Tag Archives: california

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Central Valley Sky, Winter

January 30, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Thin winter clouds drift above farmland, Central Valley, California.

Photographing these beautiful winter clouds above the California Central Valley near the Cosumnes River between Stockton and Sacramento involved a certain amount of luck. For the most part it had been an extremely foggy morning – so foggy that at a few points early in the day I simply couldn’t find anything to shoot. Eventually the light began to filter down through the tule fog and I had some good luck shooting further up the valley at the Cosumnes River Wildlife Preserve.

At a certain point as the fog begins to thin it goes through a phase that is not so photographically compelling. The very thick fog can be quite interesting, and the light can be very special just as the sun starts to force its way through the fog as it starts to clear. But they there is a period when it is sort of sunny and sort of foggy, and but perhaps lacks the best aspects of each of the two conditions. That is how it was at about the time I left the Preserve and started back down the valley on my drive home.

Much earlier in the morning I had visited this side road near a bend in the Cosumnes River, so I decided to try it again since it was only slightly out of my way on the return drive. I drove slowly all the way to the end of the side road – to where it runs into the levee at the river – and then turned around to start back. I saw lots and lots of waterfowl, including impressive sandhill cranes and beautiful white egrets, but they were all too far from the road or in areas that didn’t provide the right kind of background. Near these flooded fields I stopped to consider trying to photograph some of the birds, changed my mind, and instead decided to see what I could do with these buildings, the flooded fields, and the sky. It was my luck that this final stop coincided with the near clearing of the fog and the appearance overhead of these wonderful clouds.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Flooded Field and Farm Structures

January 29, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Agricultural facilities and Central Valley sky reflected in the surface of a flooded field.

This area turned out to be fun place to shoot. It is along a fairly nondescript road that branches off from Interstate 5 midway between Stockton and Sacramento and eventually dead-ends against a levee lining the Cosumnes River. I had been told that it is a good place to look for migratory birds – and, indeed, it is. Although it was hard to see them due to the very thick tule fog when I first arrived shortly after dawn, when I came back in the early afternoon the sky had cleared and the many fields, vineyards, and ponds along the road were filled with waterfowl.

I first saw this set of “structures” (silos? Being a “city boy,” I’m not certain of the right way to describe cylindrical storage facilities like this) as I drove out from Interstate 5 towards the river. They make for quite a striking sight – they are quite large, they are tall and the tower above is even taller, the brick colored roofs stand out against the other colors, and they are reflected in the still water of surrounding ponds. It was on my way back past them that I saw the view over this pond. I had just stopped to make another photograph of the ponds and I thought I was finished for the day – my thoughts were getting back to the highway and heading home. But I decided to walk down to a levee that let me place the structures and their reflections across the water and surround the image of the building and the thin horizon line with sky above and below.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Egret in Flight

January 28, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Egret in flight above water at Cosumnes River Wildlife Preserve, California.

I’ve been fascinated by egrets since I first found out about them in a class back in college. Later I discovered that they are quite common in my part of California – back when I was a cyclist riding a few hundred miles every week, often in the country, I discovered that one or more can be found in just about any drainage ditch, slough, or creek bed with water in it during the winter months. More recently I realized – yes, I’m slow about some things! – that they are also found during the winter at places like Point Lobos, where they walk on top of kelp to hunt for small fish.

So I wasn’t the least bit surprised that a couple egrets were the first recognizable birds (to me – I’m no bird expert!) at the Cosumnes River Wildlife Preserve and in the surrounding countryside. Shortly after I crossed the road towards the slough, where many birds are found in the shallow water there, I spotted one alongside a creek bank nearby. I was able to get fairly close to this one and make some photographs as it more or less stood around on the bank doing whatever it is that egrets do. But soon it became uneasy about my presence, even though I was almost completely still and quiet, and it took off for a spot a bit further away. As the bird took flight I panned along with its motion, not paying a lot of attention to anything but the white bird, and I got a short series of photographs as it passed behind some brush alongside the water.

While I can and did make some very sharp photographs of this and other birds standing almost still near the water, I prefer this one with its bird slightly blurred from motion as it flew, and with the out of focus intervening vegetation somewhat interfering with the view of the bird. To me this sort of image better captures the dynamic nature of the bird in low level flight.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees Atop the Rostrum

January 27, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Sparse trees grow in granite slabs above steep granite cliffs in Lower Yosemite Valley.

(Note: After receiving some advice from a helpful reader – which was much appreciated! – I now know that this feature has a name. It is called “the Rostrum,” and I have retitled the photograph accordingly.)

I’ve seen these tree-topped columns and the granite slabs beyond many times when I’ve taken Crane Flat Road into the Valley. On my recent visit to Yosemite, photographing these trees in both early and late light was on my agenda, and I got myself into position to shoot them on two or three occasions.

At the right times of day – and there are at least two when this can work – the light slants across the top of the granite slabs and ledges at the top of these cliffs and catches the trees with side or back light. Below these upper slopes the vertical fluted forms of the cliffs drop nearly vertically to the Merced River canyon below. The cliffs themselves are in what I might describe as lower Yosemite Valley – think of Crane Flat Road above Cascade Creek or the area well beyond the upper end of Wawona Tunnel. There is a lot of very interesting and imposing rock in this part of the Valley, though I think it may get overlooked a bit by comparison to the truly astonishing faces and domes and peaks of the Valley proper.

Since the light changes throughout the year, and especially because the point at which the sun sets moves north as the years moves from winter to summer, I want to come back and photograph this area again a bit later in the year when I think the potential for light later in the day might improve. From my point of view, the ideal conditions might combine “golden hour” side light with shadows that reduce the detail on the forest covered slopes beyond – and without the bright snow patches that appear here. Of course, a fresh snowfall here might also be interesting…

I got a bit of a laugh out of one thing that happened when I made this photograph, though it is similar to similar situations I’ve had in the past. It is not at all unusual for lots of tourists to stop when they see a photographer with a big tripod and large lens at a pull-out along the road. I assume they think that if the photographer with the Fancy Equipment is stopping that there must be something there worth photographing. But sometime the photographer is pointing the camera in direction that must only confuse them. On this occasion I was in a spot with a classic and stunning view of distant Bridalveil Fall, and I’ll bet that many of those stopping thought they might try to duplicate my “shot of the falls.” But as they stopped and looked they may have wondered about me if they noticed that my lens was aimed at some seemingly nondescript spot perhaps 30% to the right of the fall…

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