Flock of Snow Geese, Winter Sky

Flock of Snow Geese, Winter Sky
Flock of Snow Geese, Winter Sky

Flock of Snow Geese, Winter Sky. Merced National Wildlife Reserve, California. February 21, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of snow geese against the partly cloudy winter sky above the Merced National Wildlife Reserve, California.

Yes, yet another in the series of photographs of migratory birds above the Merced National Wildlife Reserve made on a winter evening in February. While I missed the “fly in” (though saw it happening a ways north of my position) I did watch hundreds and hundreds of birds of all types pass overhead. Every time I would start to wonder “where are the birds?” or worry about whether I would miss the fly in, another flock would appear and traverse the sky above me.

It was my good fortune – certainly little careful planning was involved! – to be out here during a brief evening window of interesting light and sky as a storm cleared. In fact, as I drove towards the Refuge I at first thought that some of the larger clouds to the west might block the evening light or even bring a bit of rain. However, as sunset approached the clouds continued to thin and I ended up with a beautiful sky full of broken clouds that were gently illuminated as the day ended.

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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.

Anticipating Brief Web Site Downtime

My service provider has informed me that they are updating their server center during the next few days and that there may be a short (please!) downtime as they move equipment and data and so forth. The prediction is that this will occur sometime between 9:00 p.m. (MDT) on Sunday evening, March 27 and 5:00 a.m. (MDT) on Monday morning, March 28. At some point during this period my blog and gallery may be inaccessible for a time, and it would not surprise me if email is also temporarily delayed.

I apologize in advance for any interruption and trust that the outage will be brief.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Email
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.

Corn Lilies – Sierra Nevada

Corn Lilies - Sierra Nevada
Corn Lilies - Sierra Nevada

Corn Lilies – Sierra Nevada. Yosemite National Park, California. June 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

High Sierra corn lilies grow profusely near a waterlogged meadow in the high country of Yosemite National Park.

I had spotted this little meadow area on my way to photograph earlier in the morning at Tenaya Lake, so on my return I decided to wander down into this wet, meadowy area where a small creek flows in the early summer season. As I walked up the stream I came upon large and lush stands of corn lily plants in a boggy area where the stream turned and twisted through a flat area.

I have long been a fan of these plants. I’m fascinated by them at every phase of their annual life cycle, from the time when they first poke up from ground newly free of snow, through this phase when they grow thick and wildly green, to the first hints of brown at the tips of the leaves (which always seem to come a bit too early), to the time in late August when they begin to turn brown and yellow and hint at the coming fall, to the dry stalks that fall over in late September and October.

It is somewhat hard to give up the beautiful green color when you photograph the plants at the peak of growth, as these were when I photographed them at the end of June. However, I like the way that black and white abstracts the curving and sweeping shapes of the plants. (And I always think of John Sexton’s wonderful corn lily photograph when I work with this subject!)

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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.

Ice, Water, Reflected Clouds

Ice, Water, Reflected Clouds
Ice, Water, Reflected Clouds

Ice, Water, Reflected Clouds. Yosemite National Park, California. June 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clouds in blue sky are reflected in the surface of Gaylor Lake next to melting winter ice.

This photograph is very similar to another I made on this late June evening in 2010 when a small group of us hiked over a ridge near Tioga Pass to find a snow covered valley and this lake that was still almost completely covered with ice. The deep blue water near the edge of the melting ice along the shoreline reflected evening clouds passing overhead, and there were quite a few possible compositions combining the clouds, blue sky, curving edge of the ice and the interesting formations where the ice surface was melting. I made quite a few photographs – some up close like this one and others taking in the larger landscape. As I was recently reviewing raw files from 2010, I ended up spending quite a bit of time with this set of images!

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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.