Tag Archives: surf

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

Evening Sea Stacks

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Evening Sea Stacks
Sea stacks and surf on an overcast evening, Crescent City, California.

Evening Sea Stacks. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sea stacks and surf on an overcast evening, Crescent City, California.

The circumstances of this photograph were just a bit unusual, and it is not quite the photograph that I thought I’d be making when I recently visited the coastline at Crescent City. Because the days are so long right now, we decided to go out for an early dinner, planning to head back out into the field to photograph an hour or so before sunset. The plans was not totally solid, but I had this spot in mind as one of the possibilities, as it more or less in Crescent City. We finished dinner and it was still too early for the photography I had in mind, so we did a bit of exploring before we ended up back at this post.

I had photographed these very rocks a couple of years ago, and this time I was imagining something with sunset light, the colorful ocean and sky, and perhaps some dramatic shadows. The conditions had something else in mind. To the north a line of clouds was arriving, likely the result of a weak incoming cold front. When it became apparent that the brilliantly colorful sunset I imagined was not to be (though something else interest did eventually happen) I rethought the mood I wanted to suggest and began to see the appeal in this framing of the scene, focusing on the foreground island with the more distant sea stacks closer to the top of the frame.

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

Sunset Light, Sea Stacks

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Sunset Light, Sea Stacks
Sunset light on sea stacks off the coast of Crescent City, California.

Sunset Light, Sea Stacks. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light on sea stacks off the coast of Crescent City, California.

We recently returned from a few days along California’s far northern coast. We spent a couple of nights in Crescent City before moving south to stay in the Eureka area for a couple more days. We were mostly there to photograph the redwoods, but there was a lot more to see and photograph than just that subject. (In fact, one of our primary targets, the annual rhododendron bloom, was not producing a lot of flowers during our visit.)

The coastal area in Crescent City is quite spectacular, from the ocean just below the road running along its edge to the distant view of the infamous St. George Reef lighthouse. I have photographed from the residential area at the end of town before, and since we were there in the evening we decided to head that way again on this evening. The light was beautiful and evolving nicely… but it was clear that the clouds of a weather front to the northwest would block the last light. So I quickly set up this photograph and made two exposures as the final direct light hit the coast.

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

Morning Fog, Rocks, and Surf

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Morning Fog, Rocks, and Surf
The surf rolls in on a quiet, foggy morning along the coast north of Santa Cruz, California near Waddell Creek.

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

The surf rolls in on a quiet, foggy morning along the coast north of Santa Cruz, California near Waddell Creek.

As we begin to come to terms with the near-end of the Covid-19 crisis in my part of the world — the San Francisco Bay Area — it begins to seem more possible to simply get up, make decision about a destination, and head out for the day. (I do understand that I’m particularly fortunate to live in a place where vaccination rates are very high.) Probably the most likely subject on my “Hey, I’ll go photograph today!” list is the Pacific Ocean coastline, which I can reach as quickly as a bit more than a half hour.

Objectively speaking, there was nothing all that special or unusual about this May morning. The fog, typical at this time of year, blanketed the coast and slid inland to the tops of coastal hills. As I drove a section of the Pacific Coast Highway north of Santa Cruz the fog began to break up in spots, though few people were there to see it on this weekday morning. After I turned around and started back I passed by this spot and noticed the pile of rocks extending across the beach in front of the shallow bay filled with waves leading to distant sea stacks and bluffs.

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

Mendocino Bay, Morning

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Mendocino Bay, Morning
Waves wash onto the shoreline of Mendocino Bay on a foggy morning.

Mendocino Bay, Morning. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Waves wash onto the shoreline of Mendocino Bay on a foggy morning.

Recently I returned to the photographs from this visit to the North Coast of California, on which we spent a few days in Mendocino. This little town presents an interesting dichotomy between the old-school funky, hippiness of that part of the state and the semi-yuppified element that has grown in more recent years. In a sense, you “see it all” in this place.

On this visit we stayed in town, not more than a couple of minutes walk from the bluffs overlooking the bay just south of the peninsula on which the town sits. On this morning we wandered over there in the morning before the morning fog and haze had completely clearer, and I made a series of photographs looking inland along these bluffs to the outlet of the river that drains into the bay.

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.