Category Archives: Photographs: Northern California

Photographs from Northern California

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

Rocks and Surf, Weston Beach

January 17, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A long exposure photograph of shoreline rocks and surf at Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve

I had been a while since I had photographed along the California coast south of Monterey, but I finally made it back down there on this mid-January morning, ending up at the Point Lobos State Reserve. This is a location I shoot frequently since it is barely more than an hour from my home, and I’ve gone there since I was a kid. Today was perhaps not the ideal day to photograph there – it was (literally) freezing cold in the morning and then the skies were almost completely clear. Clear skies are not my favorite for photography. I much prefer some fog or clouds. In this photograph I dealt with that by pointing the camera down and placing the horizon very close to the top of the frame.

Arriving at the reserve, I first headed down to the familiar location of Weston Beach. (I still cannot quite figure out which this place is called a “beach” – rocky slabs slope down to the water and the closest thing to sand is a bit of rocky gravel. But I digress…) When I arrived, the early morning sun was almost back-lighting the islands and sea stacks to the south of here, so I walked back up the road a bit to find higher ground to shoot in that direction. While shooting from there I saw that it could be interesting to shoot below this trail and much closer to the water, using a very wide-angle lens and perhaps a 9-stop neutral density filter to extend the exposure. Rather than hoping the fence to get to the likely spot 20 feet away, I was a “good soldier” and I walked back a hundred yards or so, took the “official” trail down to the “beach,” and then worked my way back to the rocky spot that I had spotted from above. I lined up some shoreline rocks and a crack that allowed a bit of surf to come in closer, positioned the horizon very close to the upper edge of the frame, added that 9-stop neutral density filter, and made several long exposures that would allow the surf to become flat and almost misty. Usually I might not want the very harsh light on the rocks, but here I like the way it contrasts with the smooth and filmy quality of the water.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Davenport Bluffs, Sunset

January 15, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The last light shines on coastal bluffs and Davenport, California

On this early December day I had gone off to try to join a G+ “photowalk” that was purportedly taking place that day. I was looking forward to going to a few favorite local photography locations and to meeting some people who I’ve only known online. But it was not to be! I ended up being delayed at home and couldn’t leave in time to meet the group at their first location, Henry Cowell Park. I went with Plan B and figured I would try to join up with them at lunch in Davenport. I got there and didn’t see anyone, so I figured that I was early and I drove up the coast a bit. I came back to Davenport and thought they might be in one of the two restaurants, so I picked one and went in for lunch… by myself. (I found out later that, yes, they were in the other restaurant a hundred yards south.) After lunch I went across the road to the parking area when I thought folks might meet up, but still no luck – though I did see a few photographers out on the nearby bluff. I headed out there and finally ran into a couple of people from the group… which had gone down to a nearby beach area to shoot.

Finding interesting stuff up here on the bluff, I decide to work the location I found myself in rather than heading off and looking for something else. While the location was interesting, the light was initially unpromising. However, I thought there was a chance that things might improve later so I walked around and began doing some shooting. At one point, I talked to some other photographers about the somewhat bland lighting conditions and pointed out that it seemed to me that there was at least a chance that we might get a bit of interesting light as the sun dropped to the horizon, when the light can sometimes shine in below the clouds and produce some brief but beautiful conditions. This prediction turned out to be right, and I made this photograph just as the show was beginning, and warm-tone light was starting to hit the bluffs, beaches, and water.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California

Shoreline Building, China Camp

January 14, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A shoreline building extends over the edge of San Francisco Bay at China Camp

I had been watching the reflections on the calm water of this lagoon since I first arrived here in the morning. Earlier I had been on a high bluff behind the camera position for this photograph, looking down at this village and the curve of the beach of its small lagoon. The clouds thinning behind a departing Pacific weather front were starting to allow sun light to pass, yet still filtering and softening it. This light was falling on the smooth surface of this water in this relatively quiet area of the San Francisco Bay, and creating all sorts of interesting reflections.

Eventually I walked down to the village and among its old buildings, gravitating toward the shoreline. I first photographed an old pier and then investigated a building from which it extends. From here I was able to look out across the lagoon toward a further peninsula and the light of the sun on the clouds. This was technically a bit of a tricky photograph since it includes brightly sun-lit clouds right above and to the left of the building, but also includes deep shadows below and on the near side of the building. To be honest, I was unsure of what exposure would work best and provide the best balance between avoidance of blown out sky and enough shadow detail to pull it back in past without problems with image noise – so I bracketed. I bracketed like nobody’s business – making something like five exposures in the series. Ironically, in the end I was able to extract all of the detail I needed from a single exposure!

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

China Camp Pier

January 13, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A decrepit pier extends into San Francisco Bay at China Camp, California

This was my first visit to China Camp, on the shores of the north San Francisco Bay, after several years of thinking about it. I had seen some other photographs from the place and I knew a bit of the history of the old Chinese Camp fishing village and that it had been protected by state park status, but I couldn’t actually point to it on a map. It turned out that a group of photographers was going to visit China Camp during a weekend of shooting around the Bay Area, and I ended up more or less linking up with them.

I arrived before the rest of the group and I began by scoping out a few things for later shots and then photographing a small island that is very close to this old village. Finishing with that subject, I headed down the hill to the cover when the old village buildings are located. This pier is one of the more striking sights in the area, being in a sort of picturesque state of disrepair that has left parts of it leaning at odd angles, further accented by the odd little utility line leading out toward the water. As soon as I arrived at the small beach by the building from which the pier extends, I knew that I wanted to photograph it in a way that included the little building and the pier stretching across the frame toward the horizon, and I was pretty certain that I wanted to render it in black and white. At almost this precise moment the clouds thinned a bit and a bit of soft sunlight shone on the scene, accentuating the shadows on the water – so I quickly went to work and made three exposures of the scene before the light went dull again.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Northern California

Rocks and Surf, Weston Beach

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Davenport Bluffs, Sunset

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Shoreline Building, China Camp

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China Camp Pier

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

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