season day of the year. I have probably mentioned before that I prefer the off-season for photography – that time of year when there are storms, giant waves, clouds, rain, cold, and all sorts of interesting conditions. As odd as it may sound, I tend to almost stay away from the coast when the weather becomes too nice! (Of course, there is always fog. And in the summer along the Pacific coast, I do mean “always.”) At the first place I stopped to photograph I was feeling a bit of the letdown from the beautiful morning… but as I got out of my car and stood there in shirt-sleeve weather, warm and no wind, and looked out over the slightly misty coastline I started to feel a bit better about warm weather. :-)

A bit later I headed back toward Point Lobos, where I found a bit more surf than I might have expected, and the high tide had brought the water in close to the shoreline. Here I set up right at the edge of a low bluff above this pebble-filled beach, put a wide-angle lens on the camera, and made some photographs of the near-perfect curve of the waves entering the cove and washing up onto the beach, with sea stacks further down the coast line.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: monterey

Light and Dark Sandstone

Kelp and Stone

Cove and Wave

Rocky Coastline and Haze

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