Category Archives: Photographs: Birds

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Flock In Motion

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Flock In Motion
A motion-blurred photograph of a large flock of geese against winter dawn sky.

Flock In Motion. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A motion-blurred photograph of a large flock of geese against winter dawn sky.

A day of bird photography usually begins and ends in darkness. I arrive at least a half hour before sunrise and stay until it is too dark to photograph. A lot of interesting things happen at the edges of the day, and I will miss them if I’m not out there and ready to photograph at those times. Aside from making for very early wake-up calls and rather long days, this creates some photographic challenges. Chief among them is how to photograph distant subjects, typically in motion, in very low light. There are many approaches to working in these conditions, but this photograph illustrates one of them.

I made the photograph during the period when the earth’s shadow is visible along the horizon — around sunrise or sunset and opposite the sun when it is still just below the horizon. There was too little light for a shutter speed that could stop the motion of the birds as they took to the sky. One of my strategies is to “go with the blur,” and make photographs that abstract the subject by allowing for — and embracing! — motion blur. I lower the ISO, close the aperture a bit, lengthen the exposure, and track the flock’s overall motion… with the expectation that details will be lost. In the end it seems to me that such photographs can evoke the wild motion of these flocks.

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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Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Redwing Blackbird

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Redwing Blackbird
A male redwing blackbird perches on winter vegetation.

Redwing Blackbird. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A male redwing blackbird perches on winter vegetation.

Redwing blackbirds, especially when they flock together, seem like some of the most exuberant birds in my part of the world. On the ideal morning, hundreds (or more!) of them may assemble on a tree or among reeds, chirping and singing enthusiastically… only to suddenly and unexpectedly take to the air in tightly spaced groups whose flight patterns are amazing.

I didn’t have quite that experience on this occasion, but it was still a worthwhile moment. This bird was perched by itself on this winter wetland vegetation. As the male birds do, he was showing off his bright red wing patches as he faced m , with the wetland landscape barely visible in the distant background

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Cranes, Winter Sky

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Three Cranes, Winter Sky
Three sandhill cranes fly against blue winter sky.

Three Cranes, Winter Sky. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three sandhill cranes fly against blue winter sky.

During the first week of March it occurred to me that the end of the winter migratory bird season in California is approaching — and that it might come earlier than usual this year due to warmth and drought. So I headed out to look for birds, even though my preferred foggy conditions were not in the forecast. Since the daylight hours are rapidly increasing, it was a longer day that it would have been a few weeks ago — the sun now is up an hour earlier!

It seems to me that the behavior of the birds changes at this point in the season. Larger groups seem more likely to congregate, and they seem more active throughout out the day. That was the case this time, and I saw all kinds of geese, plenty of sandhill cranes, and lots of other birds including ibises, egrets, herons, redwing blackbirds. At one point I paused near large groups of cranes and waited (mostly) patiently for groups of them to periodically lift off and fly past my position.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Egret

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Great Egret
A great egret stands in a shallow wetlands pond.

Great Egret. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great egret stands in a shallow wetlands pond.

Great egrets are many things. They are beautiful in flight, slow and purposeful, with a flare of wings while landing that is always graceful. They are also remarkably common, and here on the west coast you can find them almost everywhere — along freeways, at the ocean, in fields, beside creeks. They are skillful and effective hunters, quietly and intently approaching prey until, with a sudden extension of the long neck, they grab their prey.

Photographing them can be an odd experience. Sometimes a standing bird (in water like this one, or on land) may allow a close enough approach to almost fill the frame using a long lens. At other times they have strict personal boundaries and will suddenly take flight if you get too close. Often they don’t fly far away, but photographing this is awkward since one is almost photographing the bird from behind as it departs. This specimen stood still in the shallow water, and I had so much time to photograph that it was still there when I finished.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.