Tag Archives: america

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Doorway, Dark Street

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Doorway, Dark Street
“Doorway, Dark Street” Light from inside a darkened building escapes through a door, casing a pattern on a dark industrial street.

This photograph comes from a San Francisco Bay Area location where I’ve been doing night photography for over 15 years. It is a place with striking visual icons including huge ship yard cranes, old buildings, and (until its removal a few years ago) a gigantic “smoke stack” towering above a power plant. Over the years I became less interested in re-photographing those things, and I began to spend more time searching out subjects that I had overlooked, scenes that are quieter and more contemplative than those icons.

I “discovered” this photograph during my pandemic-era return to old photographs that I had not looked at for years. This one exemplifies several things I’ve observed about the process of reviewing photographs shortly after making them. I usually have a few images in mind that I know will be promising, and I begin with those. As I work on the archive I invariably discover that others are more worthy than I initially expected, and this process of uncovering unexpectedly interesting photographs continues… until I am distracted by the next project, at which point I often move on and leave some interesting work behind. In this case, the “moving on” process was hastened a bit because one of my favorite night photographs came from this same evening, and I think that made me feel like I was done with that night’s work. But I wasn’t.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

The Cranes Return, Dusk

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The Cranes Return, Dusk
As the day ends, sandhill cranes return to the wetlands.

The Cranes Return, Dusk. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

As the day ends, sandhill cranes return to the wetlands.

Sandhill cranes are often the first birds I am aware of in the early morning and the last I look for in the evening before I put my camera away. In fact, the boundary between enough and too little light often comes during their evening return, so it isn’t unusual to end the day just watching them.

I’ve never quite figured out where they go during the day, though I suppose that some investigation would turn up the answer. (In a West Coast location I once found thousands of them in a dry, barren, out-of-the way place where I was virtually alone with them.) I’ll never forget the first time I experienced their evening return. At the end of a day of photography it was becoming dark — too dark, I thought, to continue. As I was about to pack up my gear I heard a remarkable sound coming from the southeast, a sound that I didn’t understand then but which I now recognize immediately as that of the returning flocks. A few moments later hundreds (more likely thousands) of them arrived, filling the sky, and then descending to nearby ponds.

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.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Weeds

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Autumn Weeds
Colorful autumn weeds with morning frost, Central Valley.

Autumn Weeds. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful autumn weeds with morning frost, Central Valley.

Yes, weeds. I had spent a few hours photographing more exalted subjects — migratory birds, foggy sunrise skies, big vistas, fall colors. Eventually it was time for a break, so I pulled into a parking area, poured a cup of coffee from my thermos and grabbed a snack. It was a very cold morning, so I stood along the sunny side of my vehicle, enjoying the slight warmth of the morning sun. And at my feet, right there in the parking lot, next to a fence, I saw some colorful, frost-rimmed… weeds.

As you would expect, I put down the coffee, grabbed a camera, and set about photographing the… weeds. I’m often reminded of something that another photographer once wrote: “There’s always something to see!” Those words, which seem pretty banal when considered from a non-photographic perspective, turn out to be pretty important. No matter where you are, there is, indeed, virtually always “something to see.”

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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

Cranes, Pond, Autumn Morning

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Cranes, Pond, Autumn Morning
A small flock of sandhill cranes stands in a wetland pond in early morning autumn light.

Cranes, Pond, Autumn Morning. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small flock of sandhill cranes stands in a wetland pond in early morning autumn light.

I am a big fan of these flat landscapes of trees and grasses and ponds and birds, especially between the last month or so of autumn and the end of winter. All up and down California (and in many other places, too) migratory and native birds are everywhere, and while it might seem that there isn’t much happening here from the human perspective, the action is almost continuous in the lives of birds. The first thing I do when I arrive in such places before dawn is open the car window or door and listen — the sound may be that of a few far-off birds or it might be the raucous chorus of thousands of them nearby and overhead, but the striking sound of the cranes is almost always somewhere in the mix.

I began photographing before dawn on this morning as I usually do. I slowly worked my way along a levee, pausing to watch for and then photograph birds in the low light. The first big group I spotted was a large flock of snow geese, but they were not in a great spot for photography, so I kept moving. Soon I came upon a huge flock of hundreds of cranes in and around a pond. At first they were mostly standing still in the shallow water, but gradually they began to become restless and then, group by group, take to the air and fly away. I don’t recall now for sure, but judging by their attentive postures, there’s a good chance that this group left shortly after I made the photograph.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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