Tag Archives: early

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

Geese, Morning Clouds

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Geese, Morning Clouds
Early morning clouds and migratory geese above California’s Central Valley.

Geese, Morning Clouds. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Early morning clouds and migratory geese above California’s Central Valley.

The range of sky colors and the nature of their transitions never cease to amaze me. The previous photograph that I shared featured an intense, blood-red, pre-sunrise sky that is almost too saturated to be believable. This photograph comes from the same morning, only minutes later, and with the camera pointed in a different direction. Some of the reddish tones are still present here, but they are far more muted and balanced by the blue (and resultant purple) shades. Conveniently, a long line of geese flew across the scene at just the right moment.

This morning’s light continued to transition after I made this photograph. As I recall, when we arrived before sunrise and saw the wildly colorful sky, we quickly texted friends in the area to alert them. A few minutes later, at about the time I made this photograph, I started to feel badly that they were not going to see that earlier light. And by the time that the last of them got there… it had turned into a rather gray morning, under the influence of haze and incoming clouds.

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

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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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

Pond, Fog, and Sun

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Early morning sun muted by tule fog, illuminates a late-autumn pond.

Pond, Fog, and Sun. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Early morning sun muted by tule fog, illuminates a late-autumn pond.

Continuing with the fog theme, here is another photograph from this week’s visit to the California Central Valley. Even though I scheduled this visit because I knew there was a good chance of thick fog, I was a bit surprised by how much of it I encountered. I ran into serious fog before leaving Santa Clara County to cross to the Great Valley, and it was a more or less constant companion on my two-hour drive. When I arrived at my destination before sunrise the fog was extremely thick, and there was hardly enough light for photography at first.

On these days the fog determines what the landscape looks like: what is the condition of the light? How transitory are the conditions? How far can we see? Is the fog dim and gray or does light in the sky above add color and make it luminous. While it started out on the dim and gray side on this morning, the thick fog wasn’t deep enough to block the light from the rising 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.

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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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Creosote, Early Evening Light

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Creosote, Early Evening Light
Soft evening light on creosote growing in windblown unes at Death Valley National Park.

Creosote, Early Evening Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on creosote growing in windblown unes at Death Valley National Park.

Desert light (like that in quite a few other places) can go through a remarkable transformation late its the day, a transformation that mirrors the one taking place in the morning. In the middle of the day, the light is often quite intense, rather bluish (from that gigantic light panel we call the “sky), and the landscape is full of harsh contrasts between highlights and shadows. At some point in the very late afternoon, assuming a cooperative surrounding landscape and the right weather conditions, the light imperceptibly begins to soften and warm in color. If you were not attuned to this you might not notice at first, but eventually it becomes obvious as the process accelerates and intensifies, producing a sort of “crescendo of light” that often peaks just before it ends.

I made this photograph somewhere in the middle of that cycle — far enough along that the color has definitely warmed, but not so late that the full sunset redness has arrived. At this point the light changes rapidly, and features that I had not noticed suddenly become interesting. I often find myself working quite quickly at this point — perhaps in contrast to how some people imagine landscape photography works. In these situations I often like to work with zoom lenses with long focal lengths. This allows me to quickly respond to things I see at varying distances, to isolate smaller sections of the landscape, and to quickly try out different compositional ideas.

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 | 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.