Tag Archives: shore

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Shoreline Rocks and Grasses

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Shoreline Rocks and Grasses
Rocks and grasses along the shoreline of Lava Lake, Oregon

Shoreline Rocks and Grasses. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rocks and grasses along the shoreline of Lava Lake, Oregon

This past week I spent some time in the Cascade Lakes region of Oregon. This was a family event — not a photography trip — so I did not come back with a whole lot of photographs! The thick wildfire smoke in Oregon also limited the opportunities to do photography… not to mention the opportunities to breath healthy air. The smoke sort of came and went over the first few days, but on my final day in the state it was horrendous. Unfortunately, almost the entire West is suffering from this right now, and it doesn’t seem likely that the situation will improve for another month or two.

We stayed at a pretty, quiet little lake nestled in the woods, Lava Lake. Various members of my family managed to take about a half dozen campsites there. While I spent most of my time doing the “family thing,” on this morning I went for a solo walk along the shoreline of the lake. True to its name, the banks are largely rough lava, and here a bit of that rocky material extends into the water near grasses.

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, Photographs: Travel

Edge of the Pacific

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Edge of the Pacific
Boulders and surf under clearing fog along the Big Sur coast.

Edge of the Pacific. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Boulders and surf under clearing fog along the Big Sur coast.

This photograph likely looks a bit… ambiguous. In fact, it was that sort of day along this section of the California coast. I’m generally a fan of fog when I go to photograph there, but getting just the right amount of fog in the right places takes a bit of luck — we don’t control that! I was hoping for the kind of day that starts with thick, mysterious fog but then transitions to clearing, gradually revealing features as the sun begins to appear. But that fog never fully cleared. (At one point as I was photographing a disappointed tourist stopped and more or less asked me where the Pacific Ocean was and whether or not he might be able to see it.)

Later in the afternoon the fog did begin to diminish a bit, but it remained right up against the coast. In many places when I positioned myself to photograph over the ocean, the sun was shining on the hills directly behind me as I pointed the camera into the murk at the edge fo the land. In this spot the fog had sufficiently thinned right at the coast and I was able to make out rocks right at the water’s edge… but the fog obscured and muted the more distant ocean. That distant, fuzzy line near the top of the frame is some vague, opaque combination of the horizon and fog.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Rocky Terrain, Subalpine Lake

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Rocky Terrain, Subalpine Lake
Rocky terrain and its reflection along the shoreline of a backcountry subalpine lake, Kings Canyon National Park.

Rocky Terrain, Subalpine Lake. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rocky terrain and its reflection along the shoreline of a backcountry subalpine lake, Kings Canyon National Park.

As I do from time to time, recently I was reminiscing about the Before Times when I headed into the Sierra backcountry for a week or more every summer with a wonderful group of fellow photographers — among whom are several who have been doing these trips for two decades. (Although I’ve visited the Sierra backcountry for what I vaguely refer to as “decades,” I only began to join this group in 2008.) All of us miss these trips, especially what would have been the one celebrating the second decade of the work, but it turns out that there are still discoveries to be made among the photographs we brought back.

On this trip we visited a fairly remote location in the Sequoia-Kings Canyon backcountry, one that took us a couple of days to get to. Once there we spent close to a week photographing the heck out of the place and surrounding wilderness, a high elevation place full of lakes and rocky terrain. We mixed photograph in our immediate “backyard” (sometimes only steps from out tents) with somewhat longer explorations. This photograph comes from a lake rather close to our camp. My weak knowledge of Sierra geology suggests to me that this monumental chunk of rock was probably overrun and sculpted by glaciers in the past.

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

Edge of the Continent

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Edge of the Continent
The rugged cliffs of the Big Sur coast meet the Pacific Ocean under cloudy skies.

Edge of the Continent. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The rugged cliffs of the Big Sur coast meet the Pacific Ocean under cloudy skies.

Although I was born in the Upper Midwest, I don’t think I could live there anymore — even though many aspects of the place are in my blood and feel comfortable to me. I recall visiting a few decades ago — and, honestly, generally enjoying myself — but watching the sun set and thinking about how many hundreds (more than a thousand, actually) of miles it is to the ocean. I can’t quite put the feeling into words, but it just seemed odd to this guy who has lived perhaps 25 linear miles from the Pacific Ocean for, well, more than a couple of decades.

I was thinking about this feeling as I visited the area in this photograph, the Big Sur Coast of California, the rugged interface between North America and the vast Pacific Ocean. The sense that there is an empty, unknown space that we don’t inhabit has long had a powerful effect on us, and here at the edge of the continent we can come face to face with a wilderness that most of us will never fully explore.

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.