Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

White Pelicans, Fog

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White Pelicans, Fog
A small flock of white pelicans at rest in wetlands as sun rises on a foggy morning.

White Pelicans, Fog. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small flock of white pelicans at rest in wetlands as sun rises on a foggy morning.

As I have written before, the existence of white Pelicans in California came as a surprise to me a few years ago. I was long familiar with the brown pelicans that skim along the coastal shoreline and occasionally land close-in. But I was so unaware that the white variant lives around here that the first time I photographed them — at a distance, though fog, with intense backlight — I misidentified them as another entirely different bird, making an error that seems obvious in retrospect. They are all over the place, flying over coastal bodies of water, settling on inland ponds, and more.

I spotted this group on a foggy morning in a spot where I’ve seen them many times before. Here a small group of perhaps up to a few dozen individuals often hangs out at a safe distance and, if I’m lucky, may decide to take flight and pass over my position. On this morning the smaller group was huddled close together out in the pond, partially obscured by thinning tule fog and softly light from the low-angle early morning sun.

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: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrians And Colorful Wall

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Pedestrians And Colorful Wall
Pedestrians walk past a colorfully-painted wall in Manhattan

Pedestrians And Colorful Wall. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pedestrians walk past a colorfully-painted wall in Manhattan.

Photographing street art, graffiti, and other things created by others on the walls of urban spaces, often poses an issue or two for me. In some cases I have to ask myself if photographing certain examples might have the potential to encourage what could be regarded by some as vandalism. In other cases where the work was placed by permission or in a location where the unspoken rules allow it I still have to ask myself whether I am creating something or just recording someone else’s creative work. So I rarely photograph such things “as is,” instead looking to use them as part of my own take on a scene, and often letting passers-by populate the composition.

Perhaps because its bold design and colors were so much in contrast to the somewhat drab and even dark Manhattan surroundings, this example caught my attention right away. But, as per the above, I wasn’t really interested in just photographing the wall. So I employed a strategy that I often use when photographing street — I find a “street landscape” and with for the urban wildlife (e.g. “people”) to populate it in ways I find interesting. I have to work quickly since these subjects don’t stand still, but I hope to find interesting characters, interesting placing of the figures, relationships to that background landscape, and more.

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: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Sunrise, Fog, And Birds

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Sunrise, Fog, And Birds
Geese and cranes in a fog-filled sunrise winter sky above California’s Central Valley.

Sunrise, Fog, And Birds. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese and cranes in a fog-filled sunrise winter sky above California’s Central Valley.

Many places in California that were once quiet and lonely and even overlooked or forgotten have become, at times, busy and crowded. I write here not just about well-known and iconic locations along the coast, in the cities, at national parks, but about places that might seem like nothing special at all to most people at most times. The issue, of course, is that there are so many of us now. But I have learned that it is often possible to sneak in around the margins and still find solitude. In some places that means going on days when others won’t be there, arriving when most people are still asleep, picking conditions that keep lots of people away. Arriving before dawn in dense fog on a freezing morning at a distant place that isn’t scenic can do the trick.

This was one of those days and one of those places. You could find a scene like this at innumerable spots in the state on a foggy morning, but you might have to get up before 4:00AM, wear extra clothes, drive through that fog, and then understand that you’ll pay a price in less-than-astonishing conditions on many mornings… in order to earn one on which the sun rises through thick tule fog as thousands of birds wheel overhead.

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: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Walking Couple, Brick Wall

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Walking Couple, Brick Wall
A couple walks along a brick wall at a Manhattan church on a winter afternoon.

Walking Couple, Brick Wall. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A couple walks along a brick wall at a Manhattan church on a winter afternoon.

There is, for this non-native, a feeling that is evoked by New York City in the winter — compared to California (where it is the green season) the place seems very gray, at least in its exterior and outdoor spaces. There aren’t many hours of daylight, the direct sun is blocked by tall buildings during most of the day, and winter weather amplifies the effect. As an aside, I’m also struck by how much different the interior spaces are — even in a cold, drab building with the obligatory garbage sacks sitting on the curb, the interiors are often warm and inviting.

On this afternoon walk from roughly Midtown to Lower Manhattan on a late-December afternoon these qualities were plain to see. There isn’t a green thing in this scene, only some winter-bare trees. Everything is made of bricks or concrete, and in this scene three colors predominate — the reds and browns of bricks, the gray of the sidewalk and the sky, and the bits of black of the doorway and, of course, the attire of the passing figures.

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