Category Archives: Photographs: Wildlife

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Gull, Sky, and Fog

July 16, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary gull flies above California’s Pacific Ocean coastline with a fog bank and blue sky beyond.

With some free time earlier this week, and the excuse of driving my son to a summer-session class at UC-Santa Cruz, I headed north from Santa Cruz looking for things to photograph. Because there was a lot of fog, even in the middle of the day, fog was one of my general subject ideas. And I almost always make at least a quick stop at a couple of bluff-top locations that I know of where shore birds often glide by very close as they ride the updrafts from the ocean winds. It turned out that my first stop was precisely one of these locations. With nothing else specific in mind at this midday hour, I figured I would at least spend a bit of time honing my skills and tracking and photographing birds in flight.

Although sea gulls are not necessarily my favorite subjects, there sure were plenty of them to practice on! At the spot I picked, they first become visible perhaps 10-15 seconds away as they come around the edge of a bluff to the south. As they approach they tend to vary their altitudes, with some dropping low enough that they disappear behind the cliff and others going so high that only their shaded undersides are visible. But a few come very close at almost eye level.

I almost always learn something new when I photograph birds in flight and this session was no exception. While in retrospect it seems like one of those “Well, duh!” realizations, I figured out that really strong winds tend to upset the birds ability to remain level, and for this reason they are constantly adjusting to remain level. From moment to moment the wings move into interesting positions or they find themselves tilting wildly to get back on course. This is much more interesting than what they do in benign conditions, where they often seem to just… coast.

So, add one more thing to watch for as they fly past. This isn’t an easy thing, and I have the greatest admiration for those who are really great at photographing birds in flight – or “BIF,” as some call them. The first challenge is simply to keep the moving birds in the viewfinder when using a long focal length lens. (I advise practicing the process of simply following the birds without even firing the shutter at first.) But that’s not enough. You must also attempt to keep the bird(s) in a position within the frame that is aesthetically interesting and which will position the target under the active AF points on the camera. Easier said than done! Then there is the matter of trying also be aware of what the bird is doing – watching wing and head position and so forth. On top of that, you ideally also want to be aware of the what else is in the frame – sky, clouds, water, other birds – and factor that into the decision about when to press the shutter. There are exposure challenges, too, especially with birds like this gull that have white on their backs… and this portion of the bird is in direct sun.

Let’s just say that – for me at least – it takes a lot of exposures to get a few shots that I like.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Pelican Flock, Waddell Creek Beach

June 19, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of pelicans turns toward Waddell Creek Beach along the Pacific coast of California.

This group was photographed a few seconds before I photographed the single overhead pelican that I posted a couple of days ago. Here the flock had turned back towards the land in preparation for rising to the edge of a much higher bluff just to the north.

Since I so recently described the circumstances of this shoot, I’ll keep this text short!

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Pelican Against Blue Sky

June 17, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A low flying pelican passes overhead against clearing coastal fog and blue sky.

This pelican was part of a very large group that flew directly over my position along the Pacific Ocean coast north of Santa Cruz, California. One of the main tricks to photographing these wonderful bird – though not the only trick – is figuring out where to photograph them. They are very common along the coastline of “my” part of California, the area from just north of San Francisco south to the Big Sur area below Monterey and Carmel. But in many places you’ll watch them fly past too far out over the water, or below you such that they don’t make easy photographic targets. But by spending a bit of time along the coast, I’ve begun to understand their patterns a bit, and I now know a few places where I’m fairly likely to find them flying very close or even directly overhead.

We had spotted this group along the top of a bluff where they often fly by as they coast along on the updrafts from the onshore winds. (One thing I’ve never been able to figure out is that the almost always are flying from south to north. Are they taking the train back south so that they can repeat the trip? Do they just keep going? Do they only make on flight? It is a mystery to me!) We had just missed photographing this large flock as they came by, but I had a hunch that they might come down close to the water at a location just north where the road drops to a beach where a creek enters the ocean. So we headed there, parked the car, and a few minutes later we saw the flock appear around the cliffs to the south and descend toward the beach. As they came to our position they began to turn inland and climb towards the next bluff, and as this happened the birds flew directly over my position.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Elk Walking Across Grassland

June 11, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Tule Elk walking across grassland at Point Reyes National Seashore, California.

I know I promised that the previous one would be the last… but, yes, one more tule elk photograph. (For now? ;-) This one was slightly apart from the others in the group as they began to move off to the right, and I managed to time this photograph so that the others were out of the frame. Beyond that… perhaps not a lot new to say about photographs of tule elk at Point Reyes! :-)

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.