Cranes in Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A group of lesser sandhill cranes in thick morning fog, California Central Valley.
Awake almost three hours before sunrise, I headed to the kitchen to make coffee — enough to wake me up and enough to fill a thermos for later. I had mostly packed the car the previous night, so I just had to grab a small bag and head out the door to begin a two-hour pre-dawn drive to a place where I expected to find migratory birds and plenty of tule fog, two subjects that I chase during the winter months. The fog began a half hour before I arrived at my destination, and when I arrived as the first light came to the sky I heard thousands of birds in the distance.
At first it was too dark and the atmosphere too opaque for photography, so I headed out to find the source of the sounds. Soon I encountered a large flock of snow geese which departed a moment later. Moving on I got to a spot where I could hear the easily recognized sound of cranes nearby. I could just barely see them though the thick fog, but I stopped and waited, and as the fog drifted a bit I was able to spot them and make a few photographs of a group standing in shallow wetlands.
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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What was the distance between you and the birds? This is a lovely photograph!
Probably less distance than it seems — I was photographing from my vehicle (which often makes a decent blind) with a very long lens and I cropped just a little bit in post. My wild guess is that I might have been 100 feet away, but I could be off on that estimate. And, yes, it was definitely foggy enough that seeing beyond 100-200 feet was impossible.
Dan
One of my new favorites of yours. Gorgeous.
Thanks! The photograph was a bit of a stretch, in that it verges on almost having not quite enough detail to work. But I also like the mood it creates.
Dan