Tag Archives: sur

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

Big Sur Morning Surf

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Big Sur Morning Surf
Pacific Ocean surf crashes ashore on a foggy autumn morning along the Big Sur coast.

Big Sur Morning Surf. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pacific Ocean surf crashes ashore on a foggy autumn morning along the Big Sur coast.

This photograph comes from my early November visit to the upper portions of California’s rugged Big Sur Coast, an area I can visit on short notice. On this visit I left home before dawn, photographed there a few hours, and returned home for a late lunch. Yeah, I’m trying to rub it in… These visits usually feature a combination of stops at familiar locations, where I look for new or different conditions, and the ongoing search for new locations and perspectives that I have not previously photographed.

This photograph mostly fits the first of those two categories. I made the photograph at a location where I frequently stop. The spot features a long view of a beautiful subject beyond rugged rocks and a small bay that is often full of agitated water. On this morning the surf was so wild that I decided to focus on it instead of the larger view. Every few moments a huge wave would crash against this outcropping sending water and spray up into the line of sunlight coming over the tops of the mountains to my left.

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

Headlands, Fog

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Headlands, Fog
Big Sur headlands, fog, and bright sunshine.

Headlands, Fog. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Big Sur headlands, fog, and bright sunshine.

Autumn is my favorite season. It isn’t just about the colorful annual displays of fall leaf color, though that is quite compelling. It is just that, oil general, almost everything is in transition. The element of change itself is exciting, but so is the trajectory of the changes — new colors, cooler weather, rain and snow begin to arrive, fascinating skies, different light, and more. Along the nearby California coast all sorts of things draw me — the intense light, glowing fog, big surf, the newly green hills of California’s wet season.

This past week I made my first autumn pilgrimage to the Big Sur region, leaving home well before sunrise so that I could be there for the early morning light and before the fog cleared. I had not checked the weather carefully, so I was surprised by some impressively large surf, and the combination of ocean spray and coastal fog created some beautiful and moody scenes. I went about as far south as this location, where I have photographed many times in the past, and found a scene full of brilliantly glowing atmosphere, with fog muting the details of the landscape as it faded into the distance.

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

Shoreline Boulders, Big Sur

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Shoreline Boulders, Big Sur
Jumbled shoreline boulders at the base of rugged cliffs, Big Sur coast.

Shoreline Boulders, Big Sur. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Jumbled shoreline boulders at the base of rugged cliffs, Big Sur coast.

The largest scale of the landscape attracts me when I visit the Big Sur coast of California — the mountains, steep cliffs, and long vistas. These were the first things that attracted me to photographing the place, and they still draw my attention and appear in quite a few of my photographs. However, I have become so familiar with some of those features over time that they start to see… a bit too familiar as photographic subject. I don’t entire eschew them, but I look for other things, too. On my most recent visit I spent much of my time stopping at what might have seemed like the most unlikely pull-outs, gazing over the edge to see what new sights I might find.

I found these boulders at one of those nondescript stops. I had walked to the edge of the cliff where there was a longer view down the coast, but my attention turned to a small bay directly beneath me and these rocks right at the waterline. We tend to regard the landforms of this coast as being mostly static, even though in the back of our minds we are aware that they are transitory and subject to change. There’s a good chance that these rocks are a either a vestige of a former section of the land that perhaps fell into the sea at the water’s edge.

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

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.