A redwing blackbird pauses atop a fence post in front of central California oak/grassland, Calero County Park.
Photographed on the same morning as another recent shot of this same type of bird, the bright red upper wings of this redwind blackbird provide a striking contrast to its jet black body. This bird was on a fence surrounding an old manmade pond at the Calero County Park south of San Jose, California – a place that I can drive to in little more than 15 minutes, and where I have hiked extensively for a number of years. These birds often flock around this small lake on winter and early spring mornings. Here it was still overcast, though the low fog from earlier in the morning was now dispersing.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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
A redwing blackbird rests on a branch on a foggy early spring morning at Calero County Park, California.
Although this photograph was made in April, it evokes the Central and Northern California winter for me. This is a time when tule fogs are common – the inland valley fogs, which are different from the coastal fog of warmer months – and when the number of birds and other wildlife seems to increase, perhaps because fewer people are out and about than in the summer.
This photograph was made at a small pond that is not too far from where I live. It is near the start of a trail that I have hiked many times, a trail that eventually rises through grass and oak covered hills to low ridges that catch the morning sun. The small ponds is only perhaps five minutes from the start of this trail, and it is a place where I can often find local and not-so-local wildlife if I arrive early and approach quietly.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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
A large boulder against the base of lodgepole pines at sunset in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.
After finishing up an earlier evening shoot in a place that might be described as a mosquito-infested hell, but a very beautiful one, I left that location with as much haste as I could muster. Having done so, I found myself with a bit of extra time just as the final light of the day approached. Since I wasn’t too far away, I headed towards Tuolumne Meadows, figuring that I might just catch the last light that slants across the length of the meadow right below sunset.
When I arrived there I had very little time to carefully consider where and what I might shoot since the light was within minutes of disappearing for the day. So as I drove along the road through past the meadow, I kept my eyes open for any trees or boulders that might be catching this final light. As luck would have it, as I passed the RV holding tank dumping station – pretty rustic, no? – I saw this combination of lodgepole pine and boulders against the background of the sunlit trees across the meadow on the other side of the river and the ascending slopes beyond. I quickly pulled over, got out the tripod and camera, and made a few exposures here as the last light left the tree.
A small sunlit meadow filled with shooting star flowers meets the edge of a dense lodgepole pine forest, Yosemite National Park.
For some reason many of the photographs I made on my recent trip to the Yosemite high country seemed to focus on the trees and the forests, and perhaps a bit less on the rocky peaks and prominences of the park. This photograph was made in a place that is not “special” in the ways that specialness is often measured in this park. As far as I know, it has no name, though it is not too far from Olmsted Point. It is simply a little area like so many others in this part of the Sierra, but one that I feel a connection to now that I have revisited it on several occasions and gradually pushed out the boundaries of my familiarity with it.
I first stopped near this spot along Tioga Pass Road several autumns ago on an evening when fog blanketed the nearby ridges. Very close to this spot there was a break in the fog, and I could see the sunset light and its effect on the fog clouds, so I pulled over and made some photographs. A year or so later, now having an actual awareness that there was a pull-out at this spot in the road, I stopped again on a summer morning for no particular reason and saw that a faint trail headed off into the lodgepole forest that was mixed with glacial boulders. I walked a short distance out on this path and found a small pond that I photographed, and I filed the location away as one to investigate again later.
On this July’s visit, I put this spot on my agenda and made a plan to visit it early on morning after photographing first light on a nearby ridge. Because there is no single attention-grabbing icon at this spot, rather than leaving my car with a target in mind I wandered slowly into this forest and simply kept my eyes open. (And I tried not to think about the mosquitos that are always thick in the lodgepole forest at this time of year!) First I stopped at the pond that I had previously photographed; then I picked up that trail and followed it through the forest, past other ponds, and across some glaciated granite near the edge of this small meadow filled with shooting star flowers, with the light coming through the forest beyond.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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