Tag Archives: snags

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

Cliffside Trees, Fog

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Cliffside Trees, Fog
Monterey cypress trees line the rocky edges of the north shore of Point Lobos on a foggy morning.

Cliffside Trees, Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Monterey cypress trees line the rocky edges of the north shore of Point Lobos on a foggy morning.

This is another in this week’s series of photographs from a recent foggy morning at Point Lobos State Reserve, a favorite location where I have photographed for decades. I live a bit more than an hour away, so I can watch the weather and head over there almost at the spur of the moment when conditions look good. And the conditions on this morning were excellent, with the fog being both persistent and often translucent.

Tall cliffs tower above rugged peninsulas, rocky promontories, and coves along the north shore. This is one of the best locations to see Monterey cypress trees that have been challenged and bent by the rocky terrain and the wind. Many of the trees in this photograph grow at the edge of the land and subsist on little more than the thin soil collected in cracks in the rock.

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

Trees and Promontory

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Trees and Promontory
Windswept Monterey cypress trees atop a rocky promontory, Point Lobos State Reserve.

Trees and Promontory. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Windswept Monterey cypress trees atop a rocky promontory, Point Lobos State Reserve.

This was just about a perfect visit to an old favorite location, Point Lobos State Reserve, located on the Pacific Coast between Carmel and the upper reaches of the Big Sur region. Back home in the San Francisco Bay Area it was another 90+ degree blue-sky day,, but fog blanketed this coastal area, periodically thinning just enough to allow some directional light on the landscape.

This can be a very busy and often overcrowded park, but by going on a weekday and arriving very early I can avoid the worst of it, and even in the summer it is possible to. find morning solitude here. These windswept Monterey cypress trees grow at the edge of the Pacific Ocean where the moist fog sweeps in. The largest tree in this scene manages to survive perched atop this rocky promontory.

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

Snags, Late Winter Fog

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Snags, Late Winter Fog
A group of dead trees next to a riparian meadow on a foggy Central Valley winter day.

Snags, Late Winter Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of dead trees next to a riparian meadow on a foggy Central Valley winter day.

Like several other photographs I have recently shared, this one comes from the Central Valley of California and was also made in the winter. However, this one is from a few years ago and in a slightly different location than my usual haunts in the valley. I made the photograph late in the migratory bird photography season, actually just after the main flock of geese had departed and when the place seemed downright lonely without them! That feeling was amplified on this particular visit, as it was right after the initial March 2020 lockdown, when so much about the trajectory of the pandemic was still unknown. We didn’t yet understand how it was spread or even how serious it was. At that time we were still paranoid of any contact with others, and I recall seeking out the most isolated gasoline station I could find on my way home.

The specific location is of a sort that fascinates me. Much of this valley is no longer exactly natural, being given over to huge agricultural areas. While the sense of vast space remains, what lies beneath it is largely affected by humans. However, in a few places the landscape is not so conducive to agriculture, and the land feels wilder. This is such a place, a shallow depression following the path of a creek which may be dry in summer but can flow rather powerfully in wet winters. I paused on a levee next to the area and photographed across a few old snags and into sun-lit fog.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Two Snags, Morning Light

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Two Snags, Morning Light
Two snags stretch toward the sky below an Eastern Sierra Nevada peak in morning light

Two Snags, Morning Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two snags stretch toward the sky below an Eastern Sierra Nevada peak in morning light.

This location was a short walk above the Eastern Sierra backcountry base camp where our group spent a week in late August and the very beginning of September. We were camped at about 11,000′ of elevation, where the trees start to give out just below timberline… and where the landscape’s main feature is rock, including granite slabs, glacial moraines, talus fields, and rugged high peaks.

I walked up here early one morning with a plan to photograph a subject just a bit farther away, but I got distracted by beautiful and developing light. I had noted these snags several days earlier and made a plan to return to photograph them in better light. As I arrived the dead trees were still in shadow, but within moments the sun/shadow line reached the trees, and I made this photograph just as the entire height of the trees came into the light.

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.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.