Tag Archives: rugged

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Utah Morning Sky

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Utah Morning Sky
“Utah Morning Sky” — A cloud-filled dawn sky aboe Capitol Reef, National Park, Utah.

Back in 2014 a friend and I met up at Capitol Reef National Park for a few days of photography. I was on a long trip, first shooting in Southern Utah alone before we joined up at Capitol Reef. (Afterward I met other friends at Grand Staircase-Escalante, made a quick visit to Boulder, and eventually joined my family at Zion.) I made this photograph early in the morning on the day we headed into the back country along Notom Bullfrog Road.

Although my main goals were further down this backcountry road, soon after we turned onto it the sun rose and the early morning light illuminated a beautiful cloud-filled sky. We had no choice but to stop! We quickly found a high location with a panoramic view and set up to photograph this marvelous sky and light.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rugged Big Sur Coast

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Rugged Big Sur Coast
“Rugged Big Sur Coast”” — Big Sur Coast’Sea stacks and surf along the rugged Big Sur coastline.

I intentionally framed this view to exclude everything except the rocky coastline and the wild Pacific Ocean surf. The Pacific Coast Highway (US1) runs along the coastal bluffs just above those far formations, but below these bluffs the ocean and the land do constant battle, with the ocean inevitably winning as it erodes and washes away the land.

When I look at sea stacks like these I am reminded that the water’s edge was once further west, and what are now off-shore outcroppings were once part of the mainland. These peninsulas and sea stacks were left standing far out in the water as the land around them disappeared.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Sea Stacks and Surf, Big Sur

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Sea Stacks and Surf, Big Sur
“Sea Stacks and Surf, Big Sur” — Rough surf and rugged sea stacks along the Big Sur coastline.

California’s coast is quite varied — in places you can find classic wide beaches, but there are impossibly rugged, inaccessible areas, too. (One section in far-northern California is so rugged that engineers were forced to divert the route of Highway 1 far inland.) This photograph comes from a section of the upper Big Sur coast that combines that ruggedness with a degree of accessibility.

I visited on the late-June morning because friends and fellow photographers were visiting the area — so it was a chance both to photograph and to meet up with them. We arrived very early, before the tourist crowds, and photographed soon after the sun cleared the coastal hills and light arrived on the rugged, rocky shoreline and surf.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Sea Stacks and Surf

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Sea Stacks and Surf
“Sea Stacks and Surf” — Sea stacks in morning light along the rugged Big Sur coastline.

Way back in June I met up with my friends Franka Gabler and David Hoffman to photograph the upper Big Sur area of the California coast. They were there to see an exhibit of photographs by John Sexton and Anne Larsen, so I did the 90 minute drive down to Big Sur to meet them. After some confusion about who was where — and no cell service to sort it out — I finally figured out that they were on the bluffs above this area where Soberanes Creek enters the Pacific Ocean.

This is a particularly rugged section of the Big Sur coast. While it doesn’t feature the high cliffs that make other areas essentially inaccessible, here there are rugged rocky headlands and many sea stacks, especially in the shallow bay between the Soberanes Creek and Soberanes Point.

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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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(All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.)