Tag Archives: clouds

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

Tree and Fog, Dawn

February 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary tree reflected in the still surface of a San Joaquin Valley pond beneath winter dawn sky

This in another of those photographs that reminds me that much of what happens in a photograph is not subject to planning. We had traveled to the Central Valley to photograph migratory birds and the flat and often atmospheric landscape of this area, and we were anxious to be here since these seasonal conditions are not likely to last a whole lot longer this year. It was crystal clear as we drove into the valley but, not unexpectedly, we began to encounter thick ground fog ten or fifteen minutes before reaching our goal. It was still dark when we arrived, with just a hint of coming light to the east, and soon friends joined us and we started looking for photographic possibilities.

Our friends Michael and Claudia drove ahead as we readied our cameras, and by the time we caught up with them I saw that Michael had left the vehicle and taken off for the edge of a nearby pond, were he was barely visible silhouetted in the fog against the very early light in the sky. I made a “photographer at work” picture of him in this scene (shared here earlier), and only then started to wander that direction of myself. Unless it is the sort of fog that sits heavily and doesn’t move, fog is one of the most ephemeral and transitory atmospheric conditions. It changes continually, becoming thicker and thinner, transmitting more or less light, becoming thinner here and thicker there, and glowing with varying levels and colors of light. When I reached the edge of the water it was thick and glowing with deep pinkish-purple colors of dawn light. I found a composition that included a solitary tree and some foreground reeds and made a few photographs. This one was just a moment later in the series, but by now the fog had thinned slightly to provide a view of higher clouds to the east and the intense colors had become more subtle.

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

Marsh, Fog, Sunrise

February 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Dawn sun reflected in the surface of a foggy San Joaquin Valley marsh

On a foggy morning like this one, when the fog is dense but not deep, the atmosphere and light can pass through an astounding series of phases in short order as the day begins. We arrived before sunrise, when it was still almost dark, and when we began to think photographically a few minutes later there was little light in the sky at all. The overall toned were mostly blue, and it was difficult to see any detail. Very soon, as the first real pre-dawn light began to illuminate clouds above the eastern horizon and turn them shades of red and pink, the shallow fog layer began to glow with these reflected colors. We had perhaps five minutes of this luminous color, which at times was almost unbelievably saturated, and then the intensity began to fade and the colors became more subtle. At the same time, the brighter sky overhead became more visible through the fog, and we could begin to more clearly see the higher clouds.

The sun was still below the horizon, even though its light was beginning to strike those higher clouds to the east. At about this time we moved on to a different location with a clearer view directly to the east. Very soon the rising sun began to emerge above the distant Sierra and low clouds, and from our position it rose into a slight clearing in these clouds. The orb of the sun became visible through the dense atmosphere and its direct light soon began to reflect off the surface of the wetland pond in front of us. Shooting straight into the rising sun, I closed down aperture and shortened exposure and made this photograph that, to me, captures the depth of the scene as it moves from the nearby reflections and ripples in the water, across a further line of half-submerged grasses, towards a larger expanse of the pond and then further landscape in fog, to finally rise though slightly glowing back-lit fog toward the sky and the sun.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Coastline, Dusk

February 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dusk light falls across the rugged Big Sur coastline, California

This was a very special bit of end-of-day light. Earlier we had spent about nine hours driving south between Monterey and Piedras Blancas on the Big Sur coast, stopping frequently along the way to make photographs of the beautiful winter light. At the southern end of our drive we spent time photographing the elephant seals at their “nursery” alongside the road – a popular place for observing this amazing creatures, especially at this time of year when the females are giving birth and the beach is crowded with all sorts of elephant seals: bulls, females, new babies.

Finishing here, it was time to turn the car north again and head back the way we had come. We started up the Pacific Coast Highway and very soon began the first climb into the coastal hills. We kept an eye out for potential gold hour photographic subjects. There are, of course, no shortage of them along this spectacular coastline, so we figured that we would find something no matter where we were during the last hour of light even though we had no specific plan yet. Eventually we came to a place where we had stopped earlier on the southward drive and we pulled off. Earlier, closer to the middle of the day, the light had been very bright here, illuminating coastal haze and reflecting off the ocean surface in a way that reminds me of molten metal. But now the light was lower and coming in at a more direct angle, and the atmosphere softened and the colors warmed in the late-day light. At first the light was more intense and I made a few photographs with the scene brilliantly colored. At one point I looked away to photograph something else, and when I looked back the sun had dropped behind a semi-transparent band of clouds near the horizon, significantly muting the brightness and color of the light on the base of the hills, but still leaving a few intense spots higher up.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake and Rocky Peninsula

February 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Smooth water behind a small rocky peninsula reflects clouds above a high Sierra back-country lake, Kings Canyon National Park

We stopped at this small lake along the route to and from our destination during our September 2013 nine-day photographic excursion into the high Sierra back-country of Kings Canyon National Park. Between the trailhead and the 11,000′ basin where we camped for nearly a week, there was a 15+ mile hike, two near-12,000′ passes, and a final climb of well over a thousand feet – too far for our party to travel in a single day. So we ended up making a stop here on the inbound and outbound trips. This is a view a few steps away from our campsite near the outlet stream.

My previous visit to this lake had been several decades earlier, back on my very first solo Sierra Nevada backpacking trip. That is a story worth its own lengthy post at some point, but the most striking point may be that I decided that my very first solo trip would be two weeks long! Given that solo backpacking may strike some as a stretch in several ways, a shorter first trip might seem more sensible – but in retrospect I’m glad that I went out for so long. After a few initial days of dealing with the expected “issues” of solo backcountry travel, I got past those concerns and have rarely felt as connected to the natural world as I did during the second half of that trip. At about that point I stopped at this lake on the walk between Bubbs Creek and Rae Lakes, and I recall the next day’s climb to the Pass, where I sat for a long time, in no hurry to leave or get to any place in particular.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: clouds

Tree and Fog, Dawn

Marsh, Fog, Sunrise

Coastline, Dusk

Lake and Rocky Peninsula

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