Tag Archives: sea

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

Fog, Headlands, Pacific Ocean

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Fog, Headlands, Pacific Ocean
“Fog, Headlands, Pacific Ocean” — Headlands drop to the edge of the foggy Pacific Ocean coastline at Point Lobos.

This photograph captures several characteristic features of Point Lobos State Reserve and perhaps a bit of the experience of visiting. I photographed from a trail along the north shore of the reserve on a very foggy morning. At times the fog was low enough to partially obscure the view, but here it had risen along the shoreline to offer a clear view of headlands, a cove, a small island, Monterey cypress trees, and the Pacific Ocean disappearing into distant fog.

I learn or discover new things on every visit to Point Lobos, despite having gone there for decades. Each time I find different ways to photograph it, and new perspectives that I had somehow missed in the past. I also learn new things, including some I’m astonished to realize that I didn’t know. In another post of a photograph from this visit I shared that it wasn’t until this summer that I realized that these familiar coves all have names! The one in the center of this photograph is “Cypress Cove.”

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Clearing Fog, Point Lobos

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Clearing Fog, Point Lobos
“Clearing Fog, Point Lobos” — Morning fog clears in the distance at Point Lobos.

In early spring I made a quick visit to Point Lobos, located between Monterey and the Big Sur area. (The latter was still closed due to storm-caused road damage, and the thru-route won’t likely open again until much later this year.) I went early on a weekday morning, more or less the only way to enjoy this place without crowds, especially now that the weather is warming. I spent hours slowly wandering familiar areas, and enjoying the quiet morning.

As much as any other photographer, I often gravitate to making photographs of the Pacific coast that capture its grand scale and the power of the ocean. (I love to photograph the drama of Pacific winter storm surf.) But this morning and this picture represent a different but also compelling state of the coast — a quiet, gray day on which nothing seemed hurried.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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

Arch, Bridge, Big Sur Headlands

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Arch, Bridge, Big Sur Headlands
“Arch, Bridge, Big Sur Headlands” — The ocean meets the rugged Big Sur coastline with an arch, a bridge, surf, fog, and coastal headlands.

One more time, this subject from the upper Big Sur coast is one that I shared last week… and last year… and perhaps almost every year before that. Yes, I’ve been stopping to photograph here for years. Each time I tell myself, “OK, you are done with this scene now.” And almost every time I pass that way again I end up stopping. And I frequently find that the atmosphere has changed to present some new way of seeing it.

This visit was on a late-February morning. The surf was large, but not monumental. Yet it was enough to combine with thinning fog to produce a luminous haze along the edge of the water. This haze was gently illuminated by the morning sun rising above the coastal mountains, and its light arrived on the flat headlands at the left just as I arrived.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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

Pacific Coast Highway, Headlands

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Pacific Coast Highway, Headlands
“Pacific Coast Highway, Headlands” — The Pacific Coast Highway traverses steep headlands above the Pacific Ocean on a hazy winter morning, Big Sur coast.

This landscape that reminds me that change is the rule. It invites all sorts of questions. How long ago were those sea stacks part of the mainland? How long until the cliff-edge trail I’m slips into the ocean? Where will the next route-closing landslide occur? The dynamism of the landscape is clearly present here.

This time I visited for a few hours on a late-winter morning. The skies were mostly clear along the coast, as is common here between storms, but there was scattered fog and everywhere there was mist, from both the clearing fog and from ocean spray. Early in the morning the sun is blocked by coastal mountains, but as it rises its light angles down among these headlands.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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