Tag Archives: flight

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Into Evening Light

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Into Evening Light
A small group of geese takes flight in evening light

Into Evening Light. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small group of geese takes flight in evening light

There are many ways to photograph birds: sharp images of birds filling the frame that reveal the details of color and shape and feathers, landscape photographs that show them in the worlds they inhabit, shots that capture them social groups ranging form groups of a few individuals up to flocks of many thousands, captures of them engaging in particular behaviors, and much more. (I’m occasionally amused by discussions of “the way” to photograph birds of or “the right” equipment to do this.)

This flock of geese suddenly took to the air as the very last golden hour light shone across this hazy landscape, and the birds were partially illuminated by the colors of the warm sunset light, but against the less vibrant colors of the local surroundings. A sharp-edged photograph was a possibility, but here I think the abstracting blur of camera motion and fast-flying birds may better suggest the feeling of the scene.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

One Goose From The Flock

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One Goose From The Flock
A goose takes flight along with the rest of the flock

One Goose From The Flock. San © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A goose takes flight along with the rest of the flock

Some birds are most often photographed as individuals, usually because that is how they live. Examples include egrets, eagles, hawks, and many other hunting birds. To simplify a bit, a major challenge is to get close enough (physically and/or with a big lens) so that an individual is large enough in the frame to produce a photograph and so that distinguishing characteristics of the bird (along with some aspect of its environment) are visible. I rarely do that with geese snow geese, Ross’s geese, and other wild geese. These are, by their nature, birds that live in communities. I most often see and photograph them in groups which may range in size from a few individuals up to many thousands.

Some of the other members of the flock are partially visible in this photograph, so the image isn’t entirely of a lone bird. However, because the others are shown only in part and out of focus, my attention here is drawn to the largest, central bird with wings outstretched as it ascends. I made the photograph on a day when I found myself unusually close to a large flock for a good amount of time — they were spread across a dirt access road I was using. Eventually, as always happens with geese, some of the birds began to get ideas about going elsewhere, and this time I was very close to their lift-off.

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

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

Geese and Sky

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Geese and Sky
Two geese take flight into winter sky

Geese and Sky. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two geese take flight into winter sky

There is something primal about being among these migratory birds, at least if you stop to ponder. They come to my part of the world every winter, settling in to wetland areas in California. But the opposite end of their remarkable migration is along the arctic shorelines of northern Canada, an annual migration that is astonishing to imagine. (Wikipedia tells me that the majority of the world’s Ross’s geese nest in the arctic tundra of the Queen Maud Gulf Migratory Bird Sanctuary.) To spend time with them is to become open to a world that is not the human world, one in which we are temporary visitors and in which they are the permanent residents.

Getting close to such birds requires a lot of patience and persistence. The first problem is managing to be in the places they frequent when they are actually there, and these could be almost anywhere. I’ve gone to such places only to find no geese or, perhaps more frustrating, spot a cloud of thousands of geese in the air a mile or more in the distance and at a location I can’t go to. Once you do find them, you can only get so close and then you must wait for them to come to you — either as the flock moves across the land or as they fly. Sometimes, with luck and a bit of prediction, you find yourself quite close, at which point you move slowly and quietly and hope to sustain the experience. On this afternoon a flock settled onto a levee across which my route travelled. I moved slowly into a close position and then waited, occasionally moving just a bit closer if it seemed that the flock wasn’t alerted by my presence. I made many photographs of them on the ground, and then — as always happens — they began to depart, suddenly lifting into the air in groups.

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

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

Geese Take Flight

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Geese Take Flight
Ross’s geese take flight into Central California winter sky

Geese Take Flight. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ross’s geese take flight into California winter sky

I have learned a lot from photographing birds — a lot about my own interests, a lot about the mechanics of photography, a lot about developing instincts, a lot about the birds, and a lot about what I/we can and cannot control in the making of photographs. The relative contributions of things including skill, persistence, equipment, vision, knowledge, and luck is a subject of much interest and something that I’m still working out. Clearly a photograph of a goose, filling the frame as it rises abruptly into the sky, does require some skill and some equipment. (I think vision is important, too, though it is hard to have a conscious vision in the fractions of a second during which such things occur.) Just as clearly, there are many things in such a photograph that the photographer cannot control, and plain old luck is very much an important elements. Over all of this is the need to be there a lot, since skill and vision and opportunity are all increased by practice.

I photograph this subject fairly often, traveling to areas where such subjects are found every winter. Sometimes nothing much happens — the light is poor, the birds are somewhere else, I’m looking in the wrong direction. But the more I’m in the field the more likely that I’ll encounter a situation that is special and the more likely I’ll be ready to do something useful with it. This was one of those lucky moments. In a place where the birds are all too often at a distance, I found them settled in nearby. I remained in my vehicle, with the camera on my lap, as I crept up very, very slowly. (At times I might have moved only a few inches in a minute.) Any time I sensed the birds going on alert I simply paused and waited. Eventually I was closer to them than I have ever gotten before in the wild, and they took less and less apparent notice of my presence. As always happens, eventually the flock took off, mere feet from my position, and I was able to make a few quick photographs of the event from a very close perspective.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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