Tag Archives: ocean

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

Wave-Filled Bay, California Coast

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Wave-Filled Bay, California Coast
Surf along the beach at the mouth of San Carpoforo Creek near the southen end of the Big Sur coast.

Wave-Filled Bay, California Coast. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Surf along the beach at the mouth of San Carpoforo Creek near the southen end of the Big Sur coast.

We were recently in Southern California for the Thanksgiving holiday, and we decided to extend our drive back to Northern California, taking an extra day to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway along the Big Sur Coast. The question of just what is and is not “Bug Sur” comes up in a photograph of a location like this one. My working definition of “Big Sur” is larger than the town by that name much further north, and it encompasses everything south of roughly Carmel, down to the area below Ragged Point where the coastal landscape is much gentler. This photograph comes from the very southern end of that area — the vantage point is very close to Ragged Point, but it looks south toward those coastal lowlands.

Recently I was involved in a discussion in which someone asked about photographing some specific icons along this part of the California coast where one person chimed in with, to paraphrase, “there’s nothing left to photograph there.” While I agree that just re-photographing that handful of familiar icons is a doubtful enterprise, this hundred-mile section of coast is so complex and diverse that I cannot imagine anyone ever being “done” with it or discovering everything it offers. I’ve photographed there for decades, and I still encounter things I haven’t seen before — including this view of the coast and successive beaches and peninsulas stretching to the south.

(Note: I’m experimenting with some changes to the way I format and present photographs online. You may see some differences in how this photograph appears.)

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Bluffs and Mist, Morning Light

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Bluffs and Mist, Morning Light
Coastal bluffs, morning fog and mist along the Big Sur coast.

Bluffs and Mist, Morning Light. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Coastal bluffs, morning fog and mist along the Big Sur coast.

Photographing along the Big Sur Coast in the early morning presents some challenges and some special opportunities. The challenge is straightforward — in almost all locations there are mountains to your east that block the morning light. This means that you won’t see the earliest eastern sunrise sky at all, and that the landscape is frequently all or partly in shadow. But one of the opportunities comes from the same source — light arriving along the coast just as the sun clears these obstructions often passes through narrow clefts and valleys, and when the air is full of fog and mist this can create a plethora of light beams.

Those beams are what I saw in this scene. The process of finding the composition here is one that I use a lot. I stopped at a familiar location that presents a very large and panoramic landscape featuring a famous icon. My first instinct was to photograph anything but that icon, so I framed a composition that took in a section of coast and surf running away from me to the south. After I made a few exposures of that subject, each of which tried to capture a different state of the surf, I became interested in the bluff at the far end of the scene. So I went with a very long focal length and honed in on this small part of the larger landscape, focusing on the beautiful shaft of light between the bluffs that lit up the fog and spray and highlighted sections of the surf.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Big Sur Morning Surf

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Big Sur Morning Surf
Pacific Ocean surf crashes ashore on a foggy autumn morning along the Big Sur coast.

Big Sur Morning Surf. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pacific Ocean surf crashes ashore on a foggy autumn morning along the Big Sur coast.

This photograph comes from my early November visit to the upper portions of California’s rugged Big Sur Coast, an area I can visit on short notice. On this visit I left home before dawn, photographed there a few hours, and returned home for a late lunch. Yeah, I’m trying to rub it in… These visits usually feature a combination of stops at familiar locations, where I look for new or different conditions, and the ongoing search for new locations and perspectives that I have not previously photographed.

This photograph mostly fits the first of those two categories. I made the photograph at a location where I frequently stop. The spot features a long view of a beautiful subject beyond rugged rocks and a small bay that is often full of agitated water. On this morning the surf was so wild that I decided to focus on it instead of the larger view. Every few moments a huge wave would crash against this outcropping sending water and spray up into the line of sunlight coming over the tops of the mountains to my left.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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

Big Sur Headlands, Autumn Light and Fog

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Big Sur Headlands, Autumn Light and Fog
Thinning fog, brilliant autumn sunlight , and receding headlands along the rugged Big Sur coast.

Big Sur Headlands, Autumn Light and Fog. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thinning fog, brilliant autumn sunlight , and receding headlands along the rugged Big Sur coast.

This is a spot that I visit on virtually every trip to the Big Sur Coast. The place where I pull over and find this view is not a spot where you would likely consider stopping. The view is not really all that visible from the roadway, and I think I first found it by spotting the subject from another place and speculating about where I might need to go to find the angle I was looking for… and then successively trying a series of pull-outs until I found one that worked. I know — figuring out which wide spot on the road to use for my camera position sort of diminishes the romance of the whole thing!

But this view! There is a series of tall and steep headlands that fall directly to the Pacific Ocean here. Beyond there is a shallow bay, and then the coast curves back toward the ocean in the distance. The formation of the successive headlands is mirrored in a series of successive ridges running from the ocean back toward peaks. Of course, based on the photograph I made on this visit you will have to take some of this on faith since you cannot see it. Because the coastline here gradually heads further east as it goes south, by late morning the sun’s light reflects off the water, and when there is a bit of fog, as on this day, the effect is remarkable. The atmosphere truly glows, and it is almost too bright to look at. Since I have photographed this before, I’ll point out that that there are two features of this rendition that are a bit different. First, that glowing fog is unusual. Second, I decided to go with a bit broader composition here, and I included the sweep of the darker near ridge at the bottom of the frame.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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