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

First Bird Photographs of Fall

November 10, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

During the past few years I have become a big fan of photographing migratory birds in California’s Central Valley, and now that summer is over I’m anxious to get back out there and get to work on this year’s bird photographs. Actually, we made our first bird photography trip out there about a week ago, on the first weekend in November. Our main goal was to find sandhill cranes, since we knew they were here already, but we were also interested in seeing what else might have showed up.

In keeping with my new policy of posting multiple photographs in a single message when I have too many photographs waiting in the queue, this post includes five bird photographs. Enjoy!

Three sandhill cranes in a dormant field

Late in the morning, long after the morning fly out, we were poking around on some rural backroads when we found a lot of sandhill cranes in dormant fields in thinning morning fog. This group thoughtfully posed for me with a distant pair of trees on the horizon.

Three sandhill cranes stand in a dormant Central Valley, California field

I photographed this group in much the same location as those in the previous photograph. While the cranes seem to collect in large groups near water in the evening and early morning, during the day they are often found more spread out in agricultural areas like this one.

Sandhill cranes land on a Central Valley pond during the evening fly-in

In the evening the cranes do a “fly-in” – where large numbers of them land together in areas around water. When we arrived at this small observation area an hour or so before sunset, there were many birds but no cranes. However, I’ve learned that the sandhill cranes often arrive late, frequently after sunset and sometime when it is becoming rather dark. (One of our most memorable migratory bird encounters occurred at another refuge further south in the valley. We had a great day of photographing birds, beginning very early in the morning and continuing through sunset. As the sun set the bird action began to diminish and it became quite dark. It had been a long, successful day, and we were happy to be finished with this shoot. We were just putting gear away when we began to hear a huge chorus of the easily recognized sound of sandhill cranes coming from out of sight to the southeast. A moment later the sky was filled with the birds – I’ve never seen so many cranes together since then.)

Here the birds began to arrive just a bit earlier. The first groups landed a good distance off, but soon a single large crane settled in on this dry area in front of us and began to produce very large calls, as if to say, “come on down and stop here!” Before long other birds did just that. Here the slow shutter speed allows the winds of the landing birds to blur a bit.

A small group of cackling geese in flight against blue sky over California Central Valley agricultural lands

I have a confession to make, and it is a little embarrassing for a person who is as enthusiastic about photographing birds as I am. Basically, I’m not very good at identifying birds, or at least not good at naming them! (This is an “issue” I’ve always had, and not just with birds. I’m so familiar with certain wild plants that I can tell you exactly what they look like in the wet and dry seasons, when the flowers will appear, and when to find them… but I often cannot name them.) I’m always happy when I can photograph with someone who is better than I at this.

I’m pretty certain these are geese! (Good so far?) I used to think that geese that looked like this were Canadian geese, but when I tried to find photos of these birds online to determine what they were, I kept coming up with “cackling geese.” To make things more confusing – at least for me – I understand that the differences between some Canadian geese and some cackling geese can confuse even the experts. Judging by the size and shape of the bill, the size of the birds, and the pattern and color of feathers, I’m going with this identification until someone shows me differently!

Sandhill cranes settle in to a Central Valley pond during the evening fly-in

This is the same group seen in a photograph earlier in this post, with this photograph being made a bit earlier – clearly the case as there are fewer birds on the ground in this shot, and the color of the sky is less intense. If you look closely about a third of the way in from the left edge of the frame, you may be able to see the larger bird that landed first and was then followed by other later arrivals.

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: Germany, Photographs: People, Photographs: Urban/Street

Reading on the Steps

November 10, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A student studies a book on steps at the Physikalisches Institut of Heidelberg University, Germany

On our several walks to and along the Heidelberg Philosophen Weg, we passed by this university building, so I finally stopped for a moment and made a few photographs. The main building looks like an academic structure of some sort, so I had made a guess as to what this place was before I found the sign. One student reads on the steps, and a few of the ubiquitous bicycles are parked nearby. Also ubiquitous is the bit of political graffiti – found in many places near the University buildings, and often relatively small compared to the stuff we frequently see here in the US.

Yes, in a general sense, another postcard photograph. :-)

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Recent Photographs from Bodie

November 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Almost a month ago we spent a few hours in the historic ghost town of Bodie, California on the final day of a trip to the eastern Sierra to photograph fall colors. On this day we decided to focus on a few other things, including a looping drive out to the east of the Sierra, followed by a side trip to Bodie, which came up when it looked like the weather conditions out there might be somewhat more interesting than usual.

Rather than save these up for a week’s worth of individual post, I have decided to combine them into a single post. (I have too many photographs queued up for future posts already.) I am presenting them in roughly the order that I shot them as we wandered around in Bodie. For those who may be unfamiliar with Bodie, it was the site of silver and gold mining many decades ago. There are stories of it being a fairly populous place with many “modern” amenities – but also of it being a rather rough place, which isn’t surprising given its remote location and the fact that it was a mining town. The mines gave out and the citizens gradually moved away, leaving the town almost completely abandoned. A few decades ago it was taken over by the California State Park System and it is now a state historical park that focuses on protecting and maintaining the place and making it available to visitors.

Weathered wooden walls and windows, Bodie, California

I passed this building or group of buildings on my way into the town. I have photographed this structure and, in fact, this section of the structure before. Exposed to the harsh summer and winter conditions of this high desert location, it is no surprise that the wood has been severely weathered.

The Standard Mill in the ghost town of Bodie, California

The Standard Mill is a large facility for refining ore, located across the town from the place where most of us begin our walks. To my eyes, it reminds me a lot of certain other mid-century industrial sites where I have photographed. Unfortunately – for me, but perhaps fortunately for other reason – fences surround the site and it is not possible to easily get inside and wander about without a guide. For that reason all of my photographs of the mill are from some distance.

The corrugated metal exterior of the abandoned Standard Mill, Bodie, California

This is a closer photograph of the buildings of the Standard Mill, whose angles, structure, and supporting wires fascinated me.

Bodie - Buildings Near Standard Mill — Bodie – Buildings Near Standard Mill

Old abandoned buildings line the streets of the ghost town of Bodie, California

These are among a number of buildings along the street heading to the entrance to the Standard Mill. The view here looks back across the valley in which the ghost town is located, toward higher hills, a small aspen grove, and cloud-shrouded peaks.

Windows on the front of an abandoned wooden building in the ghost town of Bodie reflect the cloud-filled sky

The squared geometry of the front of this building first caught my, along with the typical weathered condition of the wooden door, window frames, and paneling. The window reflects a distorted and blurred version of the cloud-filled sky, and underneath are hints of what is inside the windows.

The schoolhouse in the ghost town of Bodie, California

This is the view I first had of the schoolhouse, before I realized that it was, in fact, the school. The tall steeple first had me thinking it was perhaps a church. From this side, the building is backed by nothing but the open space of the high desert, highlighting the desolation of the place.

Downtown Bodie ghost town, with barren hills rising beyond

The foreground structure is the same schoolhouse building seen in the previous photograph. Here the perspective looks over the back of the school and across the buildings of the main street leading toward the mill, which is behind my camera position.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fallen Snag, Dry Tarn

November 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The bleached remains of an old dead tree lie on the rocks of a dry subalpine tarn, Kings Canyon National Park

This year was the second of two very dry years in the Sierra Nevada and much of the west. The snowfall this past winter (2012-13) was far below normal and set records in some places. Last October and November it seemed like we might be starting a very wet season, which would have been welcome after the previous winter’s low levels of precipitation, but then the tap was shut off near the end of the year and there was hardly any more precipitation at all during the rest of the season, the portion when the majority of the Sierra’s precipitation falls. Consequently, this has been a strange summer in the Sierra. Although there may have been more monsoonal rain the usual, the effects of the depleted snow pack are obvious. The spring run-off occurred early and was anemic. By July much of the Sierra looked more like August, and I was already seeing signs of fall by early August.

With all of this in mind, it was no surprise to use to find some unusually dry conditions in the Kings Canyon back-country when we visited for more than a week in mid-September. (Though, in some ways, things were less horrendous than I might have expected. Perhaps this was a combination of going at a time when things tend to be dry anyway and, as a local pointed out to me, some recent summer rains.) On our first day at the location where we stayed to photograph for nearly a week I wandered up some nearby meadows towards a lake that I though I might want to photograph. Very close to my campsite I found several completely dry tarns. (A “tarn” is a seasonal pond fed by snowmelt, and many of them dry up each season.) This very old, sun bleached snag lay across the exposed rocks of this one, creating a stark images.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

First Bird Photographs of Fall

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Reading on the Steps

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Recent Photographs from Bodie

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Fallen Snag, Dry Tarn

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

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