Tag Archives: flight

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Pelicans, Blue Sky

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Three Pelicans, Blue Sky
Three Pelicans, Blue Sky

Three Pelicans, Blue Sky. Pacific Coast, California. May 30, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three pelicans fly along the California Pacific coastline under clearing fog and blue sky.

To my surprise, I got to feed my pelican obsession on Memorial Day. As we drove up the coast north of Santa Cruz, where the road frequently follows the edges of coastal bluffs where they drop off into the Pacific, we started to notice larger than usual groups of pelicans heading north and riding the updrafts next to the cliffs. Having watched these birds many times before, I have learned a bit about their “traffic patterns,” so I suspected that if we went a bit further north to where the road comes down at a beach where a creek enters the ocean that we might encounter the same birds as they, too, dropped down to the water’s edge.

My hunch turned out to be right, and a few minutes after we arrived I caught a glimpse of the distant flock coming around the edge of the bluffs to the south and starting to descend toward the beach. They approached over the edge of the surf, but then turned toward the land as they started to climb again to rise above the next bluff to the north – and for a few seconds I was able to track and photograph them against the thinning fog and blue sky.

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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, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Flock of Snow Geese, Winter Sky

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Flock of Snow Geese, Winter Sky
Flock of Snow Geese, Winter Sky

Flock of Snow Geese, Winter Sky. Merced National Wildlife Reserve, California. February 21, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of snow geese against the partly cloudy winter sky above the Merced National Wildlife Reserve, California.

Yes, yet another in the series of photographs of migratory birds above the Merced National Wildlife Reserve made on a winter evening in February. While I missed the “fly in” (though saw it happening a ways north of my position) I did watch hundreds and hundreds of birds of all types pass overhead. Every time I would start to wonder “where are the birds?” or worry about whether I would miss the fly in, another flock would appear and traverse the sky above me.

It was my good fortune – certainly little careful planning was involved! – to be out here during a brief evening window of interesting light and sky as a storm cleared. In fact, as I drove towards the Refuge I at first thought that some of the larger clouds to the west might block the evening light or even bring a bit of rain. However, as sunset approached the clouds continued to thin and I ended up with a beautiful sky full of broken clouds that were gently illuminated as the day ended.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Email
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, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Silhouettes, Flock of White Faced Ibises

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Silhouettes, Flock of White Faced Ibises
Silhouettes, Flock of White Faced Ibises

Silhouettes, Flock of White Faced Ibises. Merced National Wildlife Refuge, California. February 21, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of white-faced ibises is silhouetted against evening blue sky and clouds above the Merced National Wildlife Refuge.

On this winter evening I visited, for the first time, the Merced National Wildlife Reserve on a detour I took while returning home from a few days photographing in Death Valley. This winter I have (finally!) started to become aware of the amazing annual influx of migratory birds in California’s Central Valley and I managed to get out there a couple of times to view and photograph the magnificent flocks of birds. Being new at this, I have been working at figuring out just how to photograph this subject, and I’ve come up with a few approaches that seem to work, though I have a lot to learn. In this case, I had figured out that if I just picked a spot and waited that eventually flocks would fly over my position, and that I would have a chance of photographing them against the evening sky and clouds. Being almost completely ignorant when it comes to identifying these birds – but no less impressed with them because of this – I had virtually no idea what I was photographing in the moment when I tracked the birds and made the exposures. In fact, it wasn’t until later that I noticed the wonderful curved bills of these birds and then found out from my friend Tom Clifton (who does know how to identify these critters) what they were.

As the birds approach I work to synchronize my camera motion with the speed and direction of their flight. I try to keep them in the frame, and preferably in the frame in a way that might create an interesting composition. And while I do that I try to keep some attention on the background against which they fly and some small remaining bit of my attention on the technical matter of keeping at least one of them under an autofocus point in the camera’s viewfinder. As a flock approaches, things seem to start out fairly slowly and it may seem like the birds are taking a long time to arrive. But as they get closer – especially when shooting with a 400mm focal length and double-especially when they are as close as this flock – the action speeds up, and as they pass overhead it is all I can do to keep them centered in the viewfinder as I let the camera’s burst mode do its job at the right moment.

There are things about the experience that the camera cannot capture. The cold and damp of a Central Valley winter evening might be evoked by the right sort of landscape photograph, but not by a photograph like this one – yet this is an integral part of the experience. Even more than that, the sound of these birds, alone or in huge groups, sticks in my mind as much or more than the visual image. If you have been there and heard it, perhaps a photograph may cause you to recall it.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Email
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, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Two Sandhill Cranes, Winter Sky

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Two Sandhill Cranes, Winter Sky
Two Sandhill Cranes, Winter Sky

Two Sandhill Cranes, Winter Sky. Merced National Wildlife Reserve, California. February 21, 2011.© Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of two sandhill cranes taking to the air against a cloud-filled winter sky above the Merced National Wildlife Reserve.

This is another photograph from my detour to the Merced National Wildlife Reserve as I returned from my February trip to Death Valley. I arrived late in the day as a winter storm was just beginning to clear, and at times the migratory birds flew in front of a cloud-filled sky that ranged from dark and ominous to being colorfully lit by sunset light.

I chose to render this photograph in black and white for several reasons. First, to be quite honest, I wasn’t very fond of the particular coloration of the clouds behind these birds! However, in black and white the shapes and glowing quality of the sky seem to work better in this case. And from this distance the sandhill cranes’ coloration is subtle enough that I don’t feel that much is lost by going to monochrome.

I think I have mentioned earlier that when I photograph birds like these in flight I try to keep my eye not only on the birds but also on the background. I don’t have any control at all over what appears behind them, but I do have control over when I press the shutter – and as they pass in front of clouds and other background elements I try to time shots to place the birds in interesting compositions relative to these subjects. Every so often I like to think that I actually succeed! :-)

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Email
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.