Wetlands, Evening Clouds, Moon. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Clouds, darkening evening sky, and the moon above wetlands.
The last hours and then moments of the day in a place like this are often magical. There’s frequently a sort of emotional crescendo as the day ends, followed by a quiet coda after the sun set. As evening approaches it is time to make decisions about where to be for the quickly moving events just before and after sunset — when the light changes quickly and the birds are often in motion. Once the golden hour light begins the scene becomes dynamic, with light passing though phases from late day, to golden hour, to post sunset, to twilight, and each has its photographic potential. This is often a period of an hour or more of fairly intense photography.
Then one realizes that the light has truly faded and that night is coming on. There is a release of tension, almost a letting go of the breath, and I become away of the fading light and the quiet. Often there are a few moments when I put the camera down and just stand quietly, taking it in. I made this photograph at the end of a New Year’s Day a couple of years ago, as clouds passed over the wetland ponds and beneath the deepening blue of the twilight sky.
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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