Tag Archives: fall

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Marshland Trees, Autumn Haze

December 12, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Marshland trees with fall foliage on a hazy San Joaquin day.

This was quite a day — San Francisco Bay Area to the San Joaquin Valley to the Sierra foothills and back, sunrise alone in tule fog among the birds to the crowded (and fun!) reception for the “AVIAN — Birds in a Changing World” exhibit in Oakhurst, and lots of driving!

The day began with my pre-dawn arrival in the San Joaquin Valley wetlands, where tule fog was forming as the first light appeared. Although it was a weekend morning, there was almost no one else out there besides me and a few thousand birds. I saw a giant flight of what I believe were trim-color blackbirds in the distance — I’ve never seen so many at one before — and then an impressive dawn fly-out of sandhill cranes. A bit later in the morning, once the early morning bird action had subsided, I spent a bit of time photographing the landscape. This beautiful tree, with late-season autumn color, is striking in its quiet presence in this mostly flat landscape of ponds and grasslands and, of course, birds.

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: Wildlife

Geese, Tule Fog, Autumn Trees

December 6, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Migratory snow geese and Ross’s geese in a pond on a foggy San Joaquin Valley morning

Since it was December 1, it seemed like time to start my annual series of visits to California’s Great Central Valley to photograph migratory birds and the landscape of the place. (Actually, I had made one preliminary and very quick visit about a month earlier, but too early for the birds shown in this photograph.) There is a ritual about these visits which, for me, are typically one-day affairs that start very early and end rather late, with a fair amount of driving involved. Up well before dawn, I drive a couple of hours in darkness and often fog, arriving perhaps a half hour before dawn to the stirring sound of many thousands of birds, already awake at morning twilight. I photograph intensively for at least a few hours before taking, at last on most days, a midday break. By mid-afternoon I’m back at work again, photographing through the peak of the visual crescendo just before sunset and then continuing for perhaps another half hour or so until the light is gone. I pack, get into my vehicle, and retrace my two-hour drive back home. (At least the shorter daylight hours of this season allow me to get up a little bit “later” — if you consider 3:45 or 4:00 AM later — and return home in time for a late dinner.)

On this first day of December it was incredibly foggy when I arrived — so much so that it was really hard to make photographs. I usually enjoy photographing in the fog, but this was so thick that almost no sunrise light managed to color the gloom. But before long the light began to come through the fog and eventually I found a moderately large group of white geese settled in on a pond. Among them I saw Ross’s and snow geese, and beyond them there were trees with fall foliage.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

River of Aspens

November 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A grove of colorful autumn aspen trees traces the path of a Sierra Nevada gully

Perhaps a more appropriate title could be “Another River of Aspens” — such features are ubiquitous in the Sierra and other locations, where aspens frequently are found along stream beds and can spread out as water might when they reach the lower and flatter elevations. As a result, the “streams” of trees can seem to flow in almost that same way that water might. This is a particularly obvious example, as the trees meander along the descending gully, spread out into a fan at its base, and then arrive at the shoreline of a lake. (The pattern also is similar to that of alluvial fans and even some forms seen below glaciers.)

We were at this location rather early on a fall morning. It is a place that is popular — a bit too popular these days — with photographers and others, but hard to resist if one is nearby for other purposes. We arrived before dawn and spent some time photographing in the cold, pre-sunrise light before we packed up and headed off to those “other purposes” nearby. This very early light is different from what we experience a bit later in the day. It can be quite blue in quality — often so much so that compensation is required during post processing — but the soft light can produce a more subtle effect with light getting into the shadows and revealing some of their details.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Before Sunrise

November 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large grove of eastern Sierra fall aspen trees in pre-sunrise light

After spending so many years exploring the Sierra, and for the past 15 or so expanding my explorations to include some of the high east side locations mostly accessible by vehicle, there are little spots all over the range that have become personal favorites — places I return to regularly whenever I get a chance. You might think that they would get “old” after a while, being so familiar. Instead, I find that there is always something new to discover about them, and I enjoy the sense of spending time with old landscape friends!

This is one of those places. In this case, I have to drive to get to it, but it is still typically a nicely lonely place, and I often have it entirely to myself at dawn. A person or two might pass by, but that’s about it. (Though, funny story, this time as I took in the view a small vehicle carrying four deer hunters passed by. We waved and they kept going. Later, as I descended from this spot, heading in the direction from which they had come, I passed through a herd of a dozen deer right on the road.) I usually go before dawn and watch the first light strike the highest peaks and work its way down into the valleys. I made this photograph before the direct sunlight had arrived.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: fall

Marshland Trees, Autumn Haze

Geese, Tule Fog, Autumn Trees

River of Aspens

Aspens, Before Sunrise

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