Tag Archives: winter

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Central Valley Winter Sky

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Central Valley Winter Sky
Pre-sunrise winter sky and thin fog above Central Valley wetlands.

Central Valley Winter Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pre-sunrise winter sky and thin fog above Central Valley wetlands.

These days it is hard to precisely put my finger on the character of California’s Great Central Valley, comprised of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys and the delta where they merge with the San Francisco Bay. Many years ago a drive though the valley was all about agricultural communities, but today things are less homogeneous. Some areas seem more like extensions of the urban San Francisco Bay Area — see towns along the busy I80 corridor and the “bedroom communities” from which long-distance drivers commute in each day. Other towns further into the Valley, including many along Highway 99, have become so large that their agricultural roots seem more distant. To be sure, agriculture remains pervasive in the Valley, as a drive though almost any portion of it will make clear.

Among the features that continue to define this valley for me are its flat geography and the vast expanse of uninterrupted sky. This photograph focuses on both. I chose to place the horizon very close to the bottom of the frame since that’s were it is when we look up at skies like the one in this photograph. It was very early on a late-winter morning, before the sun had come up. The light was blue and thin dawn tule fog was dissipating above these wetlands.

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

Winter Surf and Coastal Bluffs

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Winter Surf and Coastal Bluffs
Winter surf rolls in beneath steep shoreline bluffs along the rugged Big Sur coast of California.

Winter Surf and Coastal Bluffs. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter surf rolls in beneath steep shoreline bluffs along the rugged Big Sur coast of California.

Although I have been down this section of California’s spectacular coast in the past few weeks, this photograph comes from a few years ago — in a very different time when many of the things causing tumult in our world were almost inconceivable. Among them, back then the idea that a pandemic might change our attitudes about traveling to such places was not even on our radar. Let’s hope that we can return to a world more like that one soon.

I think of this as a somewhat generic photograph of the Big Sur coastline — not because it isn’t a spot of great beauty, but because such places are everywhere along this part of the western edge of the continent. The sun was out on this late winter day, but storms out in the Pacific had brought impressively large waves, raising a thin layer of sea spray along the edge of the water.

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: Ocean & Coast

Sur Point Lighthouse, Winter

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Winter surf below Sur Point and the Sur Point Lighthouse.

Sur Point Lighthouse, Winter. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter surf below Sur Point and the Sur Point Lighthouse.

As happens from time to time, I made a series of photographs of this subject on this winter day. One advantage of digital photography is that it is possible — and useful! — to make quite a few exposures of transient subject like water and clouds whose precise appearance is difficult to predict and for which precise timing is almost impossible. While I’ve seen photographers make hundreds of exposures of really active subjects such as moving water, this one wasn’t quite so difficult — just a series of waves moving up onto the beach and the varying qualities of the drifting spray. My first inclination was to share a different photograph from the set, which I did perhaps a few weeks ago. But now, in looking at the files more closely, I’ve changed my mind and I think I prefer this one.

At any time of year the light along this section of the California coast can be quite interesting. Because the coast doesn’t run on a perfect north-south line, instead angling to the east as you head south, for much of the day offshore features are backlit to a greater or lesser extent. (The sun also reflects off the ocean’s surface in wonderful ways, even at midday when the sun is directly south.) This meant that the rocky shape of Sur Point was deeply backlit, and exposing for the shadow details would risk losing details in the rest of the scene — so I decided to treat it as more of a silhouette. (Some details are visible, though hard to see in a web version.) In the end, that nearly black form may help enhance the visibility of the mist and spray being blown from the big winter surf.

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

Tule Fog, Wetland Sunrise

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Tule Fog, Wetland Sunrise
The winter sun rises thorugh tule fog above Central Valley wetlands.

Tule Fog, Wetland Sunrise. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The winter sun rises thorugh tule fog above Central Valley wetlands.

This is my favorite season of the year for a whole bunch of reasons. It brings so many special opportunities here on the West Coast. The fall colors come to the Sierra and then work their way downward and westward over a period of up to three months — and sometimes even a bit longer. The hot, dry season of wildfires and haze comes to an end, replaced by cooler temperatures and much more interesting skies and light as Pacific weather fronts arrive. Migratory birds return to the Central Valley… and once again I get to photograph the tule fog!

This photograph comes from a beautiful tule fog morning in the Central Valley some years ago, a perfect morning when the fog was thick but not so thick as to completely obscure the rising sun, here silhouetting the wetland foliage and gently reflecting on the surface of a pond. What the photograph cannot convey — but what it certainly evokes for me — is the sound of many thousands of nearby geese, cranes, blackbirds, and more.

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 and Amazon.

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.