Tag Archives: ocean

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

Headlands, Clearing Fog

Image August 21, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Although I have visited and photographed the Big Sur Coast for decades, I find new subjects or new ways to see old subjects every time I go. However, I have a confession to make about this particular subject. I go back to it on almost every visit and continue to photograph it despite there being quite a few previous versions in my archives. I think I do this partly because the conditions change (here it is almost backlit and the distant fog is layered), and partly just because I find this feature so intriguing. On a coastline full of steep precipices dropping into the sea, this one stands out.

I was down there again in mid-August. As is often the case, I decide to go based on the weather forecast. This time it called for somewhat persistent fog along the coast, and I was expecting to be able to work with that murky subject. Imagine my surprise, after driving through truly dense fog near the Salinas Valley, when I arrived at the coast to find it virtually clear!

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

Forest and Cove

Image August 19, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The north shore of Point Lobos is a beautiful and wild place. The meeting of land and sea is a bit more rugged here, with taller cliffs. Steep headlands alternate with coves, many of them narrow and full of rough water. The evocative shapes of Monterey cypress trees top the cliffs, some barely clinging to rocky slopes and many acquiring unusual shapes.

I often discover new things about places that I thought I knew well. I’ve been going to Point Lobos since I was a child. I knew, of course, about these fascinating coves, but it only recently occurred to me that they might have names! This one is “Bluefish Cove,” and it is one or the larger ones, more open to the sea. The trail circles around its inner edge, though it is lined with trees that often obscure clear views of its waters. It is a trail, like many at Point Lobos, that rewards casual and aware sauntering more than purposeful, businesslike hiking.

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

The Old Tree

Image August 15, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This Monterey cypress has long been a favorite subject of mine at Point Lobos, but this year I learned something new about it. It has a name. It is known as “The Old Veteran” or “The Old Veteran of Point Lobos.” I discovered this while looking up information on the distribution of Monterey cypress trees, and one source I found included its picture and the name. Further reading turned up an estimate that it is probably 200-250 years old.

It certainly is a weathered old specimen. It lives on top of a rocky outcropping at the edge of a steep face that drops straight into a cove. One wonders if there was perhaps more soil over those roots in the past, but it hangs on still. From looking at older photographs, it appears that the tree is now increasingly stressed. There were more green branches in the past, and one prominent limb that used to extend to the left is long gone.

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

North Shore, Fog

Image August 12, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This is another photograph from my gloriously-foggy late-July visit to Point Lobos. I made a morning escape from the too-hot inland temperatures, hoping for an hour or two of cool fog on the coast before the fog burned off. I was pleasantly surprised when it stuck around well past noon. I spent a few hours wandering slowly along the north short of Point Lobos in the cool fog, photographing the headlands cliffs, Monterey cypress trees, and the fog-shrouded Pacific Ocean.

I stopped at this spot twice, once near the beginning of my amble and again near the end. The first time it was very foggy, and the farthest prominence was almost completely obscured. It was still quite foggy when I came back. but the cloud deck had lifted enough to open the view towards the end of these cliffs a bit more, and as I photographed I was able to watch sea birds wheeling around the rocks.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: ocean

Headlands, Clearing Fog

Forest and Cove

The Old Tree

North Shore, Fog

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