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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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