Tag Archives: mountains

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

Monolith, Storm Surf

November 25, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter surf breaks against a monolith on a Northern California Beach

On this day we gradually worked our way up the coast from Mendocino, through the town of Fort Bragg and on to where the coast highway, very narrow at this point, turns inland, leaving the coast behind as it travels up narrow, forested canyons. We had a particular spot in mind for photographs, a place where we have previously photographed pale, lichen-covered tree trunks in deep forest. The ideal light of this comes from overcast conditions and we certainly had that — but the lovely overcast soon turned into serious rain, and we decided to head back to the coast.

This was the sort of post-frontal rain that comes and goes. One moment there might be a bit of blue sky and some sunshine on the surface of the ocean; the next dark clouds would approach and we could see the approaching rain heading our direction. We stopped at this overlook as the rain let up a bit, giving us a more open view back up the dramatic coastline toward the mountains from which we had just retreated.

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

Bluffs, Autumn Storm

November 24, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An autumn rain storm and coastal bluffs, Mendocino

The surf, the clouds, and the light continually changed our plans on this mid-November day — not that our plans were all that set, in any case. But several times we thought we had come up with something resembling a plan, only to have the scene distract us. We had finally made it back into town for coffee, thinking that afterwards we might head out of town and look for more distant sights. Yet we soon realized that there were things to see and photograph right here, and we headed to the bluffs along the south side of the town.

The surf was up, with large waves associated with a passing weather front and lingering rain and wind. The light was constantly changing — atmosphere filled with mist and spray one moment, and patches of blue sky and sunlight the next. From the top of these bluffs we could look south across the bay to the next peninsula, where large waves were rolling up on the rocks, and beyond to where the sun shone through breaks in the clouds.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Early Fall Color, Rocky Basin

November 19, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early fall season color comes to a rocky basin on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada

This photograph has sat on my computer’s “desktop” for weeks — perhaps even months now — since I completed most of my autumn Eastern Sierra photographs for the year and moved on to other things.

It wasn’t first to be posted because it isn’t either an impressively colorful photograph nor one that is of an unusual subject. In fact, the spot is one that I know well — I photographed from a high place that I visit every year. This time I was there early, more mid-September than my usual early October. I was surprised to find this much color in this area so soon.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Autumn Color, Granite Cliff

November 10, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Transient autumn big leaf maple color in front of the granite face of El Capitan

Many of the beautiful Yosemite Valley big leaf maple trees, with their striking fall foliage, tend to be tucked away in somewhat protected areas, often in dense forest or alongside the river. Here I found one, and a rather large specimen, that stood enough apart from other trees that I was able to isolate it from the rest of the forest.

I had stopped here to photograph a different set of trees, a group that was more typically set against the dark backdrop of tall forest trees and in the shadow of the southern wall of the Valley. As I worked I looked around and happened to glance up at the face of El Capitan and notice that its usually intensely bright face was muted a bit by some high clouds, revealing details that are otherwise hard to see in the middle of the day. In fact, there was a slight blue cast to shadows and some of the dark stains on the rock, a coloration that seemed to contrast nicely with the intense yellow of the fall foliage of the maples.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: mountains

Monolith, Storm Surf

Bluffs, Autumn Storm

Early Fall Color, Rocky Basin

Autumn Color, Granite Cliff

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