Winter Trees. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two bare trees and new winter grasses in a foggy Central Valley pasture.

This is a familiar and welcome scene at this time of year in many places in California — bare trees in a winter pasture, cloaked in fog that is just beginning to clear. It surely is not what most world regard as an iconic California photograph — no rugged coastal cliffs, giant redwood trees, granite Sierra peaks, or desert sand dunes. But if you live in this landscape such scenes are at least as representative.

So, despite its non-iconic character, there are a number of things here that I identify with. Let me share a few of them. Note that crop of new green grass beneath the nearer tree. Many who visit California are struck by how brown it is during the tourist season — but they came at the wrong time. Our winter is the green season, as the rains start the plants growing between now and spring. Also, despite all of the classically remarkable California landscapes, these agricultural scenes are probably more typical — grassy areas interrupted by occasional large trees. This photograph is also a reminder for me that there are photographs everywhere, even in what we might think of as mundane landscapes.

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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.

Three Trees, Wetlands Sunset. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three trees in dusk light on a cloudy winter evening, reflected in the surface of a wetlands pond.

California’s Great Central Valley can be a place of surprises. It often seems to be mainly agricultural, presenting a rather flat landscape broken up by farm houses and roads. At times the air is hazy, and it isn’t usually a place of grand vistas. And then it surprises you. On a clear day you may look east toward the Sierra Nevada, snow covered in winter. Far to the north, days of exceptional clarity reveal the massif of Mount Shasta looming over the upper end of the Valley. There are subtler landscapes, too — river banks, oak trees, wetlands, and more.

As this day came to an end a minor weather front laid a line of clouds across the western sky. As the clouds turned red at sunset, the reflection produced a huge arch across the horizon above the hills along the western border of the valley, and the scene was mirrored in a shallow wetlands pond.

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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.

Tree With Birds, Evening. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lone tree full of small birds and still holding a few autumn leaves stands in wetlands on the last winter evening of the year.

There are beautiful landscapes, effects of atmosphere, and light almost everywhere. We often imagine that we have to go to special or iconic places to find them, but that isn’t always true. (Yes, I do go to those places, too.) For many years I have marked the time between those longer trips to more famous places by photographing closer to home, often in less dramatic landscapes — sometimes so close that I can walk out my front door to find them. Over time these places have become as special as any.

Wetlands are found all over California, with the only major exceptions being among high peaks and in the deserts. (If you look hard enough, you may find occasional examples even in those places.) You can find them along the coast and they are abundant along the state’s many river drainages. I photographed this scene at the end of the year, in the early evening of a winter day when a few autumn leaves remained, the light was softened by high clouds, and winter haze muted the colors.

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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.

Autumn Wetlands. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog clearing above a California Central Valley wetlands pond.

This is perhaps not a spectacular, iconic scene — and that may be an understatement! The specific place is hardly significant beyond my personal familiarity with it, and you could easily find similar places all over California’s Central Valley, spots near rivers and other water sources where the water pools and forms marshes, either naturally or as a result of human planning. It can be difficult to persuade others to find the beauty in such seemingly-ordinary places, but over time that beauty does emerge.

This day started in thick tule fog that made it impossible to see more than a few hundred feet. Later in the morning the fog began to thin, and sunlight came through breaks in the low clouds. By the time I made the photograph it was more sunny than not, but the light was soft due to the remnants of that earlier fog. These ponds led off toward levees and… more water and trees.

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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.