FIRST FRIDAY - Photo of the Month - Featured photographer John Birchard's new image, Mendocino Sunset Panorama, 38" x 14" ultra-wide-pano landscape photo debuts starting First Friday, April 3rd, 2026 at the Mendocino Coast Photographers Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA. This exhibition continues all month. www.MCPGG.com
| Title | Mendocino Sunset Panorama |
| Photographer | John Birchard |
| Location | Mendocino Village |
| Technique | Drone photography panorama created by "stitching" together a series of overlapping photos. |
| Details | Gallery wrapped and varnished print on canvas, 36" x 14" (W x H) |
ABOUT THIS IMAGE – This 180° panorama of Mendocino Village and Mendocino Bay at sunset was shot with a drone flying about 200 feet above Pacific Coast Highway, State Route 1, where it passes the village. The distortion of this ultra wide panorama has the curious effect of making Highway 1 seem to loop around Mendocino in a way that accentuates the isolation of the headland where the village sits. The sky color was absolutely spectacular as well making for a very interesting and engaging image. To achieve this 180° panorama, the drone takes a series of twelve photographs in three rows that were later blended together.
More about Mendocino Village – The shipwreck, in 1850, of the clipper ship Frolic on the rocks south of Cape Mendocino, spurred a discovery. The Cape named by the Spanish in the sixteen hundreds was north of what is now known as Point Cabrillo, where the Frolic ran aground. Soon after the wreck and the discovery of the amazing redwood trees of the area, the village of Mendocino began to grow on the wide headland beside Big River Beach and the sea. The town became a well known artists colony following its economic collapse when the lumber industry left in the late 1930's. Today its historical New England style saltbox architecture harkens back to its founding; many of the early settlers of this headland traveled three-thousand miles from America's East Coast, and they brought their notion of "home" with them. The tidy "New England" look of modern-day and now historic 19th Century Mendocino is particularly apparent from the air with its rows of white houses and iconic water tower buildings. This amazing panoramic view is one that Mendocino's Spanish explorers, the Frolic's foundering captain, and even the loggers of the village's latter days would have marvelled at. Come see it in person on First Friday April 3, 2026.
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ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER – John Birchard has been a photographer on the Mendocino Coast of Northern California for over twenty years. He was a founding member of the Mendocino Coast Photographers Gallery. John considers landscape and nature photography to be his true artistic calling, though he is still available for commercial work. John in his own words: I love to chase the light, and to capture the wild beauty of the North Coast as well as other beautiful places around the world. |
WHAT IS OUR NEW BLOG, PHOTO OF THE MONTH? AND WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
After a long silence, we are now committed to sending out one email a month with a new photograph from one of he gallery's photographers. As you can see this Blog format will include a new image, something about how it was taken and something historical or otherwise engaging about the location, local history, and perhaps personal anecdotes of the photographer. We'd love to get your feedback about this series, and any comment or suggestions would be welcome. You can write to the Blog Editor Jonathan Pazer at manager@mcpgg.com. If you are feeling really retro you can also leaves us a voicemail on the gallery landline.
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ABOUT THE MENDOCINO COAST PHOTOGRAPHERS GALLERY
The Mendocino Coast Photographers Gallery is a cooperative of five local artists, showing landscape and wildlife photography printed on paper, canvas, and metal, and an innovative ceramicist showing both functional and decorative work. The gallery continues to draw local residents and visitors alike to view and purchase our vibrant and dramatic images and pottery. Though we have been in business for over twenty years, our website is relatively new. At MCPGG.com you can find many, but not all, of our works. But for the full and overwhelming experience an in person gallery can offer, you must come in and see our gallery walls and their dense collection of photos of our wonderful Northern California Coast. The gallery is located at at: 357 N. Franklin in Fort Bragg, CA is open Friday through Monday from 10am - 5pm, and by appointment.
PHOTOGRAPHERS AT THE GALLERY
John Birchard - John considers landscape and nature photography to be his true artistic calling; his work features vibrant flowers, and exceptional skies as bookends for the beautiful landscapes of the Mendocino Coast in between. Though primarily shooting his own landscape photography, he is still available for commercial work upon request.
Scott Chieffo - Scott's images capture the subtle beauty of the Mendocino's coastal headlands and forest landscapes with a highly unique, "painterly" style, that emphasizes the quiet solitude Northern California is known for.
Jon Klein - I grew up in the hills near Willits, CA, with hippy parents who never sent me to school. When I was nine years old I switched from hunting animals with a bow and arrow to stalking them with a camera. I found wildlife photography engaging and enjoyable, and I've continued to enjoy it over the past forty years now. As an adult I moved to the coast, first living near Mendocino and now outside of Fort Bragg. Being close to the ocean inspired me to take up seascape and landscape photography, and being in a tourist area has allowed me to make a living selling prints of my pictures.
Jonathan Pazer - Jonathan is both a published photographer and poet, who likes to blend and cross-fertilize his work between these two mediums. His images seek to portray the hidden surface of emotion and memory that lies beyond photography's precision, to instead focus on art's capacity to portray the mystery and wonder of our own experience.
CERAMICS AT THE GALLERY
Molly Boynoff Klein - Geologic functional pottery with swirled and inlaid marbled clays.
NEXT MONTH'S BLOG
FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER - Jon Klein's, Photo of the Month image will debut on First Friday May 1, 2026. Watch for our next Blog post to learn more.
News Letter Editor - Jonathan Pazer
Blog Content and Photos: Copyright 2026