Category Archives: Photographs: Nature

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Dunes and Mountains, Evening

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Dunes and Mountains, Evening
Dead plants, sand dunes, and distant desert mountains in evening light, Death Valley National Park

Dunes and Mountains, Evening. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dead plants, sand dunes, and distant desert mountains in evening light, Death Valley National Park.

During normal times I would be leaving for Death Valley today, making my annual early spring visit to spend up to a week photographing in and around the park. Until a few weeks ago that was the plan for this year. That’s not going to happen this spring. As much as I tell myself that I could simply work “off the grid” (not too hard to do in that park) for a week, the truth is that we all have a responsibility to do what we can to drive down the number of opportunities for corona virus to spread. So I’m making a virtual visit by going back into my raw file archives.

This was one of those “typical” Death Valley evenings. I wandered out in to the dunes in the late afternoon, far away from the most popular areas, to photograph the transition from day to evening. I found this spot, with its dead snags emerging from the sand, and photographed it as the last bit of soft light shone on the dunes and colorful sunset light was on the distant mountains.

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

Big Sur Coast, Clearing Fog

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Big Sur Coast, Clearing Fog
Clearing fog pulls back to the upper slopes of coastal hills along the Big Sur coast.

Big Sur Coast, Clearing Fog. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clearing fog pulls back to the upper slopes of coastal hills along the Big Sur coast.

As we follow the California “shelter-in-place” order, I’m photographing very locally and to digging back into my raw file archives. I try to do the latter at least once per year, and I am just now reviewing the 2019 files. Every time I do this I discover photographs that I originally overlooked or that I neglected as I moved on to other projects. I’m convinced that we see our own photographs differently a year or two later, and photographs that were not quite what we thought we wanted originally turn out to be interesting when viewed without the context of having just made them.

This photograph comes from a one-day visit to the Big Sur coastline just a few days short of a year ago. I remember it well. It was a day of tricky and challenging light as an early spring weather front moved down the coast. I traveled quickly, trying to stay near the leading edge of the clouds. At this spot just south of the town of Big Sur the surface of the Pacific Ocean glowed brilliantly in muted sun, the steep cliffs were in shadow, and fog was clearing from the upper slopes of coastal mountains.

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.

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Unruly Flock

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Unruly Flock
A somewhat disorganized flock of lesser sandhill cranes in flight.

Unruly Flock. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A somewhat disorganized flock of lesser sandhill cranes in flight.

Over the time that I’ve photographed birds I have gradually become more aware of the personalities of different species and even different subgroups. For example, the sound of one goose may be lower in pitch than another, one sort of egret is less tolerant of humans than another, the way cranes flock is quite different from geese, and so on. Learning about these differences — and I’m still far from being an expert! — is both fascinating and useful. For example, I can more accurately recognize types of birds based on how a flock behaves, an so on.

Sandhill cranes have idiomatic behaviors that differentiate them from other flocking birds such as geese and ibises. The group size is one element — I’ve never seen them airborne in numbers approaching those of big flocks of geese. The organization of flocks in flight is much “looser” than that of geese. There is usually no traditional “V” pattern, and they sometimes give the appearance of coming close to colliding with one another. They also look around a lot in flight — somewhere I have a photograph that includes one with it head twisted around to look straight up! They don’t like flying directly over photographers, and will usually divert to one side or the other.

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.

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

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Goose Storm

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Goose Storm
A giant flock of Ross’s and/or snow geese above a wetland pond on a foggy winter morning.

Goose Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A giant flock of Ross’s and/or snow geese above a wetland pond on a foggy winter morning.

Three experiences most photographers have had: A morning, day, or evening of astonishing conditions and light when it almost seemed that you could point the camera anywhere and make a good photograph. A morning, day or evening when the conditions were unbelievably awful and photography seemed almost impossible. In-between days when there are things to photograph, but they aren’t always easy or obvious. The first condition is rare, the second is (fortunately!) equally rare, and the third is most common. (The more you are out there, the more this rings true… and the better you get at adjusting.)

This morning was one of the rare “first category” situations. It had virtually everything I look for in such places: abundant wildlife, thick fog at dawn that was shallow enough to allow the light of morning sky to color the scene, fog breaking up as the morning wore on, and good company! The geese had been settled in on the grassland and ponds when something provoked them to take flight into the softly lit foggy morning sky by the thousands, circling noisily for a bit before settling back down again.

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.