Tag Archives: Cloud

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Geese in Dawn Sky

Image February 12, 2021 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cloud of geese takes flight over wetlands in dawn light

Today’s post begins with a confession: I can’t resist raising the camera and photographing when these gigantic flocks of migratory geese take to the air above these wetland landscapes. I’ve seen this happen perhaps thousands of times now, but the visual and auditory tumult is remains irresistible. So I photograph. Even knowing that I have hundreds of photographs of similar events in my archives. What can I say?

If you are looking for something a bit out of the ordinary or special in this image, allow me to help. You may notice that not all the geese are white. In fact, I’m certain that at least four different types of migratory geese appear in this photograph. The white geese are likely mostly snow geese, but I think there are some Ross’s geese in the mix, too. The darker geese in the airborne flock appear to be Aleutian cackling geese – the subject of an amazing species recovery. Down on the water and difficult to make out are the ubiquitous white-fronted geese. (I imagine one of them looking over to a buddy, “Hey, what are those guys so upset about?” while floating placidly in the pond.) The light is a bit unusual. There was no thick fog here, but there were low clouds to the east, and they muted the light — though a bit of reddish sunrise light is coloring the white geese in the airborne flock.

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, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Cloud Shadows and Fog

Image August 1, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cloud shadow on the surface of the Pacific Ocean off of Point Reyes National Seashore.

This is a rather subtle landscape or seascape photograph, perhaps to the point of minimalism. I made it on a foggy afternoon along the interior of Drakes Bay at the Point Reyes National Seashore. The fog had thinned a bit by this time, but it was obstinate enough that it had not lifted even in the afternoon. Some light was coming though the cloud deck but it was extremely diffused — though it had enough directionality and the fog enough luminosity to lay a subtle shadow across the water below a thicker line of clouds.

Days like this one are slow, quiet, and mysterious along the Pacific Coast. The scale of the landscape diminishes to some extend and the “clear to the horizon” views are gone, as is the dome of the sky. From high locations such as the one from which I made the photograph, even the sound of the surf is muted.

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Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building And Shadow, Tuscany

Image August 18, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cloud drifts in the sky above stone buildings in Tuscany

If you follow my posts you may have noticed quite a few post from Italy recently, and you might be wondering why. Have you been to Italy? ;-) OK, there are more objective reasons I can share. I make a habit of reviewing older work a year or more after I make the photographs. I see the images differently with a bit more subjective distance from the actual experience. There’s another reason, too, and it ties the place I live (California) to Italy it ways that have only recently made more sense to me. This spring and summer as I’ve walked trails in California’s grass and oak lands on warm days, it has hit me just how similar the experiences can be. And a visit to an area winery on such a day reinforced that feeling. So I suppose I’ve been enjoying both the pleasant memories of the 2016 visit from which this photograph comes and the realization that I live in a place that shares some Italy’s pleasant features.

This is one of a pair of related photographs I made at an Italian vineyard and winery we visited — both focus on the stone buildings and midday shadows. (The related image will show up here in a later post.) The vineyard centers on a very old hamlet consisting of stone buildings surrounded by vineyard. We were there in the middle of the day, and the unique Italian light was wonderful. I’m not quite sure how to describe it in words, but it has some remarkable combination of the intensity of southern light along with the softness of the Italian atmosphere.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Rising Sun, Wildfire Smoke

Image February 3, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning sun rising through a pall of wildfire smoke, east of the Sierra Nevada,

This was one of the most eerie days I have experienced in the Sierra. While it wasn’t the first of last time I’ve encountered the effects of wildfire there, this was quite different. The previous evening I had seen a bit of smoke far to the south, but didn’t think too much of it, as this was the wildfire season and such things aren’t unusual. I was camped in a deep east side valley that did not afford a distant view, so it wasn’t until I left that valley in the early morning and headed out on the east side fo the range that I saw what was happening.

I arrived at the junction of US 395 and Tioga Pass Road before dawn and found a high spot to photograph Mono Lake. It was immediately clear that a very active wildfire was building to the south and that the smoke was drifting north. It was still mostly clear above the lake, but not for long. Soon the smoke nearly obscured the view, though I continued photographing. I thought that heading north might get me away from the smoke, but now it was spreading fast and I couldn’t escape it. I made a few photographs from a high location that featured the smoke-filled Mono Basin, and then I started toward the southern Sierra. Passing again by Mono Lake I encountered some of the thickest wildfire smoke I have seen. This photograph was made under that pall, which was so dark that it barely seemed like twilight and the light of the sun was almost blocked.

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