Tag Archives: sur

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

Headlands, Clearing Fog

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Headlands, Clearing Fog
“Headlands, Clearing Fog” — Headlands drop precipitously into the Pacific Ocean as fog thins in the distance along rugged the Big Sur Coast.

Although I have visited and photographed the Big Sur Coast for decades, I find new subjects or new ways to see old subjects every time I go. However, I have a confession to make about this particular subject. I go back to it on almost every visit and continue to photograph it despite there being quite a few previous versions in my archives. I think I do this partly because the conditions change (here it is almost backlit and the distant fog is layered), and partly just because I find this feature so intriguing. On a coastline full of steep precipices dropping into the sea, this one stands out.

I was down there again in mid-August. As is often the case, I decide to go based on the weather forecast. This time it called for somewhat persistent fog along the coast, and I was expecting to be able to work with that murky subject. Imagine my surprise, after driving through truly dense fog near the Salinas Valley, when I arrived at the coast to find it virtually clear!

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

Pacific Coast Highway, Headlands

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Pacific Coast Highway, Headlands
“Pacific Coast Highway, Headlands” — The Pacific Coast Highway traverses steep headlands above the Pacific Ocean on a hazy winter morning, Big Sur coast.

This landscape that reminds me that change is the rule. It invites all sorts of questions. How long ago were those sea stacks part of the mainland? How long until the cliff-edge trail I’m slips into the ocean? Where will the next route-closing landslide occur? The dynamism of the landscape is clearly present here.

This time I visited for a few hours on a late-winter morning. The skies were mostly clear along the coast, as is common here between storms, but there was scattered fog and everywhere there was mist, from both the clearing fog and from ocean spray. Early in the morning the sun is blocked by coastal mountains, but as it rises its light angles down among these headlands.

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: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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

Grove Above the Surf

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Grove Above the Surf
A small grove of old trees above the surf and silhouetted against the fog-muted shapes of coastal hills, Big Sur Coast.

Grove Above the Surf. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A small grove of old trees above the surf and silhouetted against the fog-muted shapes of coastal hills, Big Sur Coast.

This grove of trees sits on the edge of a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean along a popular section of the Big Sur Coast. In most cases, I have usually regarded it as a bit of an obstacle, as I have to sort of work around it to photograph certain features in the area. (In fact, I also sometimes have to “work around” a small herd of cattle that sometimes grazes in the foreground meadow!) On this visit I decided to turn the tables and make the trees the subject.

This was an interesting day, and photography was at times a bit challenging. I visited during a one-day break in the string of atmospheric river storms that hit California between late December and January, and I managed to squeeze in a single morning of photography here. Damage from the storms was easy to find, with landslides and road repairs along the way. But on this morning occasional sun broke through the high overcast and made the thin fog luminous.

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

Headlands, Surf, and Fog

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Headlands, Surf, and Fog
Headlands and coastal mountains obscured by winter fog along the Big Sur Coast.

Headlands, Surf, and Fog. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Headlands and coastal mountains obscured by winter fog along the Big Sur Coast.

This is a scene that I have tried to photograph many times. When I stop to make a photograph here, it always seems like it should be easy… but it inevitably ends up being very challenging if not impossible. The subject is quite a distance away, so it requires a very long focal length. However, the long focal length magnifies issues created by air movement across the great distance, and even with though I want to evoke that soft atmosphere, it is hard to get the right balance of detail where it is needed. I tried again this past week, and decided to interpret the subject in a bit of a different manner.

A challenge is that the hazy conditions that obscure and diffuse the subject in the way I hoped for also tend to be both gray and of quite low contrast. To address that I decided on a brighter, high key rendition of the scene in which the colors are extremely subtle and the darkest tones are, objectively speaking, still at the brighter end of the scale. In a sense, the object here is to “suggest” more than to “record.”

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 | Twitter | 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.