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

Winter Geese, Winter Pond

Image February 24, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

On the best winter days, migratory birds gather by the hundreds of thousands (millions?) up and down California’s Central Valley, especially where the winter wetland ponds form. I first became vaguely aware of this decades ago on a winter drive up the Sacramento Valley on my way to Washington, when for the first time I saw multitudes of birds in the winter sky. Later a chance comment by a friend led me to a location in the delta where birds gather by thousands. Since then, I’ve been addicted to experiencing and photographing this annual wonder.

I made this photograph on a cloudy morning. The cloud shield overhead extended to the edge of the Sierra, which meant we had a brief but brilliant sunrise above the mountains. Then everything went mostly gray and hazy, and the light turned soft. These geese — largely a mixture of Ross’s, snow, and white-fronted — settled into a pond where I paused.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Plants

Image February 23, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I like to photograph in California’s Central Valley during the dark and foggy part of the year — roughly from November through the first half of March. (There are some distinctly non-dark days during this period, too.) With the exception of grasses, which start to green up in California during the winter, this is largely a season of dormant plants. As I pass through these wetland areas I’m always intrigued by the forms of these plants, especially when backed by or reflected by the water.

I was out there to photograph birds, but during quieter moments I turned my attention to these plants. Most of them don’t make for good photographs — they have busy backgrounds, they are too thick, or their shapes just aren’t quite right. But every so often I find a specimen that has managed to take on a graceful, even flowing shape.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pausing At The Foto Automatica

Image February 22, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This photograph of people pausing at the Foto Automatica in Florence took me back to a previous visit to this city. On that earlier trip we were barely there, stopping only briefly between time in Chianti and our flight home. We stayed in a hotel a few steps from this old-school photo booth, and I was surprised at its popularity. Even in an age of hand-held selfie cameras there seems to be something special about crowding into this little old-school booth.

I photographed it on that first visit, and I photographed it again when we spent a longer time in Florence, this time long enough to explore the place more extensively. We did not stay in the same hotel, but we walked past one day — and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Foto Automatica was still there, in its odd little corner along the narrow street. As I watched a (family?) group paused to make pictures.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sky

Wetlands, Winter Sky

Image February 21, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Recently I was thinking about a particular sort of “moment of consciousness” that I’ve experienced a few times. It usually (though not that often!) comes when I’m in a natural place where more or less nothing is happening and my pace has slowed. It is hard to define precisely what these moments are or force them to happen, but when they do come they are palpable. There’s a sense of immense stillness and of time almost stopping. For me it has come on a few occasions in the desert or in the mountains, alone on a windless and silent day..

I think it could come in a place like this, too. At one point this week I paused and just sat quietly and considered what is happening most of the time in this wetlands location. The answer is: nothing obviously remarkable. A few birds move about slowly and almost silently (until the geese and cranes arrive!), the water is still, and the sky seems fixed and luminous. I’m not sure that a photograph can embody all of that, but perhaps it can be a reminder.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Winter Geese, Winter Pond

Winter Plants

Wetlands, Winter Sky

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