Tag Archives: depart

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Cranes Departing

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Cranes Departing
Restless sandhill cranes begin to take flight from wetlands on a winter morning.

Cranes Departing. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Restless sandhill cranes begin to take flight from wetlands on a winter morning.

On a typical winter morning where migratory birds hang out, the cycle of early photography often follows a familiar arc. I arrive in near-darkness and start photographing right away, especially when the birds are very active. Rather than being selective about where and when… I follow the patterns that the birds present. If cranes are taking off from a pond, I go there. If a huge flock of geese is flying out, I photograph that. Despite arriving with a plan, these first moments are often about improvising with the conditions I find.

Then, around sunrise or just afterwards, things may slow down a bit. A bit more strategizing may be effective, and I take stock of the light and atmosphere, the locations of birds before figuring out what I’ll do next and where I’ll do it. On this morning I settled on near a large group of sandhill cranes that was still hanging out in and around a shallow pond. I stopped and waited, expecting that they would soon become restless and begin to fly out, a few birds at a time. And, indeed, that is what happened.

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: Ocean & Coast

Departing The Golden Gate

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Departing The Golden Gate
A ship and barge head out off the Golden Gate and into a Pacific Ocean sunset.

Departing The Golden Gate. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A ship and barge head out off the Golden Gate and into a Pacific Ocean sunset.

Oddly, so many photographs seem to have a different and unexpected context in this time of social distancing and relative confinement to our homes and neighborhoods. Some photographers are moving to photographs of things in or around their homes. (I’ve done a bit of that, too.) Some are reaching back into their image archives to discover photographs that they/we had left behind. And a few are ignoring the guidelines and heading out into the field… or else taking advantage of the loosening of restrictions as the new announcements come out. (I’m hoping for a bit of that soon, too!)

Although the evening of this photograph was eight years ago, I recall it fairly well. I had been photographing somewhere else north of the Golden Gate. I started back home in the late afternoon, pausing in this area before crossing the bridge to San Francisco — the timing was fortuitously right to be here at sunset. It was an evening of beautiful sky, with bands of clouds stretching to the horizon as a ship and barge headed out into the ocean.

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 and Amazon.

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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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Geese, Wetland Pond, Dusk

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Geese, Wetland Pond, Dusk
Geese depart in dusk sky above a San Joaquin Valley wetland pond

Geese, Wetland Pond, Dusk. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 26, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese depart in dusk sky above a San Joaquin Valley wetland pond

This photograph might be just a little bit deceptive. It looks still and quiet — and, in a sense, it is — but this time of evening can be one of great motion and sound, too. These margins of the day at dawn and dusk are when the birds “switch gears,” moving from place to place and activity to activity at the moments of light-dark transition.

But let’s go with the still and quiet notion for now. In fact, after a busy day of traveling around to find and photograph birds and related subjects, a couple of friends and I made a decision to pick this spot and stay put. We often try to second-guess the birds, but they weren’t giving us any obvious or useful hints about their plans for this evening. So we stopped, and we waited. Birds did appear, and we had at least one great assembly and fly-in not far from our location, but eventually the light faded and things slowed down and it became… still and quiet.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Northern California

Departure – Space Shuttle Endeavour Flyover #4

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Space Shuttle Flyover - Moffett Field #4 - The space shuttle Endeavour departs after flying over the NASA/Ames Research Center Moffett Airfield
The space shuttle Endeavour departs after flying over the NASA/Ames Research Center Moffett Airfield

Departure – Space Shuttle Endeavour Flyover #4. NASA/Ames Moffett Field, California. September 21, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The space shuttle Endeavour departs after flying over the NASA/Ames Research Center Moffett Airfield.

Although I continued to shoot as the shuttle flew to the south and out of the San Francisco Bay Area, this is the last shot in the sequence that I’ll share. Although many in the ground hoped (dreamed?) that the shuttle might circle around and make a second pass – there had been rumors of a 200 ft. altitude flight down the runway – it seemed pretty likely that this was the end of the show, though what a show it had been!

In some ways I like this photograph the most, even though it certainly does not reveal as much of the detail of the space vehicle or its transport plane. On the other hand, it seems to me to be a bit more evocative of the end of this era in American space flight – the shuttle flies away in into an almost empty sky.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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