Tag Archives: birds

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

Crane Flock, Morning Light

Image December 19, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of lesser sandhill cranes in morning flight over the California Central Valley.

The sound of cranes is the first thing I notice when I arrive before dawn to spend a day photographing birds in California’s Central Valley. I pull into a parking area, turn off the car, get out… and that sound greets me. I spend a moment listening, then try to gauge distance and directions, as that will inform by pre-sunrise plans. I head off to a likely spot, planning to arrive while the sun is still below the horizon so that I can be ready for the dawn show.

The cranes often start to become restless and take flight a bit before sunrise, but right around that time and for a little bit longer they gradually take the air in groups. At this point I consider several things. I want to be more or less under their likely flight path, and I want to be a bit off to one side so that the birds are in the morning sunlight as they pass. That all came together in this photograph of a flock passing nearly over my position in the colorful early morning light.

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

Cranes in Silhouette

Image December 16, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of lesser sandhill cranes in flight is silhouetted against clouds in the Central Valley autumn sky.

This photograph comes from the morning of my first-of-the-season trip to photograph migratory birds in central California. This subject — including both the birds and their landscape — is a focus from November through the beginning of March. My subjects include geese, herons, ibises, egrets, raptors, “little brown birds,” and sandhill cranes. In this photograph a small group of cranes is silhouetted against an autumn morning sky filled with scattered clouds.

Because this visit was early in the season, there were few geese around. Later I’ll turn more of my attention to them — mainly the Ross’s and snow geese, but others, too. But the cranes had already arrived in great numbers, and they were pretty much the main attraction on this visit.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Dawn Reflections, Mono Lake

Image November 7, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Colorful dawn light reflected on the surface of Mono Lake.

On this morning I had a particular scene in mind to photograph at Mono Lake, so I was at that location before sunrise. I worked that subject until just before the sun actually rose, as planned, and then I turned to something different — the surface of the huge lake itself, slightly disturbed by morning breezes, with waterfowl here and there, as the sun was just about to top a mountain range fare to the east. I angled the camera downwards to keep the sky out of the frame, including just a bit of the distant mountains many miles away beyond the far shore.

On a clear morning like this one, the most intense sky color comes before sunrise, after which the brilliant sun washes out the colors that are visible earlier. To make this photograph I aimed the camera directly toward the point on the horizon where the sun would rise, so the very brightest portion of the colorful sky was strongly reflected on the lake’s surface.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake, Autumn Haze

Image October 24, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Haze settles over the expanse of Mono Lake on an autumn morning.

On this autumn morning I began photographing at Mono Lake well before dawn. My main idea was to work from a particular spot that has interesting shoreline contours and views towards distant peaks, starting when I could photograph the light of the intensely colorful pre-sunrise sky reflecting on the lake’s surface. I did that, and I stuck around just until the sun cleared those distant mountains — then I moved on to photograph the lake in more “normal” daytime light.

I initially went to this spot hoping to photograph some thin fog that was trying to establish itself along the lake’s shoreline, where cool autumn air flowed over the warmer lake waters. As I considered the scene I became more interested in the silhouettes of the distant island and hills, many miles away, and the textures and patterns formed by morning breezes on the surface of the immense lake.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: birds

Dawn Reflections, Mono Lake

Mono Lake, Autumn Haze

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