Tag Archives: season

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

Big Sur Coast Near Bixby Creek, Winter

January 17, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Light winter rain falls on the rugged Big Sur coastline near Bixby Creek.

This is one more – and perhaps the final – photograph from New Years Day 2011 along the Big Sur coast line. While this is perhaps not your chamber of commerce picture perfect day, it is my kind of Big Sur day. As I made the photograph the wind was absolutely howling – so strong that I couldn’t really use my tripod, so I instead hand held the camera and braced it and myself against a very large boulder. To make things even more “fun,” it was trying very hard to rain!

The location is precisely at the spot where many of the iconic photographs of Bixby Bridge are made, at the north end of the bridge. However, on this day I thought that the subdued tones of the winter ocean and cliffs were more interesting, so I framed my photographs to avoid including the bridge.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Monterey Cypress Forest, Point Lobos

January 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter light on the Monterey Pine forest growing on a hillside at Point Lobos State Reserve.

The photograph is the color version of the same scene that I recently posted in a black and white rendition. My initial reaction to the image, and the idea I had in the back of my mind when I photographed it, was that it would be black and white. I wanted to “abstract” the dense shapes and textures of the trees and ground plants and rocks, and I sometimes think that the intrinsically unreal quality of black and white can work for that. However, when I worked up the photograph in color I started to like it, too, though in a different way. At least in the small versions that I looked at on the screen, the color version creates a bit more separation among objects in the scene and seems to have a bit more depth. I guess I won’t know until I make prints!

I have often looked at the straight and upright trees on this rocky prominence as I walked past on a trail that passes by just beyond the left side of the frame. This formation sits between two coves at Point Lobos and rises to a high point (to the right of the photograph) before dropping abruptly to steep rocks and then the sea. From the trail you look up the slope toward the high point and through these trees. But I could never quite see a composition. On this winter day the light was a bit unusual. There was a bit of haze and mist in the air, though not a lot – if I stood with the sun at my back I could not really see it, but if I faced into the sun it was apparent. In any case, even though this was photographed during the harsh light midday time period, the light was softened at least a bit, but still a bit stark from side lighting, the shadows among the trees, and the bright and cloudy sky beyond. It is difficult to find a clear line of sight to this grove that isn’t either very, very far away or else right inside of it. I looked around for a bit and finally found a place not far away along the trail from which I could shoot between tree branches.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Monterey Cypress Forest, Point Lobos

January 10, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Winter light on the Monterey Cypress forest growing on a hillside at Point Lobos State Reserve.

This is perhaps an absurdly complex photograph – I think it is going to have to end up as a large print at some point. This is a section of Monterey Cypress forest that I’ve walked through many times on the trail along the north shore at Point Lobos State Reserve near Carmel, California. These trees grow along the tops of rocky bluffs above the ocean and in some sheltered places can grow tall and straight.

I made this photograph in what almost amounted to midday sun, though there were a few fog clouds floating around to mute the harshest character of the light a bit. But I knew that the photograph was going to be tricky. The first challenge was finding a location from which to shoot it – most angles are blocked by closer trees or are inaccessible. I finally found a spot along the trail where I could shoot between trees using a longer focal length. Then there was the problem of the light, or more accurately the dynamic range between the clouds and a bit of blue sky and the much darker backlit and shadowed trees in the foreground. Finally, it is just a very complex scene, and making any kind of coherent composition out of it was tricky. I don’t know yet whether it succeeds or not, but the idea was to use the angled division between the darker and very complex lower right side and the lighter upper left side with its vertical tree trunks, and to let the darker foreground tree connect it all together. That was the idea, anyway!

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.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II (at B&H)
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 94mm (at B&H)
ISO 100, f/16, 1/40 second

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

Big Sur Coastline at Bixby Creek, Winter

January 5, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A winter storm approaches the bluffs of the Big Sur coastline at Bixby Creek.

This is, as you may have noticed, the same scene as that in yesterday’s photograph – but this time in portrait mode and composed to focus on the receding edge of the land as it meets the winter sea off of the Big Sur coast. To recap, it was raining lightly and blowing hard enough to almost knock me over when I made this photograph. The wind was coming straight at my camera position out of the south. Since I figured my tripod would probably blow right over in one of the gusts, I decided to use a “natural tripod” and instead drape myself over a conveniently placed boulder and brace the camera on the top of the rock.

This is a wild section of the coastline that forces the coast highway to ascend well above the steep shoreline bluffs and cliffs. I am intrigued by the rock pile that has slid off the face of the tall cliff at the left and collected along the beach in front of and beyond the cave at the waterline. I was surprised to see a small number of footprints in the sand on this little beach!

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