Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Sunset Flight

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Sunset Flight
Geese in flight above fields at sunset

Sunset Flight. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese in flight above fields at sunset.

Expect to see quite a few bird photographs during the next week or so. David Hoffman and I are featured in “Birdscapes,” an exhibition of our bird photography at the Stellar Gallery in Oakhurst, located near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. The two of us photograph birds and the landscapes they inhabit all along the Pacific Flyway. There is a lot more information about the show including details of location and dates at this web page. The show opens next week and we’d love to see you at the artist reception on Saturday, February 16 at 5:00-8:00pm at the gallery. If you are heading to Yosemite to see the recent snows or to try your luck at photographing Horsetail Fall, why don’t you swing by and see us?

I made this photograph on a winter evening, as a slight foggy haze filled the atmosphere and the western sky turned a lovely shade of pink. A large flock of geese was alternately feeding on pastureland and erupting into the sky en masse. I made this photograph at the very end of the day as the last faint sunlight illuminated the birds on the ground as other birds arrived to join them.

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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Events, Gallery, News, Photographers, Shows

“Birdscapes” at Stellar Gallery

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Birdscapes — David Hoffman and G Dan Mitchell
Birdscapes — David Hoffman and G Dan Mitchell

A Stellar Gallery Special Exhibit

Photographs by David Hoffman and G Dan Mitchell
February 16th to March 14th, 2019
at Stellar Gallery, Yosemite Gateway Gallery Row
40982 Hwy 41, Suite 1, Oakhurst CA 93644

Artists Reception, Saturday Feb 16th – 5 to 8 pm

BIRDSCAPES features works by two photographers best known for landscape photography. Both Dave and G Dan are not only inspired by the beauty of wild lands and natural places, they are inspired by their flora and fauna as well.  Birds are an integral part of most environments. Their nesting habits, migration patterns and survival strategies express volumes about the places they live, and ultimately our own habitat as well.

David Hoffman

Over the many years during which I have been involved in photography, I would have described my field of interest as landscape and nature with the emphasis on landscape. Wildlife of any sort was usually something that fortuitously showed up to be incidentally included in a landscape photograph.

In recent years I began photographing winter wetland landscapes in the Pacific Flyway and migratory birds naturally became a feature of many of the landscape images. As time went on, the birds went from being a mere feature of the landscape to being deliberately featured in their wetland habitat.

The photographs that I have included in the exhibit Birdscapes run the gamut from huge flocks of geese in the Pacific Flyway to a portrait of a hummingbird.

G Dan Mitchell

I have photographed the landscape for years, but more recently the photographs have included birds. I began to photograph birds in the locations I visit — geese and sandhill cranes in California’s Central Valley, brown pelicans along the Pacific coast, tundra swans and golden eagles near Oregon’s Klamath Lakes, trumpeter swans in Washington’s Skagit Valley. Migratory birds connect us to remote landscapes where they breed. Their presence brings landscapes to life. The sound of thousands of geese and cranes in the pre-dawn cold of a winter morning always makes me smile.

The photographs in “Birdscapes” come from several of these locations. They represent multiple ways of “seeing” birds. Some look closely at individuals, often focusing on the beauty of the birds in flight and the moments of take-off and landing. In others thousands of birds fill the sky. Almost all reflect the light and atmosphere of the places where birds are found —morning and evening twilight, colorful light of dawn and sunset, fog and clouds, or crystal-clear winter skies.

The galleries at Gallery Row in Oakhurst offer a wide selection of fine art and fine craft, and host exhibits and special events that support the arts in the Yosemite area. Thank you for supporting the arts!

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow

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Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow
A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky.

Long before I understood what I was seeing I had noticed and was intrigued by that band of darker sky just above the horizon during the morning and evening twilight, very close to the time that direct sunlight appears on the highest points. There is something very mysterious about it, and it suggests to me great distances beyond those encompassed by the immediate scene. Eventually I learned what now seems obvious — this is the edge of the shadow of the earth, dropping away in the moments before dawn and rising in the moments following sunset. (To this day, every time I think of this, I recall photographer Gary Crabbe’s “interpretive dance” as he explained this at a talk I attended years ago — one hand extended out and upwards pointing to the shadow, and the other extended at a slight downward angle pointing to the unseen sun. Thanks, Gary!)

I made this photograph from a high point east of the Sierra crest one September. I headed out this way in pre-dawn darkness not sure what I would find. I was pleasantly surprised to find extensive aspen color, even though it was just past mid-September, and then to find an open overlook from which I could take in a large section of the Sierra as dawn arrived.

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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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.

History, Morning Musings, Site News

Over 6000 Posts!

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Golden Gate Bridge. July 3, 2005. © Copyright Dan Mitchell — the first photograph posted at the G Dan Mitchell website.

As I was setting up today’s photograph (it will appear shortly) I happened to notice that I just passed 6000 posts on this blog! I had been posting photographs for a while before that on other blogs (for example, the old “Dan’s Outside,” which focused on backcountry adventures, and my teaching websites which date to the mid-1990s), but back in 2005 I decided to start a blog dedicated to photography.

The first post here (the obligatory “It Worked!” post) was on July 10, 2005. It was followed by a post explaining the plan to start sharing photographs on the web in a more organized fashion. The first photographic post came on July 16 of that year — it was the black and white image of the Golden Gate Bridge in fog shown above.

At first the posts were a bit irregular. Sometimes I posted several in one day. Other times there were gaps of several days between new posts. On August 16, 2005 the first string of daily photographs appeared, though there were still breaks when I was in the field for a few days or longer. (Posting photographs remotely was not so simple back then!) But I’ve been continuously posting new photographs here since the end of that month in 2005! Believe it or not, that is approximately 5000 daily photographs posted at this blog!

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.

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