Geese, Pond, Dawn Sky. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Ross’s geese in a wetland pond on a foggy morning beneath dawn sky.
There is often a particular esthetic around bird photography that concentrates on close photographs of individual birds. I’ve often thought that the reasons for this particular approach are several. For some bird photographers – though not so much for me — this work is an outgrowth of “birding,” and in that endeavor being able to view individuals close up is a goal. There’s also an element of the technical challenge. It isn’t easy to get in position to fill the frame with one bird, and it is even more difficult when the bird is in flight. On top of that, we must acknowledge that for at least a subset of bird photographers, the acquisition and use of really big and really expensive lenses has its attractions.
I’m not immune to those things, but I often find myself approaching birds in a somewhat different way. Few of my photographs feature a single bird filling the frame. (I can do that, and I have, just not that often.) More typically, the photographs include a group of birds — a couple of them together or perhaps thousands — and place them in the landscape. The latter is quite likely linked to my long interest in the landscape as a subject. This photograph clearly fits that lineage — it is what I think of as a “birdscape,” a photograph including birds in the landscape they occupy. I made this photograph in a water-filled place on a foggy morning when soft and colorful dawn light briefly lit the sky.
David Hoffman and I have an exhibit of “birdscapes” opening very soon at Stellar Gallery in Oakhurst, California, near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. If you’ll be in the neighborhood — going to see the Yosemite Valley snow or to photograph Horsetail Fall? — stop by and take a look at our photographs!
February 16th-March12th. Reception February 16 5-8:00PM. Stellar Gallery, Oakhurst, California
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.
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