Tag Archives: nature

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

Elephant Seal Family

July 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Baby elephant seal and its mother, Piedras Blancas

I spent some time photographing at the elephant seal rookery at Piedras Blancas, California at the end of January, but I let the image files sit for a few months before going back and looking at them with fresh eyes. The rookery at Piedras Blancas is special for several reasons. Not that long ago the elephant seal popular was terribly depleted on the west coast, but they have made a tremendous come-back in recent years, and now the Piedras Blancas rookery is one of the places where these huge animals are easy to see. During the breeding/birthing season they haul out on this beach (and many others that are less accessible) that is right off of the Pacific Coast Highway, making it very easy to observe them.

At times the beach is literally covered with these creatures — the huge males, the smaller breeding females, and the newborn babies. The sound is amazing, and I doubt that I can offer any real description in words. You have to hear it. The big males make guttural sounds that seem almost mechanical. The babies howl and whine. Most of the time they lie almost still on the sand, but every so often something sets them off and pairs will engage in mutually threatening behavior, especially some of the males who are apparently trying to establish dominance. The little scene in the photograph belies all of that action, as an elephant seal pup rests next to its mother’s curving body.

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

Big Sur Coast, Winter Light

July 11, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Rugged Big Sur coastal mountains in winter light recede into the distance

The entire Big Sur coast below Monterey, California is full of spectacular land- and seascapes, as the western edge of the continent meets the Pacific Ocean. Often as I drive the Pacific Coast Highway though this region I wonder at the improbability of the existence of the road along its length. (In fact, it is a challenge to keep it open, as there are frequent slides during winter months.)

While the region is almost entirely spectacular, things seem to become a degree wilder and bigger once I pass the inland town of Big Sur and head back out to the coast on the southward drive. Here in many places the road alternates between the edges of high ridges that drop precipitously into the sea and sections that follow along the very edge of the water. (I tend to prefer traveling south along this road, as the light is more likely to be the sort that I look for.) At this particular location, the nearby cliffs plunge into the ocean at an especially steep angle and the curve of the coastline provides extremely long views.

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

Wetlands Fog, Dawn

July 9, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Reflected in a shallow pond, the winter sun rises through morning fog over San Joaquin Valley wetlands

I’m going to take a break from the series of black and white seascapes that I have posted recently and which will soon continue, and today I’m posting a more colorful photograph from this past winter. The scene is at sunrise in the San Joaquin Valley of California back on a mid-February day when we had traveled there to photograph migratory birds. At least that was my excuse. The truth is more complex — I do love photographing the geese, cranes, herons, egrets, pelicans and more, but I also love photographing the flat landscape of this valley, especially in the beautiful, misty atmosphere of winter.

We had arrived here before dawn in near darkness, and a thick ground fog was blocking the view. As the dawn came and lightened the sky above, as is often the case in the San Joaquin, we could see the high clouds through the fog, and the fog soon began to thin and reveal the sun rising through higher clouds to the east above the Sierra Nevada. I found a spot along the west edge of this marsh where I could photograph back across its reflecting surface and straight into the morning’s first light.

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

Rocky Shoreline, Fog, Big Sur

July 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Steep cliffs fall to the edge of the Pacific Ocean along the fog-shrouded Big Sur coastline

I left very early on this Fourth of July morning, while the streets were still nearly empty near my home, and headed south towards Monterey and the Big Sur coast. I watch weather forecasts carefully before going there this time of year. The most likely conditions are not my favorites for photography — either socked in with coastal for or else blue-sky clear. I’m looking for something in between in the summer, which ideally means that there is still some fog around but that the sun is poking through along the edges. The forecast today was one of those that is peculiar to California, with fog hugging the coast early but breaking up by midday and the temperatures in the inland areas, which are sometimes only a few miles from the foggy areas, rising into the nineties. Hoping to find that sun/fog boundary, I was willing to chance the holiday traffic, though I figured I might beat the worst of it by going there before “normal people” were awake, and then by returning at about the time the crowds would show up.

I hit fog in the Salinas Valley, which meant that the fog on the coast was likely to be a bit more obstinate about leaving than I had hoped. In fact, there was a low deck of fog perhaps only a few hundred feet above the ocean, with misty atmosphere below. This is not easy light to photograph, at least not for me, but I found a few places like this one where I could get a clear view of nearby subjects and include more distant subjects disappearing into the fog. I walked out on the bluff to find this spot, set up, and noticed that the fog was in motion, so I decided to wait, eventually spending perhaps 20 minutes waiting and watching for moments like this when the fog thinned just enough to barely reveal the further rocks and coast.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: nature

Elephant Seal Family

Big Sur Coast, Winter Light

Wetlands Fog, Dawn

Rocky Shoreline, Fog, Big Sur

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