Tag Archives: sea

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

Rock Face, Pacific Coast Shoreline

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Rock Face, Pacific Coast Shoreline
Fractured layers of rock ascending above the edge of the ocean, Point Lobos.

Rock Face, Pacific Coast Shoreline. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Fractured layers of rock ascending above the edge of the ocean, Point Lobos.

This little peninsula at Point Lobos State Reserve couldn’t be more than a couple of hundred feet long, if that. I first visited it when I was a pre-teen and my family came here to explore tide pools. Later I took a camera and photographed here starting in my teenage years and continuing from time to time since then. By now you would think that I’d know every single rock, crevice, and layer. Yet when I go back I still see things I had missed before.

These rocks are on the inland side of the low peninsula that extends a short distance toward the entrance to a small cove. Even at high tide the rocks remain above water, though in heavy winter surf the waves can crash over this formation. It is a striking bit of rock, cut through by curving strata that briefly rise to the surface and then submerge again as they head inland. The material is what I presume to be a conglomerate, so there are many contrasting smaller embedded rocks. It is cut by fissures and cracks along the strata, and there is a seeming infinity of color and texture variations.

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

Kelp and Patterned Rocks

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Kelp and Patterned Rocks
Kelp on patterned rocks at the high tide line along the Central California coast.

Kelp and Patterned Rocks. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Kelp on patterned rocks at the high tide line along the Central California coast.

Almost everything about this day followed no plan at all. I knew I wanted to photograph along the coast, but wasn’t sure where. I headed toward the upper Big Sur coast, but as I passed Point Lobos I thought, “Maybe here.” But I kept going, until a couple of miles later when the answer came to me: “Yes, Point Lobos.” I turned around and headed back to the reserve. I drove in and made a habitual first stop at Whalers’ Cove, then stopped at Weston Beach. Thought I’d take a quick look. That quick look lasted well over an hour.

The conditions weren’t ideal for photographing big landscapes and seascapes. It was fairly gray with what Californians sometimes call “high fog” or “coastal clouds.” While these conditions aren’t great for long views, the soft light can work well for more intimate subjects. And in this particular spot there’s no end of little things to attract my attention: kelp, shells, colorful rocks cast up onto the underlying rock patterns of folded layers, reflections, and more. At one point someone asked what I was photographing, and when I answered “whatever I can find” they just looked at me like I was nuts.

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

Sea of Dunes

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Sea of Dunes
Undulating patterns of overlapping sand dunes extending into the distance.

Sea of Dunes. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Undulating patterns of overlapping sand dunes extending into the distance.

Sand dunes occupy a tiny fraction of Death Valley National Park but are one of the most common photographic subjects. They loom large in our sense of the place, perhaps because sand dunes evoke of a sort of alien landscape. But they also present a visual blank slate that is open to diverse interpretations. We can approach them as “grand landscapes” or as intimate landscapes, as abstractions of shape and color, as backdrops for photographs of people and wildlife, and more. I think I began by seeing them as grand landscapes but now find it more interesting to seek out little fragments of form and light.

Perhaps because it makes everyone a bit uneasy we don’t speak a lot about the extent to which photographers treat dunes as a photographic starting point for visual experimentation. By this I mean to acknowledge that most interesting, compelling photographs of sand dunes involve a lot of “interpretation,” much of it done via post-processing techniques. To be sure, I regard this as conceptually legitimate and even necessary, and I embrace it in my own photography— I egard post-processing to be as integral to photograph-making as setting up the camera and clicking the shutter.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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

Mouth of the LIttle Sur

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Mouth of the LIttle Sur
Sun breaks through morning fog along the Big Sur coast at the Little Sur River on a spring morning.

Mouth of the LIttle Sur. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Sun breaks through morning fog along the Big Sur coast at the Little Sur River on a spring morning.

Try as I may, I cannot pass this spot without at least a brief stop. The hill (a future sea stack?) sits at the terminus of the Little Sur River, where it takes a meandering route across the beach before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. Backed by the rugged cliffs of the Big Sur coast, it is a remarkable little scene, especially on a day like this when I found myself at the edge of the fog bank, and light came and went as the fog oscillated back and forth. Beams of light traversed the face of the distant faces and raced across the beach.

If you follow my posts you know that I live close enough to the Pacific Coast to go there and photograph for the morning, and that I’ve been going there for decades. The coast is as beautiful as always, especially when I arrive early enough to beat the tourist traffic, but it is showing some rough edges these days. The extent of recent wildfires is concerning, and areas still suffer from washouts that occurred during flooding. Given that last fact, it is ironic that drought is also affecting the landscape, and places that should be in the middle of their intensely green spring growth are already turning brown.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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