Tag Archives: surf

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

Beach and Bluffs, Evening

August 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light and fog along the Pacific coast north of Santa Cruz, California

On day two of my “return to California photography” we drove across the coastal mountains to the Pacific Coast Highway north of Santa Cruz, California looking for some combination of evening golden hour (or even blue hour, but that’s a different photograph) light, incoming coastal fog, beach, bluffs, and ocean. This area is, of course, pretty familiar to me at this point, so we hit a few of my favorites: a small beach on a side road where wind surfers congregate, a place where a creek comes down to the ocean from the coastal hills, a particular bluff where I know that gulls and pelicans will often fly past very close, another beach where the pelicans often stop to rest, and more.

This beach is at one of the low spots along this highway, which often alternates between climbing to the tops of the bluffs and descending to beaches at major river and creek valleys. On previous visits I have caught a glimpse of this particular angle of view, which only appears momentarily along a section of the road with no real turnouts. I have stopped before, admired the line of bluffs extending north along the coast, but mostly not managed to make a photograph that I like. So as we passed this spot again I looked again… and liked what I saw – soft, warm golden hour light gently lighting the atmosphere thick with moisture from the incoming fog and nicely shaped waves running up on the beach as those bluffs faded into the distant mist.

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

Waterline Rocks, Sand, and Foam

August 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pacific ocean surf washes sand among shoreline rocks along the California coast

I’m often on the look out for these little coastal vignettes, and this one surprised me while I was photographing something else. We had traveled over to the coastline between Santa Cruz and San Francisco with no particular goal in mind – well, except for stopping for a bite to eat in Santa Cruz and then heading up the coast in search of the fog-sun boundary that we hoped we might find somewhere north of Davenport. However, even though the fog was visible off-shore and occasionally sent a few wispy clouds over the coast itself, we never did get quite the fog we were looking for.

We finally stopped at an anonymous spot along the road where I though I might be able to make a photograph out of a scene of rocks and waves as the coast curved away to the north. But between the time I had seen the shot and the time we managed to turn around, park, and get gear out, the light that had caught my attention was gone. But, being stopped and all, and standing there with my camera on the tripod, I figured I might as well walk out toward the edge of the bluff. As I did so, I had another specific shot in mind, but while heading to the spot to make that photograph I also noticed these rocks at the water’s edge and made a mental note to “work” them a bit before leaving. Once I finished that other photograph of the larger scene, I tipped the camera and tripod down to point at these rocks and watched to get an interesting bit of sea-foam above them. (I’d be lying if I implied that it didn’t take a few exposures to get this one that I like.)

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

Rocky Coastline and Haze

June 26, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Low fog and spray from surf mute the morning view of coastal rocks and bluffs along the rugged California coastline

This photograph was made on a beautiful early spring morning along the Pacific Coast Highway in the upper section of the Big Sur area, just below Carmel. On many days when the weather is nice elsewhere in California, fog covers the coastline – but on this morning the fog was barely there and the morning sun came across the summit of the coastal mountains to shine down into the very thin coastal mist. To my surprise, winter having ended so recently, I found myself shooting in shirtsleeves!

This is a particular spot that I return to quite often since I live close enough to this area to visit frequently. A few years ago I made some photographs of a fisherman sitting on a rock above astonishingly wild surf. I recalled the general area where I made the shot, but I hadn’t made an effort to remember the exact location, so I was surprised when I looked at this scene more closely and realized that this is the exact spot from which I shot, give or a take a few feet of walking along the coastal bluffs.

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

Beach and Rocks

June 20, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late afternoon light on a rocky beach near Pescadero, California

Last week I finally was able to get out and do a bit of landscape photography along the California coast south of San Francisco. (Various other obligations and activities have minimized time in the field recently, and may continue to do so for a few more weeks – but then… lots of time “in the field!”) This area is one of my quickest “gotta get out and shoot” locations, as I can be there in less than an hour, and “there” is one of the most spectacular coastlines I can imagine, ranging from calm and peaceful to towering cliffs and raging surf.

On this visit, things were relatively quiet – nothing like the winter surf of a few months ago. My hope was to find a coastal location in that border zone between fog and sunlight, where interesting and variable things can often happen with light. Starting from the Santa Cruz area, where it was almost perfectly clear, we headed north while keeping a watch on the fog bank hanging just off shore and appearing to get closer to the coast to the north. Eventually, near the Pigeon Point lighthouse, it looked like we might get to the point where the fog and the coast converged, but as soon as we arrived the fog pulled back a bit. In this late afternoon photograph, the sun was low enough that its light was beginning to be somewhat softened and warmed by passing through the thin layer of mist and fog.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: surf

Beach and Bluffs, Evening

Waterline Rocks, Sand, and Foam

Rocky Coastline and Haze

Beach and Rocks

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.