Tag Archives: fly

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Brown Pelicans, Fog, Water

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Brown Pelicans, Fog, Water
Brown Pelicans, Fog, Water

Brown Pelicans, Fog, Water. Pacific Coast Highway, California. July 4, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large flock of brown pelicans flies above the Pacific Ocean on a foggy summer morning

I have a thing about pelicans. They seem to me to stand apart from other birds along the California coast, most often coasting sedately on the wind, either high above as they pass along and above coastal cliffs or else down so close to the water that it seems like they will touch it. I have learned to watch for them, and I know of some places where it is likely that I’ll be able to see them close up, often by going to places high along cliff-top bluffs along which they frequently fly.

This large group completely surprised me — they came out of the blue, and I had not even been thinking about pelicans as I finished photographing a landscape scene from the tripod. I was just about as unprepared as possible for photographing birds in flight. Everything on the camera was set to manual — focus, shutter speed, aperture — and the camera had been in live view mode and on a low ISO. I was at the back of my car removing the camera from the tripod to put it away and probably was in the middle of collapsing the tripod legs when I looked up and saw a huge flock of pelicans just above the roadway to my south. I knew I had just seconds to reconfigure the camera before they arrived at my position — at least I had a long lens attached already! — so I did what I often do in these cases. I ignored the birds as I instinctively went through a bird photography set-up routine as quickly as I could: auto-focus on, stabilization on, camera in aperture priority mode (that’s a long story), ISO jacked up to 800. The only thing I forgot was shifting into burst mode, but that isn’t totally necessary. Finishing this quick sequence, I looked up to find the birds just about at my position, raised the camera, quickly tried to frame the birds against the background of the foggy Pacific, and made a few quick exposures before they moved out of range and faded into the fog.

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: Architecture, Photographs: Music & Musicians, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Fly Space Rigging

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Fly Space Rigging
Fly Space Rigging

Fly Space Rigging. San Jose, California. March 23, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Looking straight up into the fly space of the California Theater, San Jose

As I work on my three-year project photographic classical musicians, I spend a lot of time around their rehearsal and performance spaces. In addition to photographing the people, I have also photographed the environment within which they work, and not always the obvious parts that are visible to those who attend concerts and see the formal appearance of the stage.

A lot of interesting things exist in the backstage world. In contrast to the stage itself, at least as viewed from the perspective of the audience, this is a world seems as much industrial as artistic, but even that “industrial” aspect is an interesting combination of some very modern technology (such as lighting and sound systems) and some very old technology (the equipment for hoisting sets and other equipment on and off the stage). This photograph looks straight up into that equipment and the catwalk near the highest point in the backstage fly space.

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

Two Cranes, Sunrise

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Two Cranes, Sunrise
Two Cranes, Sunrise

Two Cranes, Sunrise. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 1, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two cranes fly in front the rising sun above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

On New Years Eve 2013 I arrived back in the San Francisco Bay Area from New York after 10:00 PM. 8 hours later (2 hours of unpacking, four hours of sleep, and two hours of driving) I was in the Central Valley, where I met friends to greet the (literal) dawn of 2014 in the company of wild birds. We arrived before sunrise to find light fog drifting about and to hear the sounds of thousands of birds coming from every direction.

We made a few initial photographs before dawn from very close to our meeting location, and then we headed out into this wildlife area to find locations from which the birds (geese, cranes, herons, pelicans, and more) would be more visible. A few minutes later I looked over my left shoulder to see the very first sliver of the sun barely glowing through the layers of fog as cranes and other birds flew across the horizon above the marshland. I quickly found this spot where there was a small tree and where a bit of the further water was visible and I photographed though the sunrise, until the sun rose above the low mist and became to bright to include in the frame. There was a constant flow of birds across the scene – sometimes hundreds of them and sometimes, as in this scene, only a few.

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: Wildlife

Geese, San Joaquin Valley Sunset

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Geese, San Joaquin Valley Sunset
Geese, San Joaquin Valley Sunset

Geese, San Joaquin Valley Sunset. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 13, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese fly toward the setting sun, San Joaquin Valley, California

Photographing these migratory birds involves an interesting combination of planning, intuitive response to the circumstances, and just plain raw luck. (In truth, that is the case with almost all photographs of almost all subjects, but that is probably a subject for a different post at another time.) All of those things were certainly at work in this photograph.

I often photograph in this general area at this time of year – ostensibly because of the migratory geese and cranes and other birds, but also because I love the diverse conditions of light and atmosphere here in the winter (and near-winter) months and the simple landscape. So the choice to be at this location at this time of day was no accident. (A bit more information: I was returning from Death Valley and I had organized this final day specifically so that I would have one hour at this location at sunset on the return trip.) In addition, when I found a large flock of geese in a field – in a place where I know there is a good chance I’ll find them – I positioned myself intentionally to the east of the flock so that the colorful light would be behind them as the day ended… or to their side. In addition, since I’ve photographed this subject before I have a pretty good idea of how to set up my camera to deal with the failing light combined with direct sun and birds in motion, even anticipating how I may have to work the images in post-production. But luck and intuition play an undeniable role in photographing this subject. While I can make some guesses about how the birds will act, I have no control over them at all – and I have to take what they give me. On this evening, they were mostly taking flight away from me and toward the mountains, though certainly not always with the sun behind them. Occasionally large groups would take to the air together, and I would simply track them and fire when it seemed best. Here is where another bit of intuition comes in. While I cannot control how the birds appear in relationship to their surroundings, I can manage to watch birds and landscape as both move in the viewfinder and think about composition even while everything is in fast motion – and, when it all works out, think about how momentary arrangements of the birds do or do not “work” with the light and the landscape. To end with an acknowledgement of how much I cannot control, it was simply fortuitous that this thick flock happened to wheel in front of the distant mountains just as the last edge of the sun was about to slip below the horizon.

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.