Tag Archives: america

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

Ross’s Geese, Golden Hour Fly-Out

January 11, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Ross’s geese take wing during the sunset fly-out, San Joaquin Valley, California

As happens often enough to make things interesting, the light at the end of this day of less-than-phenomenal light momentarily made up for some of the earlier “blah” light. It had been a good day of goose (and crane) chasing, but with few moments of sublime light so far. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since even when the light is not at its most astonishing out here, the air and the sound of the birds still makes it worthwhile, especially when a large flock of geese suddenly lifts off in unison or when the sound of cranes floats down as they coast overhead.

But still, we want that light! Just before sunset, as the hazy sky was already starting to dim, the last sun slanted in from the west at a low angle just as this flock of geese was beginning to fly out for the night. I made this photograph just a moment after the foreground group had taken to the air, but while other groups that had lifted off earlier were still visible beyond them as they departed over the grove of trees to the north.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Rat Rock Island, Sky

January 10, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Rat Rock Island and winter sky, China Camp, California

I ended up at China Camp in connection with a “photo walk” in the San Francisco Bay Area that was devoted to long exposure photography. Photo walks have recently become quite a phenomenon, especially with the rise of Google Plus communities formed around photography. A week hardly passes around here without the announcement of another such event. Photographically they can be a bit of a mixed bag if you already know the area, but the provide fun opportunities to meet a lot of photographers of all sorts, often including a few folks you might have heard of but never met. When I go, I frequently end up shooting a bit apart from the main crowd, and that is what initially happened here… though that didn’t last!

This little island is a fairly well-known feature in the Bay Area, and I have seen beautiful photographs of it in the past. It is also not all that impressive in person, though with the right light and atmosphere it can be the center for very interesting photographic interpretations. I arrived at this location before other “photo-walkers” arrived, so I briefly had the place to myself. I tried a few things with this subject, ranging from some very tight shots that don’t include the whole island to some that used very short focal lengths to reduce its apparent size and to then set it in a much larger surrounding landscape. This is probably the most straightforward composition of the bunch. Since the focus of this day was to be “long exposure” photography, I was playing around with that idea a bit, and this shot is indeed a rather long exposure.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Ross’s Geese, Evening Fly-Out

January 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ross’s geese take flight in sunset light above California’s Central Valley

So much of this sort of photography is almost entirely not under the control of the photographer. For example, in this shot it just happened that the foreground group of Ross’s geese lifted off from the nearby pond as the further groups that had left earlier lined up beyond them. The lovely formation of the front group was entirely determined, as far as I can tell, by the geese and not by me! Of all the sky conditions that I had encountered on this day, it was fortuitous that the flock lifted off in the direction of this color gradient and then rose to the right height to be in front of it as they ascended. And it was especially gracious of them to lift off as the last golden hour sun hit them from the west, and on a side where I could see it.

So what does the photographer get to take credit for in cases like these? There are, of course, choices about when and where to park oneself to increase the odds that something interesting will happen in front of the lens. And there is the matter of instincts of various sorts, without which it would be very difficult (or should I say, even more unlikely) to have the camera pointed the right direction at the right time and to click the shutter button at an opportune moment. Exposures must be reasonably close to right, which is a trickier thing than some think. And then there is some combination of recognizing luck when it comes your way, intuitively recognizing and tracking what is happening, and being able to follow the birds and instantly recognize when an interesting visual pattern occurs.

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

Rat Rock Island, Winter Sky

January 8, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Clouds from a dissipating winter storm above Rat Island and the northern San Francisco Bay

For such a beautiful little island, this place certainly has a nasty name! I have intended to visit this place for a few years now, but had never quite gotten around to it – so I used a San Francisco photowalk devoted to “long exposure photography” as the impetus to finally make it. We had started much earlier in the morning in the Marin Headlands, photographing San Francisco Bay, and at that time a winter weather front was making its way through the area and producing a rather cloudy dawn. Leaving there, the group headed to the small state park where this scene is located. I arrived there before almost anyone else, so I headed to this location and had it to myself for a few minutes.

The previous evening some had been discussing the weather prospects, and I had pointed out that often the most interesting skies come on the heels of awful weather, and this moment serves as an example. An hour earlier and a few miles away, the overcast was thick and gray, but here the trailing edge of the storm was bringing layers of clouds that were thinning and allowing the early morning light through. But this quality of sky and light lasted only a short time, and less than an hour later these beautiful early morning clouds were largely gone.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: america

Ross’s Geese, Golden Hour Fly-Out

Rat Rock Island, Sky

Ross’s Geese, Evening Fly-Out

Rat Rock Island, Winter Sky

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