Category Archives: Photographs: Nature

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

Wetland Trees, Dawn Fog

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Wetland Trees, Dawn Fog
Dawn tule fog begins to clear over Central Valley wetlands and trees.

Wetland Trees, Dawn Fog. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn tule fog begins to clear over Central Valley wetlands and trees.

This wetland copse (new word, anyone?) has almost become something of an old friend. Every winter I photograph in locations like this one, and as I circumnavigate this area’s wetland ponds I look forward to this spot, where I almost always spot a raptor perched on the top of the solitary branch. There are other things in this scene that you might miss, too. If you look closely you can perhaps see a lighter area just beyond the base of the foreground trees. A large flock of white geese is settled there. The subtly colored leaves are the last vestige of fall color.

I made the photograph not long after dawn, on one of those magical mornings when tule fog blanketed the landscape and was just beginning to thin. a bit. Tule fog can be very dense but also very shallow, and simultaneously renders the surrounding landscape opaque while allowing the glow and color of the early morning sky to gently light the scene.

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: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Flock In Motion

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Flock In Motion
A motion-blurred photograph of a large flock of geese against winter dawn sky.

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

A motion-blurred photograph of a large flock of geese against winter dawn sky.

A day of bird photography usually begins and ends in darkness. I arrive at least a half hour before sunrise and stay until it is too dark to photograph. A lot of interesting things happen at the edges of the day, and I will miss them if I’m not out there and ready to photograph at those times. Aside from making for very early wake-up calls and rather long days, this creates some photographic challenges. Chief among them is how to photograph distant subjects, typically in motion, in very low light. There are many approaches to working in these conditions, but this photograph illustrates one of them.

I made the photograph during the period when the earth’s shadow is visible along the horizon — around sunrise or sunset and opposite the sun when it is still just below the horizon. There was too little light for a shutter speed that could stop the motion of the birds as they took to the sky. One of my strategies is to “go with the blur,” and make photographs that abstract the subject by allowing for — and embracing! — motion blur. I lower the ISO, close the aperture a bit, lengthen the exposure, and track the flock’s overall motion… with the expectation that details will be lost. In the end it seems to me that such photographs can evoke the wild motion of these flocks.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Clearing Fog, Late-Winter Grasslands

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Clearing Fog, Late-Winter Grasslands
Morning fog thins above late-winter Central Valley grassland and floodplain.

Clearing Fog, Late-Winter Grasslands. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog thins above late-winter Central Valley grassland and floodplain.

Before I write about today’s photograph, I want to make a brief comment about “carrying on” in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, and why I continue to share photographs and stories. We need reminders of how the world was before this started… and how it will be again afterwards. And we certainly need distraction from the constant news. I hope that some of you will find a bit of joy, solace, distraction in these posts.

It was less than a week ago when I made what may be my last long photography excursion for a while. With the winter migratory bird season coming to an end in California, I wanted to make one more visit to a wildlife refuge where I often photograph. So I headed toward the Central Valley before dawn, arriving before sunrise, and spending most of the day on the prowl for birds at this peaceful and quiet place.

I believe I arrived for the very end of this season’s migratory bird photography. The large groups of sandhill cranes, Ross’s geese, and snow geese of a week ago were gone, and only a few stragglers remained. There were still white-fronted geese, ibises, egrets, and a few others. Because of the smaller number of birds, I left the refuge and the surrounding agricultural area. I stopped along a raised roadway where a river flows through oak/grassland floodplain country where early spring plants were coming to life, and I made a few photographs as the fog thinned and a few flocks of birds flew past.

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: Nature

Field of Fiddleneck Flowers

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Field of Fiddleneck Flowers
A field of late-winter California fiddleneck blossoms.

Field of Fiddleneck Flowers. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A field of late-winter California fiddleneck blossoms.

Photographing wildflowers wasn’t really my plan on this outing. I had gone to this place for what would likely be my final chance to photograph migratory birds before they leave California and head north. As it turned out, many of them had already departed, probably only a day or two earlier. There were other birds to photograph, some of which I had overlooked when the huge migratory flocks commanded my attention, but it was clear that the winter bird season was ending.

But something else was starting to happen — the onset of the green season and wildflowers. California’s “winter” seems odd to people who live where winter has a more traditional quality. Here, winter is when the state turns green, transforming from the brown and dry end of autumn to the impossibly green period of March and the start of April. Our “spring” wildflowers begin to appear weeks before the onset of solar spring. The birds were a bit sparse on this morning, but the flowers were erupting.

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.