Tag Archives: waves

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

Morning Light, Big Sur Coast

Image June 23, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

After a period of travel (Portugal, Spain, Belgium, NYC this time) it is always great to get back to photographing the natural world here in California. This week I heard that a couple of friends were in the Carmel area, less than an hour-and-a-half away, so we decided to meet up for some morning photography along the Big Sur coast. There’s no cell service where we were going, so we agreed to some coordinates on Google maps and set an early arrival time. I showed up, but couldn’t find them, so I made some photographs while waiting…

…including this one of the surf, morning light, and thin fog. As I photographed I noticed a couple of figures moving out onto the headland at the far right. I don’t usually include people in my landscape photography, but I’m not against it either, so I changed the framing a bit to incorporate them. It was only later in the evening, at home and working on photographs at my computer, that I zoomed in on the figures and realized that they are Franka and Dave, the friends I was searching for! (We did eventually connect, by the way.)

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Sand Dune Abstract

Image March 16, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I first photographed this specific subject in Death Valley well over a decade ago, and perhaps closer to two decades. I “discovered” it by accident while driving back from visiting an entirely different feature. I had stopped in this location to photograph other things, and as I scanned the landscape I noticed this section of almost pure sand dunes. I went here again this year at the end of February when the light on my intended subject died early, and I thought I might be able to work with the soft light in this spot.

Because I have photographed here for some time, I have watched — at times with some concern — as this location started to become another “icon” of Death Valley photography. One positive development of this, perhaps, is that the many photographs can look quite different, revealing how ambient light “paints” the landscape of the desert. (Well, OK, also revealing the role that post-production interpretation plays in such photographs.)

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Water’s Edge

Image August 28, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I called this “Water’s Edge,” but I could also have called it “Continent’s Edge.” Beyond and above this little vignette of sand and rocks and water and foam lies the entire Pacific Ocean, and behind it lies the North American continent. The location is some likely-nameless spot along the Pacific Coast Highway as it passes through the Big Sur region of Central California.

I had stopped to consider photographing something else when I happened to walk close enough to the edge of the drop-off to see all the way down to the small, rocky beach. I spent a few moments watching and photographing the constantly changing patterns where the blue-green water meets the beach.

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.

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

Headlands and Fog

Image July 30, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Point Lobos can be a place of wildly diverse conditions — from powerful winter storms that cast driftwood onto the shoreline to quiet warm-season days of sunshine. But more often things lie between the extremes… and typically involve fog. Summer visitors to “sunny California” are often surprised to discover that the sun’s appearance can be quite a bit less frequent along the coast, even when it is sunny inland. This Point Lobos visit was on a day of particularly persistent fog that stuck anround into the mid-afternoon.

This headlands terrain is found in several locations at Point Lobos, but especially along the northern portion of the park. Here the cliffs are taller and steeper and the land is open to the swell from the northwest, producing a rugged and dramatic shoreline. In this scene Monterey cypress trees survive on the rocky terrain just above the surf, and the small island on the left is populated by resting (and perhaps nesting?) cormorants.