Tag Archives: america

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Tule Fog, Wetland Sunrise

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Tule Fog, Wetland Sunrise
The winter sun rises thorugh tule fog above Central Valley wetlands.

Tule Fog, Wetland Sunrise. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The winter sun rises thorugh tule fog above Central Valley wetlands.

This is my favorite season of the year for a whole bunch of reasons. It brings so many special opportunities here on the West Coast. The fall colors come to the Sierra and then work their way downward and westward over a period of up to three months — and sometimes even a bit longer. The hot, dry season of wildfires and haze comes to an end, replaced by cooler temperatures and much more interesting skies and light as Pacific weather fronts arrive. Migratory birds return to the Central Valley… and once again I get to photograph the tule fog!

This photograph comes from a beautiful tule fog morning in the Central Valley some years ago, a perfect morning when the fog was thick but not so thick as to completely obscure the rising sun, here silhouetting the wetland foliage and gently reflecting on the surface of a pond. What the photograph cannot convey — but what it certainly evokes for me — is the sound of many thousands of nearby geese, cranes, blackbirds, 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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Yellow and Orange

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Yellow and Orange
A river of orange and yellow autumn aspen trees flows down to the shoreline of a Sierra Nevada lake.

Yellow and Orange. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A river of orange and yellow autumn aspen trees flows down to the shoreline of a Sierra Nevada lake.

This will be (I’m virtually certain!) the final photograph of the larger landscape of 2020 from this Eastern Sierra Nevada location in the Inyo National Forest, a spot that is arguably perhaps too iconic at this point. How did I end up here again, you ask? This was not my original objective when I headed over the crest in early October, but the wildfire smoke essentially corralled me into this canyon system — my intended locations were simply way too smoky for photography or for camping. Planning is useful in landscape photography… but so is adaptability and a readiness to make the best of the conditions at hand!

It turned out — my good fortune! — that the aspen colors here were close to their peak and that it was a better than usual year, with colors running the gamut from green, through yellow and orange, to red. The colors in this little scene include that full range, with deep greens from conifers, subtle yellows on the lakeside bushes, and the full span from yellow to red among the aspens. And, by the way, while my landscape photographs of Eastern Sierra aspens are more or less done for the season… I do have a few more close-up photographs of the colorful leaves.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

San Pablo Bay

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San Pablo Bay
Old pilings in tidal flats along the edge of San Pablo Bay.

San Pablo Bay. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Old pilings in tidal flats along the edge of San Pablo Bay.

This photograph comes from a wonderful visit to a spot along the shoreline of San Pablo Bay, which is essentially a lobe of San Francisco Bay. While the entire Bay Area, especially those areas that are right along the water, is typically a busy urban area, there are still locations where you can almost completely escape that vibe. This is one of those spots, at a park that walls off almost entirely any signs of urban or modern industrial development, and where the long views obscure those things in the distance.

In this particular location the edges of the bay are more or less tidal flats, and the water along the immediate shoreline tends to be very shallow, often emerging at low tide. The old pilings are a remnant of an earlier time when there was a settlement here and when it was the site of an active shrimp harvesting industry. On this morning, it was mostly a very quiet and still place.

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

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

Shoreline Aspens, Autumn

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Shoreline Aspens, Autumn
Colorful autumn aspen trees line the shore of an Eastern Sierra lake reflecting high peaks in morning light.

Shoreline Aspens, Autumn. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful autumn aspen trees line the shore of an Eastern Sierra lake reflecting high peaks in morning light.

As I worked my way through what is actually a rather small collection of aspen color photographs I made this season I kept thinking that I had found all of the photographs worth taking through the full post-processing workflow. I was really only on the East Side for about 48 hours on this visit, and I made most of the photographs in two specific spots. But so far, each time I have “finished” and taken my final look at the raw files… I have come up with yet one more that I did not want to leave behind.

This is one of several I made from this location along the shoreline of this lake. Once I realized that I was going to be here I pre-selected a couple of spots to set up, and this one was on the agenda for my last morning before heading home. I knew that I wanted the foreground red trees in the the photograph, so I had to find a spot with a bit of elevation above the lake. I located it and the rest of the series of photographs was made from camera positions within about a five foot radius, adjusting my locations slightly to deal with some overlaps. Because it was somewhat smoky from wildfires, I decided on this composition as a way to exclude the more distant elements that tend to show the smoke up more clearly.

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