Tag Archives: surf

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

Rocks, Spray, and Light Beams

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Rocks, Spray, and Light Beams
Beams of morning light slant through spray thrown up by waves crashing on rocks along the Big Sur coast.

Rocks, Spray, and Light Beams. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Beams of morning light slant through spray thrown up by waves crashing on rocks along the Big Sur coast.

California’s Big Sur Coast is easily accessible to me, close enough that I can drive down there early in the morning, photograph for a few hours, and be home for a late lunch. (Yeah, I’m spoiled.) Some of my very earliest photography memories come from this part of the world, when I carried a simple camera on family trips to Point Lobos. At this point, decades later, you’d think that I’d know everything there is to know about the regions. But you’d be wrong. Virtually every time I go there I discover something new — a view I had not seen before, a new kind of atmosphere or light, a different way of looking at a familiar subject.

This photograph fits that last category. The location is a spot that I’ve stopped at for years, mostly to photograph a particular larger scene that includes a natural bridge, some sea stacks, and a bridge. (No, not _that_ bridge — I know which one you are thinking of!) On this early November visit I was a bit surprised by the size of the surf. Big surf is common in autumn through winter here, but I had not seen that it was in the forecast. To make this photograph I decided to leave out the thing that is usually my primary subject here and to include some things that I usually try to leave out! The photograph is, as a result, an example of letting some small, isolated element represent and perhaps evoke the experience of the larger landscape in which it is found.

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: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Black Sands Beach, Coastal Cliffs

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Black Sands Beach, Coastal Cliffs
Black Sands Beach and the Lost Coast, Shelter Cove, California.

Black Sands Beach, Coastal Cliffs. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black Sands Beach and the Lost Coast, Shelter Cove, California.

Previously I have shared my dark secret: for decades I barely visited the portions of California north of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Tahoe line. Sure, I visited Lassen National Park with my family when I was young, and I’ve been on Mt. Lassen a few times, and — of course — I have driven north out of the state on Interstate 5. But the Northern California coast remaining mostly off my radar for decades. A decade or two ago this began to change — slowly — as we visited areas in Mendocino County and along the path to and from there, and when we pushed a bit further north from that base on some day trips.

Finally, during the last decade or so, I began to get more serious about this wonderful region and, among other things, I began photographing in the redwoods. (I have photographed closer redwoods for decades.) And then I pushed out toward the coast. On this year’s visit we finally made it to the edges of the Lost Coast area below Eureka, a portion of the coast so rugged that even “the coast highway” takes an inland jog. In the middle of this region lies the isolated (but surprisingly large) community of Shelter Cove. Black Sands Beach extends from this local toward the northern section of the Lost Coast, and no roads touch the coast again for many miles.

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

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Surf, Sand, and Fog

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Surf, Sand, and Fog
A wave breaks on a Big Sur coast beach on a foggy morning.

Surf, Sand, and Fog. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A wave breaks on a Big Sur coast beach on a foggy morning.

This may be one of the “quieter” photographs I’ve posted in a while, but maybe that’s a good thing. It comes from another recent visit to the Big Sur Coast below Monterey, California. While it has been historically hot and dry in virtually all of California this year, the coastal areas have provided a welcome exception. Even on some of the days when heat (and dryness) records were toppling further inland, along much of the coast it was typical summer weather, cool and foggy. (Some folks are now referring the the current month as “Fogust.”)

We live in a San Francisco Bay Area location that, while not on or ever all that close to the water, is near enough to pick up the ocean influence, which here typically means high fog in the mornings and a breeze in the evening. On the day of this visit to the coast there was fog (and some wildfire smoke and haze) almost everywhere, but it was the thin sort that simply mutes and softens the features of the landscape rather than rendering them invisible. I stopped here to photograph something else, and after finishing that task I looked at the beach and saw this very quiet and peaceful scene of a bit of beach, a single breaking wave, and the ocean extending toward the foggy horizon.

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.