Tag Archives: brush

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Night Heron in Brush

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Night Heron in Brush
A black-crowned night heron perched in brush in morning light.

Night Heron in Brush. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A black-crowned night heron perched in brush in morning light.

In locations where there are many birds (in my cases, mostly big groups of geese and cranes) the night herons tend to lurk quietly in the background, and it would very easy to completely overlook them. They are much smaller than the lonely but attention-grabbing great blue herons. They are quiet. They tend to sit still among the plants for long periods of time. They keep their distance. I wasn’t even aware of them the first few times I went out to see the winter birds of California’s section of the Pacific Flyway.

But once I realized where to look, they were easy to spot. In good light their white breasts stand out against the darker vegetation in which they hide themselves. While I regard them as mostly stationary birds — at least where I run into them — occasionally I have seen them become more active, including on New Year’s Day when groups of them began to fly to and fro above the brush in the morning sun.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Color, Aspens and Brush

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Autumn Color, Aspens and Brush
Backlight on a high country brush and a small copse of aspens with fall colors.

Autumn Color, Aspens and Brush. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Backlight on a high country brush and a small copse of aspens with fall colors.

There is a good chance that I’m approaching the end of this season’s fall color photographs — though there are still at least a couple in the pipeline. Given that in prior years have managed to hunt down a few remaining examples of autumn leaves in early January, well, there could are more! Here on the West Coast, by starting high in the Sierra in September and continuing into the lowlands as fall ends and winter begins, it is possible to experience a “fall” color season that lasts up to four months!

This scene comes from a location where the color transition begins near the beginning of this period. It is in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, at close to 8000′ elevation, where the semi-arid high desert terrain rises to meet the eastern escarpment of the range. Years ago I did not pay much attention to this zone, preferring instead to head straight to the high country. More recently, at least in part as a result of my fall color photography, I have become fascinated by this region. It is a complex zone, and the boundaries are affected by water, exposure, elevation, and soil conditions. The foreground brush is more typical of the high desert, while we usually tend to think of aspens as belonging to the near-alpine high country.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shades of Autumn

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Shades of Autumn
A scene of dense vegetation with fall color, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Shades of Autumn. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A scene of dense vegetation with fall color, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

On this day I came upon a dense grove of small aspen trees mixed with some autumn-colored mountain willows with their slightly less flamboyant brownish fall color. At the time I arrived the trees were in the shadow of the tall mountains nearby, and the light had a bit of a blue quality. It was also soft and diffused, leading to an absence of very bright highlights and filling the shadows with light, too. The aspen leaves stood out a bit from the background with they yellow color.

Looking for some kind of order and structure in such dense subjects is a challenge, one that forces the photographer to look beyond the obvious ways of seeing. Subtle lines in the dense and complex texture can be enough to direct the eye. Slight contrasts in luminosity or color become important. And the lack of a single strong central subject lets the eye wander about the frame and take in the complexity of the scene.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Aspens, Sage Brush Country

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Autumn Aspens, Sage Brush Country
A sage brush country grove of colorful autumn aspen trees in back-light, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Autumn Aspens, Sage Brush Country. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sage brush country grove of colorful autumn aspen trees in back-light, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Wildfire smoke has posed challenges to Californians and those in other western states in recent years, and the current historic drought in the state has produced even more widespread and often large fires. We have come to live with smoke levels that are occasionally very unhealthy and almost always aesthetically displeasing. Almost every late-summer or autumn visit to the Sierra during the past two seasons has been affected, and on several occasions I have had to cut trips short as a result.

On this month’s brief visit to the eastern Sierra things were a bit better in the Sonora Pass area and a bit south, but the conditions deteriorated quickly starting just north of Mono Lake. Photographically speaking, this creates some rather serious challenges, especially when smoke covers (and discolors the atmosphere of) the larger landscape. There are some options — black and white can often work in such conditions or one can focus on closer subjects, composting to eliminate the longer views. The latter is what I did in this photograph of grove of small aspens growing in a shallow valley in sagebrush-covered hills, where back-light intensified the colors of the fall foliage.

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.