Tag Archives: point

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

Foggy Evening Near Rocky Point

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Foggy Evening Near Rocky Point - Evening fog obscures the view of the Big Sur coastline near Rocky Point.
Evening fog obscures the view of the Big Sur coastline near Rocky Point.

Foggy Evening Near Rocky Point. Big Sur Coast, California. August 13, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening fog obscures the view of the Big Sur coastline near Rocky Point.

This photograph was made on my birthday, believe it or not! We had headed down to the Monterey area for dinner, and had a few extra hours in the late afternoon, so we decided to take a quick jaunt down the coast towards the Rocky Point and (almost) Bixby Bridge area. Of course, a little thing like a birthday celebration isn’t going to make me leave my camera gear at home, so this was a fine excuse to do a little photography along the coast highway.

The light was variable and challenging, largely because it was late in the day and the fog bank was moving right up against the coast. While in a few places it pulled back enough to allow a bit of diffused light to land on the coastal bluffs, beaches, and even the water, in most places the fog line was just a bit inland. As we drove south we were mostly in fog, but occasionally as we passed a bit further from the shoreline to follow the contours of a creek drainage or a bay we found a bit of sun. We finally stopped at this high overlook that provides a view back toward Rocky Point, the peninsula at the upper part of the frame, and I made a few exposures.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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

Hills and Trees Near Limantour, Drakes Bay

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Hills and Trees Near Limantour, Drakes Bay - Soft sun light on trees and hills above Limantour Beach, as fog bank hovers over Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore.
Soft sun light on trees and hills above Limantour Beach, as fog bank hovers over Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore.

Hills and Trees Near Limantour, Drakes Bay. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. August 18,2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft sun light on trees and hills above Limantour Beach, as fog bank hovers over Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore.

Limantour Beach sits along the inner curve of Drakes Bay at the Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco, California, and the area is one of the best-known and most visited in the park. On certain days, the air is clear and the sun is bright and the beach can be warm, and the view includes not only the nearby wildlife and the surf, but the peninsula leading to the tip of Point Reyes and the coast stretching south towards the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate. One of the first times I visited this place to make photographs it was one of those clear days, and I recall photographing the curve of the Bay leading to the right with the beach and some birds in the foreground. I’ve carried a mental images of how I would like to improve that photograph, and it was with that in mind that I went to Limantour this time.

The weather did not cooperate with that plan. After crossing the ridge between Tomales Bay and Limantour, I could see right away that there was going to be fog along the beach. The shoreline edge of the water still reflected blue sky in a few spots a bit to the south, but at Limantour the fog came a good distance inland from the beach. So as I drove down toward the end of the road, I started looking for some spot that would let me photograph the rounded, grass-covered hills and the bits of forest in sunlight, with the Bay and its fog in the distance. Finding a spot that included all of these things and which made some visual sense was not easy, but with a bit of back-tracking I finally found this spot and made a few exposures.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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

Drakes Bay, Fog

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Drakes Bay, Fog - Fog bank suspended above the surface of Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore
Fog bank suspended above the surface of Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore

Drakes Bay, Fog. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. August 18, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fog bank suspended above the surface of Drakes Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore.

What could possibly go together more naturally than fog and Point Reyes? Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Point Reyes National Seashore is one of those treasures that is close enough that I can manage to visit frequently and throughout the year. However, I’m still trying to “get my mind around” the place as a photographic subject. Some aspects of it are relatively easy to see in photographic terms – these include some of the wildlife (such as elephant seals and tule elk), the tall and rocky coastal bluffs and the beaches often found below them, and certain beaches. Others are not, at least for me, so obvious. I find that some very beautiful things, such as the dense forests of short trees, hills covered with dry grasses and scattered bushes, and fog shrouded valleys, are not always easy subjects from which to make effective photographs.

This scene (if “scene” is the word for it) could be almost anywhere in along the hundreds of miles of the California Pacific coast, and it belongs to my “minimalist seascape” thread, something I’ve been attracted to for a while now. On this afternoon I had decided to go to Limantour Beach, hoping for sun and enough clarity in the air that I could make some photographs across Drakes Bay that I’ve been thinking about. Earlier in the day, things looked promising for that, but when I arrived the fog bank was hovering just along the shoreline and making its way inland nearby. Looking a bit more to the south, the sky was clear – and in between these areas there was a wonderful play of light between the areas covered by fog and the occasional gaps where more light still shone through.

I have been there a couple of times this month and on both occasions I had… fog!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning, Near Olmsted Point

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Morning, Near Olmsted Point - Morning light on granite and sparse trees near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park
Morning light on granite and sparse trees near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park

Morning, Near Olmsted Point. Yosemite National Park, California. July 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on granite and sparse trees near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park

This is another photograph from 2011 on a late-July trip to the Yosemite high country along Tioga Pass Road. The photo was made in morning light in the general area of Olmsted Point, where a series of granite domes and ridges lines up roughly parallel to Tenaya Canyon and in the morning the brightly back-lit haze can create a sense of spatial depth and mute the details of the formations further away.

I suppose that backlit trees like this one are a bit of a theme for me – yet another Sierra subject I cannot resist photographing! The central tree is, obviously, just one of many thousands of trees right here but since it was the closest one it served as my subject. The tree is set in granite slabs topped with glacial erratics left behind when the last glaciation ended, and the slabs are mostly very solid, making the it all the more amazing that such a large and upright tree can grow here. Another ridge rises in the middle distance, and beyond it yet another ridge whose details are nearly invisible in the morning light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.