Tag Archives: clouds

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

New Year’s Morning

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New Year's Morning
Early morning clouds and flocks of geese fill the sky above the California Central Valley on New Year’s Day morning, 2023.

New Year’s Morning. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Early morning clouds and flocks of geese fill the sky above the California Central Valley on New Year’s Day morning, 2023.

We spent New Year’s Day in a wild place with friends, sharing food and stories, and photographing birds and the landscape in which they live. I can’t think of a better way to greet a new year, which is why we’ve been doing it for perhaps a decade now. The specific location doesn’t matter all that much — it could be almost anywhere — but the tradition definitely does matter!

Photographically-speaking, the day was sometimes challenging. The weather was transitory, between one gigantic departing storm and another storm that would arrive the next day. While we had a lot of wind (not great for bird photography!) and clouds, there were moments of beautiful light. I made this photograph not long after sunrise, when the light on the high clouds was still a bit colorful and thousands of geese filled the sky.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetlands Pond, Winter Sky

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Wetlands Pond, Winter Sky
Winter dawn clouds reflected in a California Central Valley wetlands pond.

Wetlands Pond, Winter Sky. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Winter dawn clouds reflected in a California Central Valley wetlands pond.

We were not sure quite what we would find this morning. We had been photographing in this area over the past couple of day, mostly in less-than-spectacular conditions. The first day was marked by the passage of an exceptional weather system, and the second was “pleasant” but less than striking. Hey, it happens! We know that another from was due in as we headed out before dawn, so we were excited to see colorful sky develop as the first light appeared.

Arriving at our destination, the pre-dawn sky was perhaps the most intensely red that I’ve seen in this location. I made a few photographs of that, but it was actually a bit difficult to see how to make a useful photograph of it. (Stay tuned, though…) A bit later, just as the sun was about to break the line of the horizon, the sky overhead had lost the most intense color, thus providing a bit more color variation as I photographed across a Central Valley wetlands pond.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Five Brown Peilicans

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Five Brown Peilicans
Five brown pelicans skim along just above the surf along the California coast on a winter day.

Five Brown Peilicans. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Five brown pelicans skim along just above the surf along the California coast on a winter day.

Photographing along this section of California’s coast presents a lot of decisions. Should I focus on winter surf, the haze and clouds, the land-meets-sea landscape, beaches, surfers and beachcombers, wildlife? I usually start out with one or two of these in mind — it was the atmosphere and the waves on this visit — but soon get distracted by the others.

The coastal pelicans are usually spotted gliding along just offshore, heading north or south along the coast. (They do land, but it is less common to find them settled on the ground.) They often fly extremely close to the water — so close that it seems that they are almost touching it as they follow the counters of the rising and falling surf.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Wave, Horizon, and Clouds

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Wave, Horizon, and Clouds
A wave close to shore, the distant horizoon, and clouds from an approaching Pacific storm.

Wave, Horizon, and Clouds. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A wave close to shore, the distant horizoon, and clouds from an approaching Pacific storm.

This peaceful looking scene may perhaps mislead just a bit — but not completely. I stood along the edge of a beach north of Santa Cruz to make this photograph, on a hazy, cloudy day when a Pacific weather from approached and the surf rose. I intentionally left out anything that would give a sense of scale here, so you are free to regard the height of the wave subjectively.

After decades of living close enough to the Pacific Coast to visit the shoreline regularly, sometimes I think that I may start to take it for granted. It happens. But inevitably I’ll look out toward that far horizon — whether from a high overlook or down near the water — and again ponder the immensity of the sea and the timelessness of these scenes. All of which seems like a fine thing to consider as we complete yet another loop around the sun.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.