Tag Archives: birds

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Before Sunrise, Central Valley

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Before Sunrise, Central Valley
Winter pre-sunrise sky and clouds above wetlands and trees, Central Valley, California.

Before Sunrise, Central Valley. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Winter pre-sunrise sky and clouds above wetlands and trees, Central Valley, California.

Yes, I know. That color is too saturated to be real, right? But this is actually what we saw on the winter morning in California’s Central Valley. (I’ll share another photograph of the scene in a few days that will include some regular old blue sky for reference.) It just happened that the conditions were precisely right to create an unbelievably colorful pre-sunrise sky above the Sierra for a short time.

While the possibility of something like this wasn’t entirely unforeseeable, when we headed out a half hour earlier in near-darkness it certainly did not look likely. After the previous cloudy day, it looked like the sky was still covered, and it was almost a half hour later when we reached the edge of those clouds and found the sky more open to the east that we started to see hints of this light. It was like this for a short period before sunrise, and with the rising sun the intensity of the colors quickly diminished.

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: Nature

New Year’s Morning

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New Year's Morning
Early morning clouds and flocks of geese fill the sky above the California Central Valley on New Year’s Day morning, 2023.

New Year’s Morning. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Early morning clouds and flocks of geese fill the sky above the California Central Valley on New Year’s Day morning, 2023.

We spent New Year’s Day in a wild place with friends, sharing food and stories, and photographing birds and the landscape in which they live. I can’t think of a better way to greet a new year, which is why we’ve been doing it for perhaps a decade now. The specific location doesn’t matter all that much — it could be almost anywhere — but the tradition definitely does matter!

Photographically-speaking, the day was sometimes challenging. The weather was transitory, between one gigantic departing storm and another storm that would arrive the next day. While we had a lot of wind (not great for bird photography!) and clouds, there were moments of beautiful light. I made this photograph not long after sunrise, when the light on the high clouds was still a bit colorful and thousands of geese filled the sky.

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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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: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Cloudscape With Birds

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Cloudscape With Birds
Migratory birds fill the winter sky against a backdrop of clearing storm clouds.

Cloudscape With Birds. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Migratory birds fill the winter sky against a backdrop of clearing storm clouds.

Yes, it is a little bit difficult to see the birds in this photograph. (If you have the option, you may want to view it larger.) But in a way, that is kind of the point — to set the very small and very numerous birds against that grand scale of this California Central Valley winter cloudscape. When photographing birds I almost always wish I could get closer — but there’s also inevitably a moment when I am moved by the distant view a sky filled with thousands of birds.

I made this photograph on New Year’s morning, shortly after the first dawn of 2023. In order to arise before dawn I had to be in bed well before midnight. (I suppose that there was a time when I might have stayed up until midnight and gotten up before the sun!) As wonderful as it was to greet the new year in the company of thousands of migratory birds, it was even better to be in the company of a wonderful little band of photographers and friends who gather together on every New Year’s Day.

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 | Twitter | 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: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

White-Fronted Geese in Flight

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White-Fronted Geese in Flight
A flock of white-fronted geese in fllight abainst a blue winter sky.

White-Fronted Geese in Flight. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A flock of white-fronted geese in fllight abainst a blue winter sky.

We were recently out photographing migratory (and other) birds in California’s Central Valley, squeezing a visit in between the series of recent and continuing winter storms. I describe these visits as being about “bird photography,” but the truth is that they often end up being as much about the landscape of the place — the sky, the water, the trees, the atmosphere — as about the birds. In order to restore some balance, here is a photograph of birds!

This is a flock of white-fronted geese, one of the several times you can find here in California during the winter months. On a spectrum from photographs that are “realistic” to those that are more subjective and atmospheric, I think this one is more of the former. But there are at least a few unusual things about it that bird photographers might recognize. It is really difficult to get a photograph of groups like this in which each bird is distinctly separate from the others. In addition, if you are interested in a single image that shows almost the whole range of in-flight positions of geese, you might want to spend some time looking at this one!

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 | Twitter | 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.