Tag Archives: shore

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

Three Pelicans in Flight

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Three Pelicans in Flight

Three Pelicans in Flight. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. August 24, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three pelicans in flight along the California coastline at Point Lobos State Reserve.

I admit it. I’m a big sucker for photographing these amazing birds, and I’m lucky to live within a short driving distance of the California coastline where it is usually easy to find and photograph them. My technique is usually to find a spot either at the top of a steep coastal cliff or on a promontory that extends a bit into the ocean, where they tend to come much closer to the land. Then I attach the long lens and wait.

But this time the story is a bit different. I was photographing a pair of sea otters alternatively cavorting and sleeping in a kelp forest near the south end of Point Lobos. I just happened to look away from the viewfinder for a moment (always a good idea!) when I saw a flock of a half dozen or more of these birds approaching over a nearby rocky ridge. I quickly swung the camera around on the tripod and managed to squeeze off a handful of shots as they passed.

This is a crop from a vertical format photograph that had a lot of white space in it. To be more accurate there was a lot of “nearly white gray space” in the photo since the birds were photographed against a background of thinning fog illuminated by the emerging sun. The only significant post-processing of this photo was to lighten the fog to virtually white so that the birds would stand out more from the background. (In answer to the inevitable question: No, the birds were not “assembled” in post-processing. They were actually obliging enough to appear in exactly this configuration as they flew over. :-)

keywords: three, pelicans, flight, fly, bird, sea, shore, wing, point lobos, state, reserve, park, california, usa, carmel, monterey, peninsula, nature, wildlife, pelagic, stock, flock

Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening and Shoreline Trees, Moraine Lake

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Evening and Shoreline Trees, Moraine Lake
Evening and Shoreline Trees, Moraine Lake. Sequoia National Park, California. August 7 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening along the tree-lined shore of Moraine Lake in Sequoia National Park, California.

Moraine Lake is located on the Chagoopa Plateau in the Sierra Nevada backcountry of Sequoia National Park, between Big Arroyo and the deep trench of Kern Canyon. Aside from being a bit windy when I’ve been there, it is a very peaceful spot – and a good warm place (relatively speaking) to swim. No surprise given its name, the opposite shore is formed by a lateral moraine that must have come from a glacier traveling down Big Arroyo, and there are lots of rocks everywhere. In fact, along the near shoreline they form a couple of little peninsulas that enclose shallows cut off from the main lake and which support a few trees like those in this photograph.

Most recently I was here in in early August of 2008, when I and a group of friends camped for a night on our trip from Crescent Meadow to Whitney Portal via the High Sierra Trail. Technically (OK, literally), Moraine Lake is not “on” the High Sierra Trail, being instead on a lateral loop that leaves the HS Trail on the Chagoopa Plateau to drop down to the lake, and which then continues to the loop to rejoin a few miles later. Oddly, it seems to me that most people who hike through here probably do take the alternative route past Moraine, with the exception of some hard-core hikers who walk far enough in a day to not need to camp on the Plateau.

keywords: evening, shore, shoreline, trees, moraine, lake, high, sierra, trail, nevada, backpack, hike, camp, clouds, reflection, rock, mountain, alpine, great western divide, peak, forest, grass, quiet, landscape, california, usa, sequoia, national park, stock, blue, sky

Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Point Reyes

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Point Reyes
Point Reyes. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. June 1, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Color photograph of Point Reyes and the Pacific Ocean with afternoon reflections. This photograph was made in extraordinarily windy conditions from a high point a bit further along the bluffs of the point with late afternoon sunlit brightly illuminating the ocean surface. (There is also a black and white version of this photograph.)

keywords: california, national, seashore, coast, cliff, bluff, mountain, park, pacific ocean, spring, point reyes, sea, shore, wild, nature, sky, haze, distance, travel, landscape, seascape, stock

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

Three Pelicans in Flight

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Three Pelicans in Flight

Three Pelicans in Flight. Near Pismo Beach, California. July 20, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three pelicans pass by near the shoreline at Pismo Beach, California.

I’m going to have to come with more creative titles… I have another photo from this past weekend of, you guessed it, “three pelicans in flight” – though the newer shot was made at Point Lobos.

keywords: pelican, bird, shore, shorebird, three, sea, ocean, pelagic, wildlife, flight, flying, nature, california, usa, pismo beach