Tag Archives: clearing

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

Clearing Storm, Panamint Range

April 9, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A clearing snow storm in the Panamint Mountains above Wildrose Canyon, Death Valley National Park

I seem to have a knack for encountering “interesting” weather in Death Valley. The first time I visited the park, on an early April trip back in the late 1990s, I encountered light snow at Scotty’s Castle, an extremely cold wind storm that forced a retreat from the back-country near Teakettle Junction, and a big dust storm at Stovepipe Wells. Since then I’ve experienced a number of dust storms, heavy rain, sub-freezing temperatures, more snow, and plenty of wind. If you are hoping to visit the park for its more typical hot weather, you might want to avoid times when I’m there! Of course, I often visit around the beginning of April, and this seems to be a time of wildly varied conditions in this park—the time of wind storms, and a season when you might see the last Pacific winter storms or the first really warm weather.

On this year’s early April visit things leaned more in the direction of winter-like conditions. As a series of welcome Pacific storms came through there were plenty of clouds, cooler temperatures, strong winds, and some precipitation. The plan on this morning was to start at a very high overlook in the Panamint Range, from which expansive morning vistas are often possible. We were there before sunrise… but it was cloudy and becoming cloudier. There was enough light for some photography, but we also became aware that snow was starting to fall on some of the higher peaks. After an hour or so at this location we retreated to a high, broad, sage-filled valley and continued to watch the clouds close in and the snow spread along other nearby ridges. Not wanting to miss the unusual conditions we headed up into Wildrose Canyon, getting as far as the charcoal kilns before the falling snow convinced me that we shouldn’t go any further. We worked our way back down the canyon where the storm began to temporarily clear from the ridge of the Panamint Mountains.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture

March 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lone great blue heron overlooks a pasture in clearing fog, San Joaquin Valley, California

I photographed this critter on my first bird photography trip of the season in the Central Valley of California, during which I visited several wildlife refuges in the Merced area. In typical Central Valley form, the day started out very foggy – tule fog hugged the valley floor and obscured the view in many places. By late morning most of the fog had dissipated, and hazy light came through the still-humid cool-season atmosphere.

When I first arrived at this refuge, the fog was so thick that it was more or less impossible to photograph the birds – though I tried! Eventually I reconsidered and did some landscape photography in the mysterious atmosphere of the thick fog. As it finally began to clear, I turned my attention back to the migratory birds. I found this solitary blue heron in a pasture at the far corner of the refuge, and I used my car as a “blind” to eventually pull almost parallel to it on the gravel access road, then stopping to make a series of telephoto shots with the foggy pasture as the backdrop.

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

Cranes and Geese, Morning Fog

January 29, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Sandhill cranes and Ross’s Geese in flight through clearing morning fog, San Joaquin Valley

While I still cannot resist the challenge of trying to get a good, sharp photograph of a bird filling the frame, more and more I’m interested less in individual birds and more in their environment and their place in it, along with trying to evoke a sense of what these places are like. I think these photographs are meant more to be suggestive than descriptive, and I’m happy if not everything is quite clear to see. (I can tell you that being in these places, not everything is clear either!)

The fog was playing interesting games with us on this morning. This location often seems to be foggy, even when nearby areas are clear, probably because it is low and very wet. Compared to some mornings, it was not as foggy as it can be when we arrived, and it was possible to see some distance as we drove the gravel road that circles the marsh. We found a likely area to stop and photograph birds, including cranes, geese, pelicans, ducks, and more. Close to sunrise, it suddenly became more foggy, to the point that many nearby objects were obscured – even though the fog was so shallow that birds flying just above it were illuminated by weak dawn light. This photograph is one of a series I made as small groups of sandhill cranes came towards us from across a pond. Handholding the camera I tracked them as they approached, trying to make exposures as they moved into position against any sort of interesting background. Here that background turned out to be a few other birds – mostly geese – and some clumps of reeds barely visible in the fog.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Trees and Pasture, Central Valley

December 22, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hazy light in clearing tule fog on solitary trees in California Central Valley pasture land

This is another in a series that might perhaps be called “accidental landscapes.” We were actually at a wildlife refuge not to photograph landscape subjects but to photograph migratory birds – mostly geese, herons, ibises, cranes, egrets and the like. Part of that activity involves driving around trying to find the darn critters! And sometimes during these drives my eyes wander over to something that is much more like a landscape than a bird. I have photographed this very tree in the past, most recently a matter of weeks earlier when I shot it from a slightly different angle that made it appear more isolated, and when it was full of a flock of red-winged blackbirds.

The first thing that attracted my attention this time was something small, the bit of warm side-light on the trunk of the foreground tree. Seeing that, I wondered how I might come up with a composition that made sense and included this little feature. First, I wanted this tree to fill a good portion of the frame. However that seemed a bit too straightforward, so I just moved around a bit until the more distant near-twin tree was just to the left of the foreground tree, being careful to not let them overlap. The photograph was shot handheld, with the same lens that stayed on my camera all day long, a 100-400mm zoom. We moved on and soon found lots of Ross’s geese on the far side of this pasture.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: clearing

Clearing Storm, Panamint Range

Like this:

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture

Like this:

Cranes and Geese, Morning Fog

Like this:

Trees and Pasture, Central Valley

Like this:

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

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

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