Tag Archives: bif

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Stack of Pelicans

February 9, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A vertical column of pelicans stacked one above the other along the Pacific Ocean coastline of California.

On a slow night this week – while waiting for a new hard drive to get backed up – I want back through some more raw files from the first half of 2010. Almost invariably, when I go back through older collections of images I find at least a few things that seem interesting to me know even though they didn’t really register at the time I shot them

I have previously shared some other photographs of these magnificent Pacific Coast birds that I made on this mid-May evening along the Pacific Coast Highway north of Santa Cruz, shooting from a bluff locations that I often return to. At this particular spot, when the conditions are just right, birds coming north up the coast and coasting on updrafts along the cliffs often climb toward the top of the bluff and frequently turn inland a bit right here as they come around an outcropping. That is what happened with these pelicans, who were coming almost towards me and were flying below my position on top of the bluff, creating what looks like a vertical stack of birds. How thoughtful of them to line up so that they fit perfectly within a 3:2 ratio portrait orientation frame! :-)

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Two Pelicans in Flight

May 30, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two pelicans in flight along high bluffs above the Pacific Ocean coast north of Santa Cruz, California.

More pelicans… These were photographed along the bluff just south of Waddell Beach, the coastal section of Big Basin Redwoods State Park. I’ve observed the pelicans – and other birds – skim past very close to the edge of the bluff and then descend to the outlet of Waddell Creek on the beach.

The light on this day was not especially conducive to landscape photography – it had been a sort of murky, gray morning – so I thought I’d use the softer light (with its tendency to reduce blown highlights and to bring out shadow detail) to try to photograph these great birds. The pelicans are often seen along the coast in California, though their numbers had seemed to decrease over the winter. On this morning it seemed like they might be increasing once again.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 400mm
ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/1600 second

keywords: pelican, pelagic, bird, sea, shore, sky, cloud, two, nature, wildlife, bif, santa cruz, county, davenport, california, usa, north america, fly, flight, wing, beak, flock, group, wild, highway, one, pacific, ocean, bluff, stock, northern

Photographs: Wildlife

Two Gulls In a Row

March 29, 2008 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two gulls follow one another along the edge of a bluff along the California Pacific coast, flying past my position at eye-level.

I made a series of photographs of birds from this spot – the images that have been appearing recently included. To get these I followed a strategy that can work well in some places along the California coast: spend a few minutes figuring out the “line” that the birds follow along the end of the coastal cliffs, apparently looking for updrafts. Then set up close to or under one of these invisible paths, sit quietly, and photograph like mad as the birds fly by.

keywords: two, gulls, sea, seagulls, birds, in, row, follow, fly, flying, flight, pacific, ocean, coast, california, usa, bif, wings, sea, shore, shoreline, sky, nature, animals, wildlife, stock

Photographs: Nature

Gull in Flight, Pacific Coast

March 28, 2008 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lone gull in flight over the Pacific Ocean along the California coastline. This is another in the series I shot on March 1 from the top of the coastal cliff north of Santa Cruz. This bird flew past a bit lower than some of the others, so the background here is the ocean surface.

keywords: gull, sea, seagull, shore, coast, shorebird, sea, seabird, shoreline, california, usa, pacific, ocean, fly, flight, flying, wings, bif, nature, wildlife, nature, stock, bird

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