Tag Archives: field

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

Ross’s Geese, Evening

February 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ross’s geese on a winter evening in the San Joaquin Valley

The first day of 2015, spent in the San Joaquin with friends and fellow photographers, began in tule fog. However, the fog cleared earlier than it sometimes does, and most of the day ended up sunny, though with the typical Central Valley haze in the air. We photographed through the morning, took a long break for lunch, and then returned to photograph here again in the afternoon.

A few weeks earlier there had been almost no geese around, but a big group of them showed up to join our New Year’s Day party, and in the evening we found them settling in on pasture land. Here the group stretches of into the distance, a row of big trees is on the horizon, a few birds in the air, and the day is almost over.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Corn Field, Fog

January 27, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The winter remains of a corn field in San Joaquin Valley

I used to imagine that wildlife refuges, those areas that are intended to provide habitat for wild critters, were something like parks of wilderness. Since I’ve been photographing winter birds in California I have learned that this presumption is usually dead wrong. There are a few such places that are left in their natural state, but many of them are distinctly non-natural locations. (Many are also there because hunters want to ensure that birds are there for them.) Quite a few of these places are agricultural, including some that I often visit.

I’ve seen some where the flooded winter fields were rice fields. This one is a corn field during much of the year and part of a very interesting and busy wildlife refuge in the winter. As I was there photographing birds recently, I looked across a field of dead corn plants fading into the distant fog and something about this desolate scene seemed worth a photograph, and I like the rather different mood that it evokes for me.

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

Winter Geese, San Joaquin Valley Farm

January 9, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Flock of migratory winter geese circling above a San Joaquin Valley farm

Every winter California’s Great Central Valley becomes the home of astounding collections of migratory birds. (I’m still a bit surprised that folks from the state will travel great distances to other states to photograph some of the very same birds, when they are at their backdoor!) Historically the Central Valley (consisting of the Sacramento Valley to the north and the San Joaquin Valley to the south) supported even larger populations of birds, but as the area was developed for agriculture the majority of the wetlands were lost. However, places were set aside, and in many areas the agriculture areas become the homes of the birds in the winter.

We visited one of these protected areas late December, an area where I frequently photograph throughout the bird season. The photography in this area was good, but it still seemed like there were not as many (mostly) Ross’s geese as we would expect. We figured out why — huge numbers of them were settling in just outside the area where we usually find them, and across a nearby road on farmland. Here the flock of thousands of geese takes to the air above one of these Central Valley farms on this foggy morning.

Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Alpine Meadow, Artist Point

December 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Alpine meadow and mountains, Artist Point, North Cascades

Back in 2010 my brother Richard, who is a long-time resident of the Pacific Northwest, treated me to a trip up into the Cascades at Artist Point. We got lucky and had a day of largely clear skies, with the only clouds being the beautiful sort that catch the sun and allow beams of light to sweep across the landscape — not the other kind of Pacific Northwest clouds that sock things in and drizzle all day!

As a long time Sierra guy, I’m always amazed at how different things are in the Cascades and other Pacific Northwest mountains. The Sierra are, of course, mostly dry mountains. Yes, we get snow in the winter, runoff in the spring, and a few thunderstorms in the summer, but backpacking is mostly a dry weather thing and we are used to the sound of dry sand and rock beneath our boots. But here in the Cascades there are glaciers and ice caps, and the lush green plants grow right up to the snow line. On this visit we had only enough time to spend an afternoon wandering slowly around the Artist Point area, but I came back with a set of photographs that I like a great deal.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: field

Ross’s Geese, Evening

Corn Field, Fog

Winter Geese, San Joaquin Valley Farm

Alpine Meadow, Artist Point

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