Category Archives: Photographs: Central California

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Night Heron, Reflection

August 18, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary night heron perches on a snag above a reflecting pool

I have mentioned before that I came late to an interest in photographing birds — it only began a few years ago when I took a serendipitous trip to a California Central Valley refuge where I saw huge numbers of birds. Despite being a virtually life-long Californian living within a short drive of such areas, I barely knew they existed. (I had one prior hint on a drive to the Pacific Northwest some years ago, when I passed through the upper Sacramento Valley on a late-November evening and say many birds in the sky.)

That all changed during recent years. At first I “discovered” geese and egrets, the latter which I had seen before and occasionally photographed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Then I caught on to some of the other birds out in the Central Valley — ibises, cranes, herons, white pelicans. But the night herons continued to be a bit of a mystery, and frankly they still remain so to an extent. They are found at the location where I most often photograph, but typically off at some distance. That distance, along with their habit of roosting in thick grasses and plants, makes them hard to see and photograph. On this visit to a different location up in the Sacramento Valley I found a huge group of them in brush just across a canal, and I was able to photograph them from a closer distance, including this one that was atypically out of the brush and standing on a log.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Sandhill Cranes in Morning Flight

August 14, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of sandhill cranes passes overhead, San Joaquin Valley, California

Way back in college, as a music major oh so many years ago, I was lucky to be in a special program that fulfilled my science requirements in a non-traditional manner. Rather than enrolling in the usual undergraduate science courses, we spent part of a year in a series of small group seminars on a range of subject. (As a student with an interest in science, especially biology, I was a bit skeptical at first but thrilled in the end.) One portion on ecology lasted weeks, and reading Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac was a main component. This was perhaps the first such book I read. (I later read pretty much all of Muir and quite a lot of other such writers.)

One thing I remember from that book — and I hope I have this right — was something about sandhill cranes. I had no idea what they were… until many years later when I began photographing the migratory birds of California’s Central Valley. Sometimes ungainly on the ground, they have a refined and elegant way of flying, often flat and level without a lot of goose-like flapping. They are hesitant to fly right over a person with a camera, preferring to take a detour, but this group came straight at me.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Coastal Forest, Fog

August 10, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fog obscures a coastal forest at Point Lobos State Reserve

Many people who don’t know the California coast imagine it to be a warm and sunny place. It can be, but often it is actually foggy and damp and cold — and not a place where you’d want to lie on your towel trying to work on your tan! That iconic sunny weather does occur, especially if you go farther south, but the cold and foggy weather is more typical. Surprisingly, I much prefer the cool and foggy to the clear and sunny, and I don’t think I’m the only photographer who would rather see almost any conditions other than blue sky clear days.

On this January day I headed over to Point Lobos after hearing that there would be both clouds and big surf. In many places in this part of California the coastal hills drop precipitously and directly (or nearly so) straight into the ocean. Here at Point Lobos there is an area of flat, forested headland between the ocean and the mountains, but right behind the park the mountains do rise in layers, and on a day like this one the details of the successively higher ridges often disappear into the fog.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Winter Surf, Mountains

August 6, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Powerful winter surf washes over rocks at Point Lobos.

I have gone to Point Lobos for decades, beginning when I was a child and my family would visit. I especially remember exploring the accessible tide pools. Today I especially like to go there on foggy days or in the winter, when the raw power of the Pacific Ocean is most visible, with winter storms churning up huge surf.

It was on such a day that I visited last January — in fact, reports of high surf were almost certainly what made me decide to visit that day. Because this coastline faces west, in the morning the coastal hills, being to the east, are often in shadow. To make this photograph I found an outcropping from which I could look back to the southwest toward the shore and juxtapose the rear of a huge wave washing over offshore rocks with the dark and ominous face of the mountains rising behind in shadow.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Central California

Night Heron, Reflection

Sandhill Cranes in Morning Flight

Coastal Forest, Fog

Winter Surf, Mountains

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.