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

Wetlands Dawn, Arriving Birds

April 6, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of geese prepares to land on a foggy wetlands pond at dawn

Another California winter day and another trip to visit the Central Valley and search out migratory birds and fog and atmospheric light! Back in early February the bird action was beginning to pick up, and we would consistently find at last some geese (and often many more and other birds, too) when we arrived. Fog is one variable. I love thick fog, especially in these locations, and we often got precisely that. But on this morning the fog was thinner and earlier to dissipate, here already thin enough before dawn to let us see the winter sky.

As we watched the fog drift and thin and the sky begin to get lighter, groups of birds (mostly Ross’ geese) began to arrive, circling a bit and then landing on the ponds. The arcing curve of this flock’s flight, descending towards the right and then beginning to circle back, is visible in this photograph if you look closely. A few earlier arrivals float on the pond in an area lit by reflected sky.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Evening Dust and Rain

April 5, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Desert hills in evening dust storm and rain, Death Valley.

In retrospect I saw the first hints of where this day was headed way back at dawn. We went to a high and remote place overlooking the expanse of Death Valley before dawn. As we arrived there was a brief burst of very colorful light, but then clouds mostly muted the colors, and I noticed a distant glowing softness to the atmosphere which muted distant objects. I’ve seen this before at the start of days when dust storms developed. Indeed, by late morning, even though we were still high in the mountains we began to see towers of blowing dust in the distance and soon even the air up in the mountains took on the misty, soft quality that comes when dust blows in from a distance.

By mid-afternoon we left the mountains and headed back towards the valley lowlands, and before we got there we ran into tremendous winds and dust that filled the atmosphere and blocked the view in all directions. At time the dust was so thick that it “rained” sand and small pebbles. We arrived back at our starting point to wind so strong and dust so thick that we could only retreat and try to minimize the intrusion of dust and sand as the wind storm raged. In the early evening the winds began to abate and we looked outside to see a mysterious scene of dark, apocalyptic clouds of dust and rain falling over the mountains. A sane person might have stayed inside, but we couldn’t resist heading out into this wonderfully bizarre and evocative atmosphere of dying wind, blowing dust, suspended haze, clouds, and big drops of rain. As sunset approached, the conditions began to break up and the clouds thinned, and light passed through the thick atmosphere to reveal the shapes of clouds and the vague contours of desert mountains.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brick Wall, Windows

April 4, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Windows, a metal chimney, and a brick wall in Manhattan

This is yet another photograph from the High Line Park in Manhattan, made on the same gray day as the photograph I shared yesterday. The soft, gray light fills in the shadows and reveals details that are not visible in midday sunshine light.

The geometries of old brick buildings with exterior detail of fire escapes, pipes and wires fascinate me, and the elevated perspective from this location allows straight-on photographs of the subject. Yet, while making these photographs it did occur to me that people living along this park must, from time to time, get a bit tired of thousands of folks wandering by outside their windows and some of them (us!) stopping to photograph.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Sand Dunes, First Light

April 3, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The first morning light reveals textures in sand dunes, Death Valley National Park

These dunes, and others like them, are both more ephemeral and more permanent that many may expect. The permanence initially surprised me. I had always imagined the peaks of dunes marching gradually across the landscape like slow motion ocean waves, producing a landscape that would never be the same twice. However, observing certain dunes in Death Valley National Park over a period of time made it clear that the broad features of the dunes are actually very nearly permanent. From year to year the overall form of the dunes remains largely the same — no surprise, perhaps, given that the forces that form them are constant, including the prevailing winds and surrounding geological features. Yet, other things are more ephemeral. Plants come and go, and footprints are erased by the next dust storm. The light is constantly changing, through the daily cycles and the annual cycle.

This was the final morning of this trip to Death Valley. Since dust storms (and rain!) had passed through the previous evening I was certain that I could find areas unmarked by footprints, where the natural patterns produced by wind would be found. I drove to a less popular area near the dunes, loaded up my equipment, and set out across the playa to get to the low dunes I had in mind. I arrived in soft pre-dawn light and began to photograph, trying to work with this subtle light and its extraordinarily low contrast, all the while watching the sky to the east to see when sunlight would strike the dunes. I composed this photograph in that soft light, but as I worked the sun cleared the mountains far to the east and warmer colored light began to more clearly show the sand patterns. I made this photograph during the very brief interval — literally only seconds — when that first light began to softly light the sand and before it struck with full intensity.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Wetlands Dawn, Arriving Birds

Evening Dust and Rain

Brick Wall, Windows

Sand Dunes, First Light

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