Tag Archives: blue

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

Four Cranes in Flight

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Four Cranes in Flight
Four lesser sandhill cranes in flight against blue sky.

Four Cranes in Flight. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Four lesser sandhill cranes in flight against blue sky.

So often photography is about composition, controlling the relationships among elements within the frame —left and right, front and back, up and down, relationships among colors and luminosity levels, lines, curves, and all the rest. This is certainly the case when photographing from the tripod, and it is usually true even when shooting with a handheld camera. Even in situations when things happen quickly, we try to maintain some awareness of how the different elements fit together.

Then some birds fly overhead against a pure blue sky… and one just makes exposures. In the midst of photographing birds in the larger landscape, I realized that I was in a spot that groups of sandhill cranes were traversing, often nearly directly overhead. To some extent you take what you get in these situations, and you don’t have any control over the relative positions of the birds. But you do have some control, at least if you have been photographing birds for a while. Rather than just blasting away in burst mode — which is sometimes the only realistic strategy — you can watch the birds, track their movements relative to one another, and increase the odds a bit by timing the exposures.

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: Nature

Blue and Yellow Flower

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Blue and Yellow Flower
A blue and yellow flower, with morning dew, photographed against a dark background.

Blue and Yellow Flower. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A blue and yellow flower, with morning dew, photographed against a dark background.

While this may not be a sunflower, at least it is blue and yellow. This isn’t flower that I recognize — though I was told its name at one point, a name that I had not heard before. It was growing down close to the ground, in a shady area at the garden where we were recently photographing.

I can’t claim to be any particular sort of flower photographer, even though I am attracted to such photographs and do try my hand at them occasionally. (Someone else in our household specializes in photographing small things like flowers.) This flower and those around it were still covered with early morning moisture.

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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Photographs: Nature

Leaf Edge

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Leaf Edge
The edge of a yellow leaf against blue shadowed background.

Leaf Edge. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

The edge of a yellow leaf against blue shadowed background.

Recently I have begun looking through my archives for photographs featuring the yellow and blue color scheme of Ukraine’s flag — you might think of it as an emerging “blue and yellow” series. I’ve also been on the lookout for new subjects that feature the colors of this flag, a new symbol of the fight against tyranny and against the brutal invasion of this country by Russia and its dictator.

I’ll mostly leave that as the primary text accompanying this photograph, with only a bit of reference to the subject of the image. Recently I was photographing a garden that is beginning to emerge from winter dormancy as spring approaches. Mainly we went there to view and photograph new flowers, but here and there I found evidence of winter and even of autumn, including a few leaves still bearing autumn colors.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Ridges, Morning Haze II

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Desert Ridges, Morning Haze II
Desert ridges disappear into distant morning haze.

Desert Ridges, Morning Haze II. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert ridges disappear into distant morning haze.

While the light of the very early morning and the very late afternoon is the most obviously appealing, there are ways to photograph at almost any time of the day. Because the distances in the Death Valley landscape are often so immense, there is almost always some amount of haze in the air. Not only does it obscure distant features, but it also shifts the color balance toward blue. In all honestly, sometimes this doesn’t make for the most appealing landscape photography, especially when distant features are included. But it is also possible to make the blue haze your friend, especially where it can enhance the sense of distance and scale.

I had finished up my sunrise photography at a different location on this morning of my early 2022 visit to Death Valley. My daily routine is usually to bet up very early — well before sunrise — and head to a first location, arriving well before the good light appears. You may have noticed that I didn’t mention things like coffee. Or breakfast. I usually skip them and get right to work. Later, after finishing with that first subject of the day, it would be easy to give in to the call of breakfast, but I usually continue on to a second location that holds some promise in later light. So on this morning I headed up into the hills to find a spot with a broad, long-distance view. From here I photographed across rows of intervening ridges as the haze gradually hid the landscape details to the point that haze and light and land merged in the distance.

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 | 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.