Tag Archives: point

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

Point Sur, Horizon, Clouds

February 23, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Historic Point Sur is dwarfed by clouds and the Pacific Ocean

By the time I got to this point on the Big Sur coast on this February winter day, it was past early morning and the light was more that of the midday hours. Often that might mean that the light had become flat and uninteresting, but some clouds close to the shoreline, some sunlight in the distance, and some high clouds further on made even this daytime light interesting.

I’m very familiar with this spot, where a historic lighthouse facility sits on top of a remarkable hill that would be separated from the land but for a low, sandy peninsula connecting it to the shoreline. Photographing from some distance away with a long lens, and aiming pretty much straight into the brightest reflected light, the hill’s details almost disappear into shadow, and it appears to float in the light and water.

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

Bluff, Tidal Flats, Tomales Bay

October 20, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening along the shoreline of Tomales Bay

This is another photograph from our very recent visit to areas of California just north of San Francisco. If you follow the news, that description perhaps calls to mind the recent (and current, as I write this) major wildfires burning in California, including the disastrous fire in the Santa Rosa area that killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes and other structures. In fact, we were very close to that area on this trip. We might not have gone at all, except that one of the reasons for going there was to participate in a wedding — and since the wedding went on despite the first, we went. We had planned a few days after that for photography, and we decided to stick to that plan, too.

The effects of the fires were obvious in many ways: signs in shops and elsewhere about people needing a place to stay or raising funds for fire relief, the traffic heading to the coast to try to find relief from the smoke, and the constant presence of that smoke in the air. We ended up doing much less photography than we usually would, but on one day we did manage to make a few photographs. We had driven north up that coast a ways, turning around just north of Jenner where the smoke became quite severe, and we were returning to the area around Point Reyes National Seashore. We arrived alongside upper Tomales Bay, which separates Point Reyes from the rest of California, not long before sunset. Here the smoke thinned a bit, mostly just producing some atmospheric haze, and the scene was quiet and still in the early evening light.

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

Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Mount Shuksan

September 18, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mount Shuksan towers over forested valleys near Artist Point, Washington

I was recently in the Seattle, Washington area for a few days. My main reason for going was not photographic, but I managed to get in a couple of days of photography during the visit — a day of street photography in Seattle’s downtown area and a longer day up in the North Cascades near the Artist Point area around Mount Bake and Mount Shuksan. I picked this day largely because of the weather. The Pacific Northwest is not as reliably sunny as my California, so when I heard that the second-to-last day of my visit was likely to produce some sunshine I decided to take advantage of this potential.

In the end the weather was a bit trickier than I expected. There was sun, but it was often muted by clouds. This can be a good thing for many subjects, and light softened and filtered by high clouds can be lovely. But these mountains might have benefited from a bit more light — though the muted light produces a different quality that has its appeal, too. Most of my time here was spent slowly walking along the paths of the Artist Point area, which is found at the high point and end of the road at a location between Mounts Baker and Shuksan. I believe Baker is the higher peak, but Shuksan is the wilder looking mountain, with ramparts of dark rock broken up by snow fields and glaciers. When I made this photograph the soft light was illuminating the forest and valley in the foreground, and even more muted light fell across the peak. The photograph also illustrates a feature of the Cascades that gets the attention of this Sierra Nevada homey, namely the abrupt transition from forest to the alpine zone of rocks and snow and glaciers.

Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Tree Line

September 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Near tree line in the North Cascades, Washington

I have been in the Seattle area for a few days — heading home later today — and getting out to do a bit of photography, with subjects ranging from downtown Seattle street photography to landscapes in the Cascades range. Yesterday the weather was looking good (sun!) and I had the full day free, so I headed up to the Artist Point area in the North Cascades near Mount Baker.

Familiarity with a particular mountain range, in my case the Sierra Nevada, makes the different characteristics of other ranges stand out. The Cascades and the Sierra are both spectacular mountain ranges, but the similarities largely end there. Several things always impress me about this Pacific Northwest mountain range: the suddenness of their rise above forested valleys, the quality of the atmosphere and light (from clouds and lower angle sunlight), the much wetter climate, the lack of granite, and the proximity of big glaciers — they often appear barely above the level of the highest trees and they cover the upper slopes of the highest peaks. (California glaciers are most vestigial, just large enough that we can happily claim to have a few.) This visit was brief — a matter of a few hours — but I managed to get out and wander a bit and make a few photographs. This small clump of trees was catching late-afternoon sunlight filtered through high clouds, with a backdrop of a large valley between my position and the slopes rising to Mount Baker.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: point

Point Sur, Horizon, Clouds

Bluff, Tidal Flats, Tomales Bay

Mount Shuksan

Tree Line

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