Tag Archives: evening

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

Wetlands Tree, Evening

January 16, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A last beam of evening light illuminates a lone tree in San Joaquin Valley wetlands

My recollection of this early winter, late December day in the San Joaquin Valley is that it was mostly a foggy and gray day, with direct light being quite rare. I’m usually fine with that, since the fog is certainly a strong element in the character of the place at this time of the year and because I like photographing in cloudy, foggy, and misty conditions. (Gray is another story… ;-) On a day like this, while I’m happy to see some glow through the clouds and fog, I’m also often just fine with conditions that some might regard as boring.

Sometimes, even on a gray day, there are surprises. We had photographed all morning, taken a brief break away from here to grab some lunch, and then returned to photograph in the middle afternoon and on into the evening. For the most part, the combination of some fog and high clouds kept things fairly “atmospheric” for the rest of the day. But not long before sunset there was one of these “surprises.” To be honest, when I am watching the conditions carefully and predicting where they might lead, there are less likely to be literal surprises. Perhaps they are better described as positive evolutions of potential conditions. In this case, even though it was cloudy and gray, I had my eyes on the possibility that the sun might briefly shine through a gap along the horizon just before sunset. And that is exactly what happened! For a brief span of a few minutes the light gradually warmed and intensified, starting almost imperceptibly but soon becoming quite obvious. As this happened I move quickly to this nearby spot where I had photographed this tree many times before and therefore knew that it could be my central subject, standing out in the warm light against the flat valley marshes and flatland extending into the distance.

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

Geesescape, Evening

January 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Large flock of geese, airborne and on the ground, during the evening fly-in

On New Year’s Day, a small group of photographers and friends met at a San Joaquin Valley wetlands location, to welcome the first dawn of the new year and to spend a day photographing birds and the misty Central Valley winter landscape. If nothing else, the necessity of getting up at 4:00 AM on New Year’s morning tends to ensure that we keep the partying to a minimum the night before!

The day began with photography in tule fog, which soon cleared enough to allow the sunshine in. We shot all morning and then took a break for lunch in a nearby town before returning for the late-afternoon and evening light. You never know for sure what the geese will do. They might not show up, they might be there in small numbers, they might land in an inaccessible area… or you might be treated to the sights and sounds of many thousands of them in close proximity. We weren’t sure how this evening would turn out — earlier the geese had played a bit of a game of hide and seek with us. But as the evening wore on it became more apparent that there were a lot of geese about and that they were flying in to a large pasture area that was quite accessible. The time of the evening fly-in is a time of a lot of action. Small flocks join those already on the ground, and there is an almost constant coming and going of birds. A huge flock may be on the ground, only to be spooked by something and suddenly and noisily take to the air. Or them might begin to move, a few at a time, from one location to another, often flying very low. At the time of this photograph, many geese decided to land very close to our location, and at times it was hard to pick out a

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

Geese, Tree, Dusk

January 6, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ross’s geese fly low past a tree at dusk, San Joaquin Valley

A small group of photographer friends spent (for the third year in a row) New Year’s Day in California’s San Joaquin Valley, greeting the dawn of 2015 by photographing it! Dawn wasn’t the only attraction — we are also drawn here by the landscape, the incredible wildlife (geese, cranes, egrets, herons, ibises, pelicans, and much more), and the beautiful winter light in this part of California. We began our day in the pre-dawn soft and foggy light and ended it in post-dust light when it finally became to dark to photograph.

For me this simple photograph of a field, a tree, and some geese evokes many of the things that draw me back to this landscape every winter. Even on a day when the tule fog thins, the atmosphere rarely seems to fully clear, and the dusk light is soft and mysterious and full of colors. And at this hour the geese seem to be settling in for the evening, often collecting in large groups in fields of ponds. As they do, they often seem to fly low between groups, flowing across the still landscape and between trees like the wind itself or like the flow of water.

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

Evening Sky, San Joaquin Valley

January 2, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

In late December, as winter began, we spent a day photographing in our favorite area of the San Joaquin Valley, where we shoot migratory birds and the austere and often atmospheric landscape of the Central Valley. The primary excise for going there at this time of year is virtually always the birds: geese, ibises, sandhill cranes, herons, egrets, white pelicans, and many more. For most of the day this was our primary subject, starting in the thick early morning fog and continuing as it began to lift, and then later when we returned after lunch to find a bit more light getting through.

Very late in the day the bird action diminished — many of the geese were in nearby areas that are inaccessible to us, and other birds were either quieter or hidden in more distant locations. It seemed like the bird photography was winding down for the day. (Though there was a special surprise a bit later on.) At about this time, what had been a thick deck of fog and clouds began to break up to the west, and just before sunset the clouds thinned enough to let in some direct soft light which glowed luminously on the clouds and in the hazy atmosphere. Oh, about that surprise… A bit later it really seemed like the birds were unusually quiet and we pretty much stopped photographing them as the light began to fade. (Often we continue shooting until it is simply too dark to focus and make exposures.) The members of our group, who had been spread over several miles of this particular refuge, collected together near the exit to say goodbye… as cranes arrived, followed moments later by a deep dusk fly-in by thousands of geese who landed in near darkness on the pond next to where we were standing and watching.

Soft evening clouds above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: evening

Wetlands Tree, Evening

Geesescape, Evening

Geese, Tree, Dusk

Evening Sky, San Joaquin Valley

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