Tag Archives: flight

Eagle Among Trees

August 31, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A bald eagle flies through heavy vegetation

I was up in the Sacramento Valley last winter, visiting several wildlife refuges, when I had the opportunity to photograph several bald eagles. It was not uncommon to find them perched alone in the high branches of tall trees, from which they can presumable observe their surroundings and watch for prey. If I waited long enough, eventually the bird would take flight, giving me a few seconds to try to track the early while firing off a quick series of exposures.

This bird made it doubly tricky. Instead of heading for an open area, it looped back right in among the trees. It is perhaps even a bit difficult to find the eagle through that jumble of branches! I’ll be honest — I’m also sharing their photograph as an example of how amazing modern autofocus systems can be, at least with a bit of practice. The challenges here are quite something — the eagle is flying at a good rate and somehow the camera and I had to keep focus on it despite all of the nearer and farther interference.

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: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

White-Fronted Geese, Dawn Clouds

August 20, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of white-fronted geese silhouetted against dawn clouds above the Sacramento Valley.

This is another photograph from the early morning of my one-day visit to wildlife refuges in the Sacramento Valley. Arriving at such a place for the first time a bit before sunrise it is a bit difficult to know what to look for or where to find it. I did quickly spot some birds and at least there was a spectacular dawn sky!

Soon groups of geese began flying above me as they moved towards a nearby pond. I watched and waited and attempted to time photographs for when the birds passed in front of interesting background elements. It is hard to tell, since they are silhouetted against the brighter sky, but this is a group of white-fronted geese.

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: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Sandhill Cranes in Morning Flight

August 14, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of sandhill cranes passes overhead, San Joaquin Valley, California

Way back in college, as a music major oh so many years ago, I was lucky to be in a special program that fulfilled my science requirements in a non-traditional manner. Rather than enrolling in the usual undergraduate science courses, we spent part of a year in a series of small group seminars on a range of subject. (As a student with an interest in science, especially biology, I was a bit skeptical at first but thrilled in the end.) One portion on ecology lasted weeks, and reading Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac was a main component. This was perhaps the first such book I read. (I later read pretty much all of Muir and quite a lot of other such writers.)

One thing I remember from that book — and I hope I have this right — was something about sandhill cranes. I had no idea what they were… until many years later when I began photographing the migratory birds of California’s Central Valley. Sometimes ungainly on the ground, they have a refined and elegant way of flying, often flat and level without a lot of goose-like flapping. They are hesitant to fly right over a person with a camera, preferring to take a detour, but this group came straight at me.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Bald Eagle in Flight

August 13, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A bald eagle flies past above the Sacramento Valley

This past winter was my initiation into photograph bald eagles. Generally speaking, photographing birds is relatively new passion for me, something I’ve now been doing seriously for only few seasons. It began with an accidental encounter with a friend who is a bird watcher of the classic sort — we ran into one another in a line at a coffee stand and she happened to mention a place she visits and for almost no particular reason I decided to go there a few days later. Despite living in California for decades I did not know (I’m now somewhat embarrassed to admit) about the astounding presences of huge numbers of migratory birds in the state every winter. I was hooked, and this has become a focus for my photography every season.

While photographing my favorite geese, herons, cranes, ibises, and so forth, my photography friends would often say things about eagles. When a flock of geese took off all at once, they might say, “an eagle must have scared them.” To be honest, I never saw the eagles, with exception of a few far off glimpses of birds that didn’t look quite like hawks. Then, this past winter, I headed further north, photographing in the Sacramento Valley and all the way up into southern Oregon. In these places I began to encounter bald eagles on a regular basis and I began to learn how to photograph them, a process that continues.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: flight

Eagle Among Trees

White-Fronted Geese, Dawn Clouds

Sandhill Cranes in Morning Flight

Bald Eagle in Flight

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