Category Archives: Photographs: Central California

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

The Levee Road

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The Levee Road
Autumn sunshine breaks through the morning fog along a gravel road following a Central Valley levee

The Levee Road. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn sunshine breaks through the morning fog along a gravel road following a Central Valley levee.

California’s Great Central Valley, comprised of the San Joaquin Valley to the south of the Delta and the Sacramento Valley extending to the north, is a more complex and rich place than we might imagine, especially those of us who so often simply use the valley as a route to go somewhere else. We drive it heading north to Oregon and Washington, south to Los Angeles, or east/west between the coast and the mountains and deserts. As a result, we mostly see it at 70mph from roadways, or during rest and meal stops at interchanges. But get away from the main routes and slow down a bit and there are surprises. One surprise is just how much water plays into this landscape… and its politics. Along the major river drainages, especially where there is agriculture (which is practically everywhere) the allocation and control of water is a very big thing. In fact, this levee road is just one small example of something much larger.

I was out on this road recently, enjoying a late-fall foggy morning and searching out migratory wildlife. These fall and winter tule fog days are my favorites in the valley, though I can certainly understand that they aren’t usually viewed with enthusiasm. They can make driving treacherous and can affect residents’ moods. But they also produce beautiful and mysterious effects on the landscape. One of the most beautiful and most transitory effects comes when the shallow but thick fog begins to clear — the air is still obscured and soft clouds are everywhere, but beams of gentle light begin to move across the landscape.

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: Abstract, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature

Winter Landscape

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Winter Landscape
A California winter landscape photograph reduced to its compositional fundamentals.

Winter Landscape . © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A California winter landscape photograph reduced to its compositional fundamentals.

This photograph fits into a category I describe as “imaginary landscapes,” a type defined loosely by where it sits along the continuum between supposed representational reality and abstraction of landscape-derived materials. That might seem an overly-wordy way to describe it, but I’m always cognizant of the fact that no landscape photograph is truly objective or fully “real” — all photographs and certainly all landscape photographs necessarily are subjective. This could be due to something as basic (and obvious!) as the fact that the photographer chose to point the camera at some specific thing (and not at other things). It includes equipment choices( length of lens, aperture, etc.), basic interpretive choices (color or black and white, and how to handle either of those), and much, much more. In my “imaginary landscape” photographs I think I’m simply making this stuff more plainly obvious.

This one also illustrates, I think, something that figures into the landscape (but not just landscape!) photographs of virtually every photographer that I know of — the photograph is not just about the ostensible subject of the image. For most photographers other things also appeal — the shapes of things, their colors (a huge topic, by the way), how the components fit together, how things may be suggested rather than declared, and more. Allow me to make a musical analogy here. There’s a famous (or infamous) piece by composer/philosopher John Cage called 4’33”. In it a performer, takes the stage in the manner of any classical performer, then sits in front of a (usually) piano silently for 4′ 33″. One way to look at this is to recognize that Cage gave us every element of a musical performance but the one we think is central, thus forcing us to think about all of those “other details” and their central role in our perception of music. A photograph with no details (“the horror!”) may work in a somewhat similar (though not quite identical) way. Or maybe you just like the colors? ;-)

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

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Central Valley Silo, Detail

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Central Valley Silo, Detail
Close-up view of a California Central Valley silo

Central Valley Silo, Detail. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Close-up view of a California Central Valley silo.

My acquaintance with this location goes back to an important day a number of years ago — the first time I went out to seriously photograph California migratory birds. Earlier that week I had a chance encounter with a colleague in the coffee cart line at my college, and she happened to mention a California Central Valley location where sandhill cranes congregate. It really hadn’t crossed my mind to photograph birds — I was most definitely not the birder type — but based on nothing more than her mention of this place I headed out a few days later… and was entranced by what I found. (My ignorance of birds was impressive at that point. For example, only later did I realize that I had photographed a beautiful flock of tundra swans overhead. I probably thought that they were just more geese!)

On that visit I did something that has become a standard part of my bird photography forays — I photographed other subjects! Heading down a narrow country road through agricultural country I came upon flooded rice (I think!) fields next to a group of silos, and I made a few photographs of the two subjects juxtaposed. This close-up photograph features the same silos I photographed on that first visit to “bird country.”

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

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Silos And Shadows, Morning

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Silos And Shadows, Morning
California Central Valley silos in morning light.

Silos And Shadows, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

California Central Valley silos in morning light.

This photograph might serve as an example of an approach I sometimes take when photographing, especially when the subjects I had in mind may not present themselves or at least not present well. Basically, I have a backup plan, and I’m happy to switch gears and improvise if my primary subject either isn’t working or isn’t at its best. That was the case on this morning when I had traveled to the Central Valley to photograph birds. I did that, but then I decided to head down a narrow country lane looking for whatever I could find, and in this case the search uncovered some agricultural subjects.

It is always a question whether to stay with the subject you came for or to switch to another target of opportunity. To be honest, I cannot recommend one over the other — I do both, and it is hard to rationalize why I choose one over the other. Sometimes, quite honestly, it is mainly a hunch. If you stick with a subject that isn’t quite working you may eventually find a way to make it work, or perhaps that light you hoped for will appear. On the other hand, you could just as easily wait and find that nothing changes!

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.

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