Tag Archives: seascape

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

A Small Wave

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A Small Wave
On a day of quiet seas, a small wave crosses a kelp bed along the California coast.

A Small Wave. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

On a day of quiet seas, a small wave crosses a kelp bed along the California coast.

My recent photographs from Point Lobos have mostly used the grand landscape as the subject, focusing on central subjects set in expansive surroundings. If you are familiar with those locations you might have been able to identify the specific places where I photographed, and you might have recognized the actual subjects of the images. This is not one of those photographs.

This photograph could be from any of an uncounted number of places along the coast of California — or any other coastal zone for that matter. I think this photograph can work in at least two ways. On one level it is a “capture” of a real thing that happens in these places: we see the submerged sand and kelp through clear water, while the more turbulent water that follows the little wave reflects more sky color. But I like the fact that it also woks as an abstraction of shape, color, and form.

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

Rocky Peninsula, Fog

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Rocky Peninsula, Fog
A rocky peninsula, the home of a cormorant rookery, exends into the fog and surf, Point Lobos State Reserve.

Rocky Peninsula, Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A rocky peninsula, the home of a cormorant rookery, exends into the fog and surf, Point Lobos State Reserve.

This rocky peninsula is a kind of “land’s end” feature at Point Lobos. It extends out into the ocean where the west and north shores meet, and it is often a place to observe big surf. Even on this relatively quiet day the waves were washing over the lower slopes of the feature. If you look closely you can spot scores of cormorants on the center and right sides — this is a cormorant rookery, and most of the birds are juveniles waiting for the next feeding from their parents.

Conditions on this morning were my favorite at this location — drifting fog thick enough to obscure distant subjects but shallow enough to sometimes produce some translucent and slightly directional light. I paused at this spot and remained for some time as the fog increased and decreased. Ironically, after all of that waiting, the first photograph I made turned out to have the most interesting light!

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 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

Bluffs and Mist, Morning Light

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Bluffs and Mist, Morning Light
Coastal bluffs, morning fog and mist along the Big Sur coast.

Bluffs and Mist, Morning Light. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Coastal bluffs, morning fog and mist along the Big Sur coast.

Photographing along the Big Sur Coast in the early morning presents some challenges and some special opportunities. The challenge is straightforward — in almost all locations there are mountains to your east that block the morning light. This means that you won’t see the earliest eastern sunrise sky at all, and that the landscape is frequently all or partly in shadow. But one of the opportunities comes from the same source — light arriving along the coast just as the sun clears these obstructions often passes through narrow clefts and valleys, and when the air is full of fog and mist this can create a plethora of light beams.

Those beams are what I saw in this scene. The process of finding the composition here is one that I use a lot. I stopped at a familiar location that presents a very large and panoramic landscape featuring a famous icon. My first instinct was to photograph anything but that icon, so I framed a composition that took in a section of coast and surf running away from me to the south. After I made a few exposures of that subject, each of which tried to capture a different state of the surf, I became interested in the bluff at the far end of the scene. So I went with a very long focal length and honed in on this small part of the larger landscape, focusing on the beautiful shaft of light between the bluffs that lit up the fog and spray and highlighted sections of the surf.

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 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

Big Sur Morning Surf

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Big Sur Morning Surf
Pacific Ocean surf crashes ashore on a foggy autumn morning along the Big Sur coast.

Big Sur Morning Surf. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pacific Ocean surf crashes ashore on a foggy autumn morning along the Big Sur coast.

This photograph comes from my early November visit to the upper portions of California’s rugged Big Sur Coast, an area I can visit on short notice. On this visit I left home before dawn, photographed there a few hours, and returned home for a late lunch. Yeah, I’m trying to rub it in… These visits usually feature a combination of stops at familiar locations, where I look for new or different conditions, and the ongoing search for new locations and perspectives that I have not previously photographed.

This photograph mostly fits the first of those two categories. I made the photograph at a location where I frequently stop. The spot features a long view of a beautiful subject beyond rugged rocks and a small bay that is often full of agitated water. On this morning the surf was so wild that I decided to focus on it instead of the larger view. Every few moments a huge wave would crash against this outcropping sending water and spray up into the line of sunlight coming over the tops of the mountains to my left.

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.