Tag Archives: flock

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

Geese and Evening Sky

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Geese and Evening Sky
Geese and Evening Sky

Geese and Evening Sky. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 1, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A motion blurred photograph of Ross’s geese against the evening sky above California’s San Joaquin Valley

Bird photographers might appreciate the thought I had that it might be appropriate to refer to these “BIF” photographs “blurred in flight” shots. (Among bird photographers, “BIF” is short for “birds in flight.”) I guess I could say that I’m photographing “blinds,” or “blurreds,” – or something. In any case, the experimentation with motion-blur abstractions of flying birds continues.

I photographed these Ross’s geese on New Year’s Day 2013, when I met a great group of friends out in the foggy Central Valley to “chase wild geese” and other migratory birds. I made plenty of the usual sharp photographs of birds, but I’ve felt for some time that those do not always succeed in creating some analog of the ephemeral and transitory character of these critters. Plus, I just sort of like the abstraction of they blurred shapes! Some might say that making blurry photographs is a sign of less the competent photography, but I have to say that this isn’t quite as easy as it might seem. There are a lot of things to consider as I make these images. There is a sort of exposure time sweet spot that blurs the birds sufficiently but which still holds enough of their shape to clearly show their nature. I want abstract shapes, but not so abstract that they no longer clearly suggest birds in flight. Secondly there is the matter of background. Ideally, I think I like to locate the flying birds against fairly plain sky with interesting color. This means tracking the birds as they take flight, close to the ground and with “stuff” behind them, waiting for the moment when they break clear of ground and brush and trees and appear against the right sort of sky, but only for a moment before they move too far away. Finally, as I shoot I watch the constantly evolving relationships of position and shape among the birds of the moving flock, and try to capture moments when they briefly align in interesting ways. This group had stretched into a sort of horizontal cloud of birds when I triggered the shutter.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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

White Pelicans in Flight

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White Pelicans in Flight
White Pelicans in Flight

White Pelicans in Flight. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 1, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of white pelicans crosses the marsh before landing at a San Joaquin Valley wildlife refuge

I believe that I have written in the past about the first time I saw white pelicans in the Central Valley of California. The preface to that story is that I somehow managed to live in this part of California for my whole life without realizing that this valley is filled with an amazing diversity of migratory wildlife every winter, so I’m still “discovering” things that many other take for granted. In any case, I was out in the valley at one of the wildlife refuges on a very foggy morning when it was impossible to see more than a few dozen feet into the murk. I could hear birds, but certainly not see them. I stopped and opened the window of the car to listen, and almost immediately a flock of large birds coasted silently into and out of sight. I was somewhat taken aback and thought for a moment that they “looked like pelicans,” but since I had no idea that such birds would be found here I dismissed the thought. Later that day my friends began to talk about seeing “white pelicans,” and later they showed me where a flock was resting on a small island in a marsh.

This flock arrived late in the day and was again unexpected. We had travelled to the edge a marsh to watch a large flock of Ross’s geese. They were settled in for the afternoon, but we knew that they would begin to fly out as the end of the day approached. This time it was almost completely clear, so it was easy to see this large flock of birds as it silently floated over the edge of the marsh – with almost no flapping of wings, in great contrast to the geese! This time I more quickly figured out what I was seeing and I photographed them as the crossed into the center of the marsh and landed.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | 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: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Geese in Dusk Light

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Geese in Dusk Light
Geese in Dusk Light

Geese in Dusk Light. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 1, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese take off into the dusk sky above marshes, San Joaquin Valley, California

Yes. More geese. I photographed these on my New Year’s Day visit to the San Joaquin Valley with a group of fellow photographers and other folks with an artistic bent. We were out there to join the migratory birds in greeting the first sunrise of 2013. Joining us were many Ross’s geese, a heron or two, some egrets, thousands of geese, one flock of white pelicans, quite a large contingent of cranes, the odd coyote, and many others. We arrived early, photographed all morning, broke for a movie in a nearby town during the middle of the day, and returned to photograph until dark.

It is an interesting though challenging atmosphere on this day, one of those days that isn’t remarkable for extremes of weather or light – thick fog, brilliant sunrise light, etc. Instead, it was sort of gray in the morning with light fog and mostly very subtle colors at dawn. It never fully cleared, but near sunset the sky turned interesting colors of pink and purple and there was a last-minute bit of colorful light, as seen on the birds in this photograph. They had been settled in on a pond, but as the day ended they took off on the evening “fly out” to some other place. The lifted off in groups ranging from a few birds to a few hundred at a time and then mostly headed north or northwest. In this photo there is a close group that has just taken flight but beyond there are several other groups at varying distance that had left moments earlier. The result, as often seems to be the case with geese, is a sort of organized chaos. There are various ways to try to photograph this, but here I was trying to find instantaneous composition in which the various groups of birds aligned themselves, both within their groups and among the separate groups, in interesting ways.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | 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

Ross’s Geese Fill the Sky

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Ross's Geese Fill the Sky - A large flock of Ross's geese fill the dusk sky during the fly-in, San Joaquin Valley, California
A large flock of Ross’s geese fill the dusk sky during the fly-in, San Joaquin Valley, California

Ross’s Geese Fill the Sky. San Joaquin Valley, California. November 25, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large flock of Ross’s geese fill the dusk sky during the fly-in, San Joaquin Valley, California

I photographed these birds on my first visit of the season to the San Joaquin Valley wildlife refuges… on a “wild goose chase” to find the Ross’s geese and other migratory birds out there. I spent the entire day in the general area, starting and ending at this refuge since it seems to be one of the more reliable locations in this area for finding the geese.

When I returned in the early evening it was perhaps an hour before sunset. I did a slow drive around the refuge, looking for geese. I saw a few, but they were mostly a bit too far away and out in the marshes where I would not really be able to photograph them. However, as I continued to look, I began to see the first hints of the evening fly-in across on the far side of the refuge, where groups of geese were flying over and an occasional flock would rise and circle for a minute or two. I headed over that direction to find a very large flock in a pasture area not far from the road. As I watched, they rose up in masse, circled the refuge, and then landed more or less where they had started. This is behavior that I recognize from previous visits, and I knew there was a very good chance that they would do it more than once, so I put a long lens on the camera and got out my tripod. (I might shoot birds handheld during the day, but in the evening when the light dims I prefer to use the tripod.) Sure enough, the flock soon lifted off again, once more circling the wider expanse of the refuge, and filling the dusk sky as they came close to my position.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | 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.