Category Archives: Photographs: Central California

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

Geese and Evening Sky

March 31, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A motion blurred photograph of Ross’s geese against the evening sky above California’s San Joaquin Valley

Bird photographers might appreciate the thought I had that it might be appropriate to refer to these “BIF” photographs “blurred in flight” shots. (Among bird photographers, “BIF” is short for “birds in flight.”) I guess I could say that I’m photographing “blinds,” or “blurreds,” – or something. In any case, the experimentation with motion-blur abstractions of flying birds continues.

I photographed these Ross’s geese on New Year’s Day 2013, when I met a great group of friends out in the foggy Central Valley to “chase wild geese” and other migratory birds. I made plenty of the usual sharp photographs of birds, but I’ve felt for some time that those do not always succeed in creating some analog of the ephemeral and transitory character of these critters. Plus, I just sort of like the abstraction of they blurred shapes! Some might say that making blurry photographs is a sign of less the competent photography, but I have to say that this isn’t quite as easy as it might seem. There are a lot of things to consider as I make these images. There is a sort of exposure time sweet spot that blurs the birds sufficiently but which still holds enough of their shape to clearly show their nature. I want abstract shapes, but not so abstract that they no longer clearly suggest birds in flight. Secondly there is the matter of background. Ideally, I think I like to locate the flying birds against fairly plain sky with interesting color. This means tracking the birds as they take flight, close to the ground and with “stuff” behind them, waiting for the moment when they break clear of ground and brush and trees and appear against the right sort of sky, but only for a moment before they move too far away. Finally, as I shoot I watch the constantly evolving relationships of position and shape among the birds of the moving flock, and try to capture moments when they briefly align in interesting ways. This group had stretched into a sort of horizontal cloud of birds when I triggered the shutter.

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

Surf, Weston Beach

March 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Long exposure photograph of surf and boulders, Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve

This part of a small series of photographs I made at Weston Beach, Point Lobos on a mid-January day. The location is very familiar to me, to the point that I recognize many specific rocks and formations here. I have photographed quite a few times, but I continue to find new things to see here. Part of that is from visiting in different seasons and conditions of weather and light, part from looking more closely, and part from thinking of different ways to photograph the familiar subject. More than once I’ve had a feeling that I was “done” with the location, only to go back and find a new way of seeing it to investigate.

I was playing with several ideas when I made this series of photographs. Obviously, I was working with long exposures that allowed the motion of the waves to blur in various ways, smoothing out the surface of the otherwise-rough water and turning shoreline waves into transparent mist. I was also working with a different sort of light than that which I would usually seek out here. More often I look for soft light, produced by some overcast, an early/late hour, or even fog. But it was very clear on this mid-morning visit and the light falling on the rocks was somewhat stark and harsh, especially when I shot almost into the sunlight. It seemed to me that the edginess of the brightly lit rock might be a counterpoint to the softness of the long-exposure blurring of the water. Obviously, I also went with black and white here. Also, a bit unusual for me, I worked with an ultra-wide angle focal length, getting quite close to the foreground but letting the distant subjects be small and accentuating that by placing the horizon very close to the top of the frame.

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

Marsh and Trees, San Joaquin Valley

March 29, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Scattered trees grow in the marshland of the San Joaquin Valley, California

This photograph comes from a trip to California’s Central Valley on New Years Day with a group of friends – and I can’t imagine a better way to start a new year then by meeting up with friends in the pre-dawn darkness to begin a day photographing the migratory birds and generally hanging out with good people!

For me, photographing these marvelous birds turns out to be about more than the birds themselves, as remarkable as they are as a visual subject. There is a whole range of sensory associations that come to mind when I think of these winter visits to the marshlands to photograph the geese and cranes and other birds. The sound of thousands of geese never ceases to (literally) make me smile when I first hear it, and the sound of the cranes, especially when it comes from overhead or float through the fog, is evocative. The cold and damp and frequently foggy atmosphere is part of it, as is the long drive through the pre-dawn darkness (sometimes alone) and then arriving to find friends waiting. And the landscape itself draws me, which surprises me given how much it contrasts with the wilder landscapes of mountains and deserts and coastline. Often when I’m photographing birds, I interrupt that work to photograph this landscape, which is what I did here. I lined up a few trees, side-lit by the slightly fog-softened light, against the blue haze of clearing tule fog.

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

Monterey Cypress Trunks

March 27, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The trunks of Monterey Cypress trees along the north shore of Point Lobos State Reserve, California

In mid-January I made my first trip back to Point Lobos in quite a few months. This is a place that I know well, having visited since my parents took me when I was a child. I’ve photographed all over the park – though I certainly have not done everything there that can be done, and I’ll continue to photograph the place. On this visit I went without any real preconceived ideas about what I wanted to shoot. Often when I go to such a place I have at least some such ideas – perhaps I’m thinking about wildlife, or maybe I want to photograph in fog, or there might be a forecast of high surf. But this time? I think I just wanted to go there and be in the old familiar landscape of sun and waves and birds and all the rest.

I arrived early, just after the park opened, and when I drove it there were few others there yet. (Point Lobos can become very busy later in the day as tourists from the popular Monterey and Carmel areas show up.) More or less by chance I ended up down at iconic Weston Beach, where I stopped when I saw some arrangements of shoreline boulders that seemed to present some possibilities and because the early morning light was glancing off of sea stacks and islands to the south. I shot here for perhaps a couple of hours and then decided to head back over the Whalers Cove, where I can sometimes photograph interesting birds. When I didn’t see the birds there that I hoped for, I decided to shoulder my gear and take the trail along the dramatic north shore, hoping for some soft light. This little scene caught my attention along the trail, at first because of the interesting back-light, but I soon saw a lot more potential here, especially with the trees tilting at wild angles.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Central California

Geese and Evening Sky

Surf, Weston Beach

Marsh and Trees, San Joaquin Valley

Monterey Cypress Trunks

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