Tag Archives: sea

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

Punta de los Lobos Marinos, Sunset

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Punta de los Lobos Marinos, Sunset

Punta de los Lobos Marinos, Sunset. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. November 22, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sea lions atop the rocks at Punta de los Lobos Marinos at the end of the day – Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

After not getting out to shoot for a couple weeks – too much work at school! – I finally finished grading a giant stack of papers this afternoon and decided to celebrate by making a quick trip down to Point Lobos for a couple hours of photography. As I drove south I saw beautiful broken clouds and blue sky, and I thought that I might encounter some special conditions in – I thought – the wake of the passage of a minor Pacific weather front. As I got closer to Monterey it appeared that there were heavier clouds offshore to the northwest, and when I got to Point Lobos I had less than a half hour to shoot in decent light before the front came through and surprised me with perhaps a half hour of light rain.

I almost left, thinking that I might head further south and catch sunset light nearer to Big Sur just before the front arrived. However, I soon saw that there was light out to sea beyond the clouds and drizzle and I suspect it might soon pass and that perhaps there would be some sunset light. Since the surf was fairly dramatic I decided to head out on the trail to Punta de los Lobos Marinos, the rocky peninsula that extends out from the shore towards offshore rocks populated by sea lions (or are they harbor seals?) and birds. Once I got there I discovered that the post-front wind was whipping up a lot of spray and that the very low angle sun light was back-lighting it and the rocks in dramatic fashion. If you look closely you can see those seals/sea lions atop the foreground rock.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Cypress Trees in Fog #2

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Cypress Trees in Fog #2

Cypress Trees in Fog #2. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. August 21, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cypress trees and rocks in fog, Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

Once I finally admitted that the sun was not going to come out before sunset – which would have been obvious to anyone who did not arrive at Point Lobos with my incorrect preconceptions about the day’s weather – I set about making photographs of subjects that were made more interesting by the fog.

This tree is one that I’ve walked past many times while shooting along the northwest portion of the park just to the “right” of the Punta de los Lobos Marinos and in an area of trails along the bluffs and through Monterey Pine groves. Usually the scene right here is pretty complicated, with many trees, lots of rocks and so forth – but on this evening the fog simplified things, fading all parts of the scene except for this one closer tree growing on top of the rocks.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Cypress Trees in Fog

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Cypress Trees in Fog

Cypress Trees in Fog. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. August 21, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cypress trees on rocky shoreline cliffs at Pinnacle Point, Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

Not the weather I was expecting…

In the middle of a Saturday afternoon I was trying to decide where in the greater SF Bay Area to shoot. I’d shot in The City a few days ago, and shot Muir Woods at about the same time, so I wasn’t thinking of those kinds of locations. As I frequently do when pondering such things, I went to the NWS web site to see what conditions might be like on the coast. I had a vague notion to go to Point Lobos for an evening shoot, so I checked the weather report for that area. I must have read too fast because I didn’t see anything about fog…

So I quickly loaded up and headed off to the Monterey Peninsula with ideas about photographing beautiful golden hour light at one of my favorite shoreline locations. Oddly, as I approached the Salinas River, there was some fog in the air. In full-on “explain it away” mode I told myself that it was probably remnants left over from the clearing that was certainly underway now. Supporting this notion, by the time I got to Marina the air over the Bay was quite clear, though there were some clouds atop the ridge above Monterey. Again, I told myself, “It is clearing still. I’ll get there just in time for the sun to emerge!”

Passing Carmel it was just plain foggy, and when I entered Point Lobos nothing changed. Still, I told myself – again! – that it must have just not cleared here yet. Any sane person who knows this area would have recognized my delusion at this point. While it is possible – just barely – for the fog to clear at 5:30 along this coastline, that is about as likely as putting your car in first gear and having it go backwards… Nonetheless, I wandered on out to the Monterey Cypress groves along the northern portion of the Reserve, happy to photograph the trees in the soft light of the fog.

As the evening wore on, it eventually became clear – even to me! – that the fog was coming in, not going out. I set about looking for “foggy subjects” to photograph, still working mostly in and around the cypress forest. This photograph is yet another example of how conditions can change the shot completely. Here there was just enough fog to mute the background pinnacle and other rocks and barely reveal a bit of the ocean beyond, but it was not so foggy that the closer tree on the rocky prominence was hidden.

On a clearer evening I would have stayed a half hour after sunset to continue shooting… but the light was really gone long before that.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Fort Mason Buildings, The Golden Gate

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Fort Mason Buildings, The Golden Gate

Fort Mason Buildings, The Golden Gate. San Francisco, California. August 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Golden Gate Bridge stands in the distance beyond the buildings of historic Fort Mason in San Francisco, California.

A few weeks ago I accompanied my wife to Fort Mason, where she was playing in the orchestra for Merola Opera, and I took advantage of the time to spend a few hours wandering around doing photography in the area. Mostly I photographed the old Fort Mason buildings and details of their structure, but I also wandered – along with the throngs of out-of-town tourists – up and over the nearby hill towards the Aquatic Club and the fringes of the Fishermans Wharf area.

At the top of the path over this hill there is a great panorama looking back towards the Golden Gate over the tops of the historic buildings of Fort Mason.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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