Category Archives: Photographs: Wildlife

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Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival

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Every November there is a Sandhill Crane Festival in Lodi, California, celebrating the return of these marvelous birds. I’ve been meaning to enter some of my crane photographs for the past few years, and this year I finally did. Here are the three photographs appearing in the art exhibit at the festival.

I made the first one, “Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog” on a marvelous February morning a while ago. I had never seen so many birds at once, nor seen them quite this active. On top of that, the tule fog was just beginning to break up, and the atmosphere was luminous.

Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog
A foggy San Joaquin Valley winter landscape filled with geese and cranes

The second is “Two Sandhill Cranes in Flight,” a juxtaposition of two of the birds against the blue winter sky.

Two Sandhill Cranes in Flight
A pair of lesser sandhill cranes in flight above California’s San Joaquin Valley

Finally, “Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes” is a photograph of a group of cranes taking off from a shallow pond and heading toward the faint light of the rising sun on a very foggy morning.

Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes
A group of sandhill cranes takes to the morning sky above foggy marshland

If you are curious about these birds and want to know more and you life in Central California, a trip to the Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival this weekend can get you started. In addition to the art exhibit, there are lectures and guided tours to some of the nearby locations where you can find these birds. And the birds are there — I saw thousands of them this morning.

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: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Ross’s Geese

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Three Ross's Geese In Flight
Three Ross’s geese in flight

Three Ross’s Geese In Flight. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three Ross’s geese in flight.

During a discussion among attendees at the opening reception for our (David Hoffman and my) exhibit, “Birdscapes,” at the Stellar Gallery in Oakhurst something occurred to me about my bird photographs — something that is perfectly obvious in retrospect. While there are many ways to photograph birds, virtually all of my bird photographs feature birds in groups and birds in flight. There are very, very few photographs of individual birds aside from those that are normally loners, and I nearly always photograph them in action in one way or another.

This trio of Ross’s geese in flight against a bright, foggy sky fits the mold. I had encountered a large flock of the birds feeding in a grassy area near water, and they were surprisingly willing to allow close approach. In fact, there were in a location where avoiding a close approach was essentially impossible. There was a lot of coming and going in the flock as groups departed and arrived, so I set about tracking small groups of the birds as they passed at close range.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Birds, Sunset Clouds

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Birds, Sunset Clouds
Birds fly in a cloud-filled winter sky

Birds, Sunset Clouds. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Birds fly in a cloud-filled winter sky.

This seems to be largely a photograph of sky, but if you look a bit closer you’ll see lines of birds spread across its width. It is a winter sky, looking west very late in the day, just after the sun has set, and the birds are departing in that direction. Surprisingly, the largest group of them are white pelicans, birds that I usually don’t encounter in quite such large numbers. There are a few sandhill cranes mixed in here and there.

As with some much “nature” photography (here I’m also thinking of landscape subjects) a lot happens very quickly at the margins between day and night, the time when arguably the most interesting light is available. Closer to the middle of the day things tend to change more slowly and there may be more time to contemplate. But during that time between not-enough-light-for-photography and middle-of-the-day stability, the conditions are in constant flux, and it is “now or never” for many photographs. In this image an additional dynamic element was added as I timed the exposure to place the birds beneath the curving shapes of the clouds.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Geese in Pre Dawn Sky

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Geese in Pre Dawn Sky
Strings of migratory geese fly high above farm country before dawn

Geese in Pre Dawn Sky. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Strings of migratory geese fly high above farm country before dawn.

I never know exactly what I’ll find when I show up to photograph birds. It might be foggy or the sky might be clear from horizon to horizon. There might be thousands of geese… or none at all. (And when there are none… they might show up later in the day.) The rising sun may produce brilliant colors, or it may be muted by low clouds.

If I recall correctly, we had hoped for fog on this morning — New Year’s Day — but instead found fairly clear weather. There was some thin fog hanging around, but it had more of the quality of a sort of atmospheric haze than of regular fog. And above this haze the clear sky was visible and changing colors in the first light. High above the geese were already active, and long chains of them flew high above us.

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.