Color photograph of the Pacific Ocean with an offshore rock along the Big Sur coast of California.
These minimalist seascapes have been something of an on-going project for me during the past year or so. I’m intrigued by the sense of deep and quiet space in these views – best appreciated from outside of your car and away from the road. I have no idea how well they work as images for others, but they are a bit more complex to capture than you might think from a quick glance.
keywords: big, sur, california, landscape, nature, ocean, pacific ocean, seascape, seashore, summer, travel, usa, water, waves, sky, blue, reflection, island, rock, offshore, horizon, minimalism, stock
Two fisherman fish from a rock outcropping above giant winter surf and shallow fog thrown up by the waves near Rocky Creek Bridge along the Big Sur coastline. A more distant perspective on a scene I uploaded earlier in a series of monochrome photographs.
“Bridge, Surf, and Fog” — Black and white photograph of a Big Sur bridge with winter storm surf and fog.
I would love to claim that this photograph was the result of careful planning. But it wasn’t. I arrived too early at Point Lobos, and rather than waiting around, on a whim I decided to drive south. Here I encountered fog clinging to the coastline above huge Pacific winter surf—in fact, it was the surf creating this misty effect as the huge waves lifted spray into the air. This haze was only down by the water, and overhead the sky was crystal clear and the sun was shining. So, it was essentially by coincidence that I found myself in this spot at all, much less with all of these conditions in place.
Because it was morning and because the mist was very shallow, light from above shone into and through the fog, creating the light beams that cut diagonally through the scene. Although this spot is known to other photographers, I had not shot it before nor did I realize that I was there until after I happened to look around a spot this cave.
(This post and photo were revised in January of 2025.)
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
