Tag Archives: northern

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

Fog and Forested Ridges

May 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter fog envelops forested ridges near Mount Tamalpais on the Pacific coast north of San Francisco

I photographed this scene on an early February day when the atmosphere was especially murky north of San Francisco. I had traveled this way for the day with some very general ideas about photographic subjects, but once I got “there” quite a few of those ideas looked a lot less promising. I had initially thought about photographing inside the coastal redwood forest, but when I arrived at my intended location I found that everything was gray, gray, gray! The atmosphere was hazy and murky and high clouds blocked any interesting light from the sun. So figured I might try for something moody along the coast, but there I found the same very difficult light.

I finally headed back up into the Marin hills, hoping that I might get up above the thickest of the gray and possibly get some light filtered through the high clouds and perhaps some longer views. As I entered the Mount Tamalpais State Park and started to ascend the road toward the peak, I finally came out of the coastal fog – though the overhead clouds remained. As I went up this road I looked for spots with some sort of longer view of the fog bank from which I had just emerged, and I finally found it along a bend where the road passed an area of open meadows and rolling hills. Here there was a line of sight back toward the ocean – completely obscured by fog – and the bits of lower hills that were poking through the tops of the clouds. On a technical note, this is not a monochrome or black and white photograph. It is, however, somewhat desaturated. One of the side effects of this difficult atmosphere was a very blue quality to the light that became much more apparent in the photograph than it appeared to a viewer on the scene. I knew I would have to deal with this in post in order to get an effect that seemed appropriate and believable. My initial thinking was to actually make it a black and white photograph, but as I worked with the image I came to feel that it worked better if some degree of muted color was retained.

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

Beach Walker, Mendocino Coast

October 2, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This photograph is from last fall, during a late-October trip to the Mendocino area of the northern California coast. The Mendocino coast is an area I have known about for some time, but which I have not visited that much at all. (It is among a few areas of California that I’ll sometime admit that I have not yet gotten to know. Oddly, there are large swaths of far northern California that are more or less blanks on my map. I need to fix this!) We had about three days in the area, and since it was brand new to use we did a fair amount of more or less aimless exploring.

One one afternoon we decided to head north to and beyond Fort Bragg, which is located just a few miles above Mendocino itself, where we were staying. We continued north a ways until the road turned inland and away from the coastline. After stopping there to make some photographs of a forested area we began to head back towards Mendocino. As we drove the light became more and more interesting. The generally gentler light of late October began to be enhanced to the soft quality of coastal light and by the late hour, and as we descended to this small beach I looked to my right and saw this beautiful bit of light and shadow. We quickly stopped and I pulled out camera and tripod and worked essentially from the back of the car where we had stopped. I had only a few quick moments to photograph this scene before the sun dipped to the horizon and the light was gone.

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: Ocean & Coast

Blue Water, Beach and Bluffs, Mendocino

September 13, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Beach and shoreline bluffs above the blue water of Mendocino Bay, California.

This photograph was made on the beach along the shoreline of Mendocino Bay, beneath the tall bluffs that line the area. The land extends to the west and curves a bit to the south, allowing me to photograph back along the curving beach, toward the inlet of the river that drains into the bay and the forested hills beyond. The light was interesting – fog was coming in along the coast and was overhead at my camera position, but clear just inland of me. This created soft and somewhat gray light on the foreground water, but allowed the further hills and forest to be in the light. It also made the interesting reflection on the calm water more visible.

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

Mendocino Coast, Evening

September 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on coastal bluffs below the village of Mendocino, California.

The little village of Mendocino, now largely a somewhat rural vacation spot, has a lot going for it: connections to a number of historical traditions, lots of quaint old buildings with that weathered look of coastal communities, tons of places to stay, great food, and California’ Pacific Ocean coastline. Though the chamber of commerce might disagree, it seems to be just far enough from major population centers to escape the over-running crowds and rampant souvenir-ism of places like Carmel that once had this same sort of charm. The village sits on a wide peninsula that just out into the Pacific and gradually angles down toward the water, ending in relatively low coastal bluffs and shoreline rocks.

It is often foggy in the part of California, but on our late-August visit we had just enough fog to add a bit of atmosphere – but mostly it hovered off-shore and at times disappeared completely. On our final evening there, we had a bit of time before dinner – and who wants to eat when there is golden hour light! – so we walked out along the bluffs on the south side of town and made a few photographs as the day ended.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: northern

Beach Walker, Mendocino Coast

Blue Water, Beach and Bluffs, Mendocino

Mendocino Coast, Evening

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