Tag Archives: calero

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Cattails, Morning Light

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Cattails, Morning Light

Cattails, Morning Light. Calero Hills, California. August 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Summer cattails in morning light at Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California.

OK, this time no alpine scene from high meadows near the crest of the Sierra – instead a cattail growing along the bank of a small pond perhaps ten miles from my home at a place where I frequently hike. This morning I decided to get up early and head out here with no particular photographic goal in mind. When I arrived at the pond I thought I might photograph some birds – in fact, I just missed photographing my local egret, which flew away just as I was getting out my camera. So, instead of photographing the birds – and instead of continuing on for a longer morning hike – I spent more than an hour here photographing the cattails and patterns of summer grasses in the morning light.

Yesterday I visited SF MOMA to see two photographic shows – the photographs of Richard Avedon in one and the photographs of Ansel Adams and paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe in the other. As I looked at the out of focuse patterns of grasses, such as those in the background of this photograph, I thought about the colors and patterns of the O’Keeffe paintings.

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

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

Redwing Blackbird on Fence Post

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Redwing Blackbird on Fence Post

Redwing Blackbird on Fence Post. Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California. April 28, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A male redwing blackbird perches atop a fence post on a foggy spring morning at Castillero Pond, Calero County Park.

This should be the last in the redwing blackbird series for a while – yet another photographed on a foggy morning at Castillero Pond at Calero Park. This photograph shows a male redwing though the characteristic red patch on the shoulder or top of the wing is not so easy to see in this shot is it is when the bird is engaged in display behavior.

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

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

Female Redwing Blackbird

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Female Redwing Blackbird

Female Redwing Blackbird. Calero Hills, California. April 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A female redwing blackbird perches among reeds on a foggy morning at Castillero Pond, Calero Hills, California.

At this point I almost feel like I know these birds personally. I photograph and hike at this location (Calero County Park) almost every week throughout the year, and every hike begins at a trailhead that takes me right past Castillero Pond which is often crowded with birds – the occasional egret but almost always many redwing blackbirds.

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

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Oaks, Hills, Clearing Morning Fog

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Oaks, Hills, Clearing Morning Fog

Oaks, Hills, Clearing Morning Fog. Calero Hills, California. April 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog clears over oak dotted green and golden Calero Hills, California.

On this mid-April spring morning I had perhaps a half hour of what is almost my favorite type of light – the kind that forms along the border between cloud and sun as morning fog begins to clear. I had started out this hike in gray fog, but as I reached the top of a small hill the fog began to burn off… and I photographed like crazy as different portions of my surroundings were revealed and illuminated. On a technical note, this is another of my atypical telephoto landscapes, shot with a 400mm lens.

One more note about fog. Not only is it interesting in its own right, but sometimes it lines up just right to obscure things that would make a photograph of the scene less effective while showing elements that work well. That was the case here. The very faint suggestion of more distant hills at the far right is all that we can see in the fog – but once it cleared there was instead a rather stark ridgeline that held a power pole or two!

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

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