Category Archives: Photographs: Central California

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Cloudscape With Birds

Image Leave a comment
Cloudscape With Birds
Migratory birds fill the winter sky against a backdrop of clearing storm clouds.

Cloudscape With Birds. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Migratory birds fill the winter sky against a backdrop of clearing storm clouds.

Yes, it is a little bit difficult to see the birds in this photograph. (If you have the option, you may want to view it larger.) But in a way, that is kind of the point — to set the very small and very numerous birds against that grand scale of this California Central Valley winter cloudscape. When photographing birds I almost always wish I could get closer — but there’s also inevitably a moment when I am moved by the distant view a sky filled with thousands of birds.

I made this photograph on New Year’s morning, shortly after the first dawn of 2023. In order to arise before dawn I had to be in bed well before midnight. (I suppose that there was a time when I might have stayed up until midnight and gotten up before the sun!) As wonderful as it was to greet the new year in the company of thousands of migratory birds, it was even better to be in the company of a wonderful little band of photographers and friends who gather together on every New Year’s Day.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

White-Fronted Geese in Flight

Image Leave a comment
White-Fronted Geese in Flight
A flock of white-fronted geese in fllight abainst a blue winter sky.

White-Fronted Geese in Flight. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A flock of white-fronted geese in fllight abainst a blue winter sky.

We were recently out photographing migratory (and other) birds in California’s Central Valley, squeezing a visit in between the series of recent and continuing winter storms. I describe these visits as being about “bird photography,” but the truth is that they often end up being as much about the landscape of the place — the sky, the water, the trees, the atmosphere — as about the birds. In order to restore some balance, here is a photograph of birds!

This is a flock of white-fronted geese, one of the several times you can find here in California during the winter months. On a spectrum from photographs that are “realistic” to those that are more subjective and atmospheric, I think this one is more of the former. But there are at least a few unusual things about it that bird photographers might recognize. It is really difficult to get a photograph of groups like this in which each bird is distinctly separate from the others. In addition, if you are interested in a single image that shows almost the whole range of in-flight positions of geese, you might want to spend some time looking at this one!

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetlands Pond, Winter Sky

Image Leave a comment
Wetlands Pond, Winter Sky
Winter dawn clouds reflected in a California Central Valley wetlands pond.

Wetlands Pond, Winter Sky. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Winter dawn clouds reflected in a California Central Valley wetlands pond.

We were not sure quite what we would find this morning. We had been photographing in this area over the past couple of day, mostly in less-than-spectacular conditions. The first day was marked by the passage of an exceptional weather system, and the second was “pleasant” but less than striking. Hey, it happens! We know that another from was due in as we headed out before dawn, so we were excited to see colorful sky develop as the first light appeared.

Arriving at our destination, the pre-dawn sky was perhaps the most intensely red that I’ve seen in this location. I made a few photographs of that, but it was actually a bit difficult to see how to make a useful photograph of it. (Stay tuned, though…) A bit later, just as the sun was about to break the line of the horizon, the sky overhead had lost the most intense color, thus providing a bit more color variation as I photographed across a Central Valley wetlands pond.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

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

Edge of the Surf

Image Leave a comment
Edge of the Surf
Waves retreat from a Pacific Ocean beach north of Santa Cruz, California.

Edge of the Surf. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Waves retreat from a Pacific Ocean beach north of Santa Cruz, California.

This just might be my final “old year” photograph of 2022, though most of you won’t see it until a few days into 2023. Back on the day after Christmas I headed over the coastal mountains to the Pacific shoreline north of Santa Cruz, California. It was kind of a strange day. A storm was working its way toward California from the North Pacific, producing large surf and a building cloud deck. The clouds were still thin enough to allow some sunlight in, but coastal haze and thin fog produced odd, pinkish colors.

Before I made this photograph I had been photographing the impressive surf just off this beach. Here the slope into the ocean is gradual, and even during this season when surf often erodes beaches the shallows stretches quite a ways out from the surf line. These objects (old, worn pieces of driftwood) were right at the edge of the water, and the shallows beyond reflected the color of the cloudy 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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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