Tag Archives: sand

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

Waterline Rocks, Sand, and Foam

August 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pacific ocean surf washes sand among shoreline rocks along the California coast

I’m often on the look out for these little coastal vignettes, and this one surprised me while I was photographing something else. We had traveled over to the coastline between Santa Cruz and San Francisco with no particular goal in mind – well, except for stopping for a bite to eat in Santa Cruz and then heading up the coast in search of the fog-sun boundary that we hoped we might find somewhere north of Davenport. However, even though the fog was visible off-shore and occasionally sent a few wispy clouds over the coast itself, we never did get quite the fog we were looking for.

We finally stopped at an anonymous spot along the road where I though I might be able to make a photograph out of a scene of rocks and waves as the coast curved away to the north. But between the time I had seen the shot and the time we managed to turn around, park, and get gear out, the light that had caught my attention was gone. But, being stopped and all, and standing there with my camera on the tripod, I figured I might as well walk out toward the edge of the bluff. As I did so, I had another specific shot in mind, but while heading to the spot to make that photograph I also noticed these rocks at the water’s edge and made a mental note to “work” them a bit before leaving. Once I finished that other photograph of the larger scene, I tipped the camera and tripod down to point at these rocks and watched to get an interesting bit of sea-foam above them. (I’d be lying if I implied that it didn’t take a few exposures to get this one that I like.)

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

Layered Sandstone and Red Leaves

June 27, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The red autumn leaves of a small tree contrast with the angles and layers of a curving sandstone slot canyon, Zion National Park

One of the most intriguing things about slot canyons – among many intriguing things – is the surprising variety of things to be seen as you progress through them. While the basic idea might seem somewhat consistent – e.g. narrow canyon with tall walls and water in the bottom – the details of the canyons seem amazing diverse and they change from moment to moment and bend to bend. This first really made sense to me in a canyon in the Escalante area where we entered by walking down a very wide and flat wash. Gradually a low sandstone “curb” began to appear along the sides of the wash and almost before I knew it this had grown to become a wall. Shortly the bottom of the canyon narrowed so much that we had to rise out of it and walk along side until we got to a point where we could again drop down into it, and it was now deep enough to cut off much of the direct light from overhead.

The slot in this photograph is in Zion National Park, and to be honest I not entirely certain where it was outside of a sort of general area. As we walked through it – and it was not a long canyon – it twisted along the base of a cliff wall and at this spot there was almost no visible vegetation except for the red leaves of one small autumn tree poking out from behind the thickly striated and twisted rock of the canyon side walls.

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

Beach and Rocks

June 20, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late afternoon light on a rocky beach near Pescadero, California

Last week I finally was able to get out and do a bit of landscape photography along the California coast south of San Francisco. (Various other obligations and activities have minimized time in the field recently, and may continue to do so for a few more weeks – but then… lots of time “in the field!”) This area is one of my quickest “gotta get out and shoot” locations, as I can be there in less than an hour, and “there” is one of the most spectacular coastlines I can imagine, ranging from calm and peaceful to towering cliffs and raging surf.

On this visit, things were relatively quiet – nothing like the winter surf of a few months ago. My hope was to find a coastal location in that border zone between fog and sunlight, where interesting and variable things can often happen with light. Starting from the Santa Cruz area, where it was almost perfectly clear, we headed north while keeping a watch on the fog bank hanging just off shore and appearing to get closer to the coast to the north. Eventually, near the Pigeon Point lighthouse, it looked like we might get to the point where the fog and the coast converged, but as soon as we arrived the fog pulled back a bit. In this late afternoon photograph, the sun was low enough that its light was beginning to be somewhat softened and warmed by passing through the thin layer of mist and fog.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Creosote Shadows, Morning Tracks in Sand

May 17, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

A clump of creosote brush casts a morning shadow across tracks in the sand, Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park

While reviewing some old raw files near the end of 2012, I went back to some Death Valley photographs made during the past few years. I came upon this photograph that I had more or less forgotten. I wonder if at the time I was distracted by other photographs that appealed to me more, or if I perhaps just wasn’t sure how to treat it at the time. In any case, it still surprises me – even though I should know better by now – that I find photographs that I like among images that I thought I had finished with several years ago!

Looking through the other photographs that were part of the series that this one comes from, I recalled that I had gone out into dunes in Death Valley before dawn to photograph pre-dawn, dawn, and early morning conditions. As I often do, I approached these dunes by a roundabout route, not only to make the walk a bit easier but also to avoid other photographers and to have a better chance of finding sand that had not yet been tracked up by other human visitors. This small clump of creosote was growing in shallow sand, and its roots had slowed the windblown sand enough to create a very small hill. In turn, this let the low angle sun cast a shadow that led downhill into lower sand and which crossed the tracks of some wildlife that had passed this way the night before.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sand

Waterline Rocks, Sand, and Foam

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Layered Sandstone and Red Leaves

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Beach and Rocks

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Creosote Shadows, Morning Tracks in Sand

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

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