Tag Archives: sea

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

Foggy Evening Near Rocky Point

August 28, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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.

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

August 26, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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.

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

Drakes Bay, Fog

August 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

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!

Stories

Getting Skunked at Point Reyes

August 19, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Yesterday I got sort of “skunked”* at Point Reyes National Seashore – yet, again. ;-)

I get to shoot there from time to time – a beautiful and interesting place that is not so far from me that I can’t drive there and back in a day. I find it fascinating in many ways, but also a bit difficult to get my brain around how to photograph it. While I can show up in the high Sierra – that region from the lodgepole forests well up above timberline – and almost immediately find a wealth of subjects, at Point Reyes I have to search and look a lot!

There are, I think, several reasons for this. Frankly, a place like Point Reyes, as spectacular as it can be in the right places and at the right times, often does not call attention to itself in the same ways that some more dramatic landscapes do. Much of the park is covered with a low, dense forest, and other places are largely bucolic and grass-covered hillsides. I love the beaches and the estuaries and inlets, but they tend to offer peaceful quiet more than stunning features.

A part of it is the need to know where, when, and how to look. A few weeks ago I hiked on a long trail past the of the estuary areas, on a day that was mostly foggy. At first, it was difficult for me to see any photographs in this particular landscape, even though I like the fog and enjoyed being there. Liking a place and seeing how to make photographs of it can be quite different things. However, on that afternoon and evening I did get the sense of this landscape enough to make a few photographs that I believe “work.” They are not necessarily the photographs I thought that I would make, but instead photographs that I found as I spent more time just looking and getting the sense of the place.

I also have to get lucky and/or change my expectations at Point Reyes. The weather there is, as is often the case on the Pacific coast, quite variable. Yesterday, on one side of main ridge along Tomales Bay the sun was out. But I could see that further north there were wisps of fog, and I started developing some ideas about photographs that might include sun and perhaps a bit of fog. But when I crossed the ridge to go to Limantour the fog line was just inland from the coast and those ideas were not possible. I did make some photographs – and I think I’m going to like at least a few of them – but I also spent a lot of time walking and looking and not photographing, just enjoying the foggy atmosphere (which, when the wind came up, reminded me of the coming winter) and the sounds.

* For those who might not know, “skunked” is an American English idiom that essentially means “defeated or frustrated,” though in a manner that might be a bit self-deprecating and perhaps humorous.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sea

Foggy Evening Near Rocky Point

Hills and Trees Near Limantour, Drakes Bay

Getting Skunked at Point Reyes

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