Tag Archives: cranes

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

Two Cranes, Sunrise

February 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Two cranes fly in front the rising sun above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

On New Years Eve 2013 I arrived back in the San Francisco Bay Area from New York after 10:00 PM. 8 hours later (2 hours of unpacking, four hours of sleep, and two hours of driving) I was in the Central Valley, where I met friends to greet the (literal) dawn of 2014 in the company of wild birds. We arrived before sunrise to find light fog drifting about and to hear the sounds of thousands of birds coming from every direction.

We made a few initial photographs before dawn from very close to our meeting location, and then we headed out into this wildlife area to find locations from which the birds (geese, cranes, herons, pelicans, and more) would be more visible. A few minutes later I looked over my left shoulder to see the very first sliver of the sun barely glowing through the layers of fog as cranes and other birds flew across the horizon above the marshland. I quickly found this spot where there was a small tree and where a bit of the further water was visible and I photographed though the sunrise, until the sun rose above the low mist and became to bright to include in the frame. There was a constant flow of birds across the scene – sometimes hundreds of them and sometimes, as in this scene, only a few.

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

Pre-Dawn Light, San Joaquin Valley

December 27, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pre-dawn light and thin fog above marshland in California’s San Joaquin Valley

A foggy fall landscape with birds from California’s San Joaquin Valley, where I often go at tho time of year to photograph migratory birds and the often foggy, cold, and damp places they live. The region is largely agricultural, with lots of cattle being raised nearby – but in the winter the pastures are flooded and a huge variety of birds can be found here, including geese, herons, white pelicans, cranes, ibises, egrets, and more.

As I usually do, I left the San Francisco Bay area very early in the morning, well before dawn, so that I could arrive here before the sun came up. I had already been shooting a while when I stopped next to this pond where a small group of coots (?) were clustered together. I had been looking for some sort of foreground focus around which to build a photograph that included those interesting clouds over in the direction of the Sierra Nevada, clouds that here are just beginning to pick up the dawn light that had yet to reach the valley, were there was still a light blanket of fog.

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

Dawn Sky and Marsh

December 4, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fog-filled dawn sky above a California Central Valley marsh

This is another photograph that sits on the interesting (to me, anyway!) boundary between wildlife/nature and landscape photography. I was here to photograph migratory birds – at least that is what I told anyone who was interested in my goal – but it is often a bit more complex than that. The sources of the complexity range from the question of just what a wildlife photo should/could be, to the relationship between wildlife and landscape in my photography, to the role of opportunism in photography… and the practical matter of what to do when the birds are not where you are!

I began this morning’s photography with some scenes with nearby bird in the foreground water and the sun rising through dense fog in the distance. Then I decided to move along through this area a bit, initially hoping to find cranes and certain other birds along a west-facing section of this wildlife reserve. The birds had their own ideas about where to be and what to do on this morning, and they apparently did not include settling in near or flying directly over my position. But as the early morning fog drifted in and out, it revealed the muted color of the dawn sky so I stopped and made a few more photographs that were (maybe) more about the landscape (and atmosphere and light and, in my mind, sounds) than about the birds themselves. If you look closely, though, you will see a trio of sandhill cranes passing over the marsh and if you look really close you might notice a lot of other smaller birds here and there, too.

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

Calf, Cottonwoods, and Cranes in Flight

November 29, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A calf grazes near a row of autumn cottonwood trees on a foggy morning and as sandhill cranes fly overhead

On this foggy morning I had begun photographing a bit earlier, just at dawn. I gradually worked my way along a gravel country road, stopping frequently – spending more time stopped than driving, actually – to photograph the foggy landscape and migratory birds. At this early hour, the sandhill cranes were my primary targets. At times, when the fog cleared a bit, it was possible to see many of them taking off for distant points as the day began. When the fog thickened, they were heard more than seen, at least until they flew close enough to momentarily appear overhead through the fog.

In a place where the road paralleled a row of cottonwood trees with golden autumn leaves I stopped to wait for the birds to fly overhead. From a distance away I had figured out that many of the cranes were headed this way as they took off, so it seemed that if I stopped and waited here quietly the birds might come to me. And they did – every few minutes another group would fly low over my position. I shared this spot with a herd of cattle, quite a few of whom found me to be the most interesting thing in their early morning world and stared quietly at me. One calf that had passed beneath a fence around the pasture was busy grazing along the lane, so I stopped and photographed it beneath the cottonwood trees as a group of sandhill cranes passed overhead.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: cranes

Two Cranes, Sunrise

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Pre-Dawn Light, San Joaquin Valley

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Dawn Sky and Marsh

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Calf, Cottonwoods, and Cranes in Flight

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

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