Tag Archives: fog

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

Landing in Fog

Image Leave a comment
Landing in Fog
Geese land in morning tule fog, California Central Valley.

Landing in Fog. © Copyright 20202012G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese land in morning tule fog, California Central Valley.

Back when I first began photographing this subject, I tended to think of these conditions as being barely worthy of photographing. Challenges abound — it is hard to stop the motion of flying birds when using a long lens in low light, the thick fog often renders the birds invisible, and it can be cold and wet! But over time my perspective shifted and I came to hope for conditions like these at the start of a day of bird photography.

Finding the birds in these conditions can be something of a challenge. Often I’ll hear them — many thousands of them — somewhere out there in the fog. But the birds are too far away to be visible, aside from an occasional outlier that quickly appears in the mist and is gone just as fast. So we move on, hoping that we’ll eventually find a spot where the birds a close enough or that the fog will eventually thin a bit. On this morning we had traversed almost the entirety of this location before we came upon a huge flock very close to the gravel road. We stopped and watched quietly as the first came and went.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Geese in Fog

Image Leave a comment
Geese in Fog
Geese feed in a California Central Valley pasture on a foggy morning.

Geese in Fog. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese feed in a California Central Valley pasture on a foggy morning.

As I work my way through the raw file archives from past years — a wonderful exercise in this pandemic-limited times — I don’t just think about the images as photographs. I also recall the experiences of making them — the feelings of the locations, the people who were with me, the surrounding non-photographic activities. During the past few days I’ve been thinking about the overall experience of a full day of photographing a subject such as these migratory birds, and as I do so I’ve considered how different it is from what many folks might imagine.

When people think of bird photography I believe that they relate to the “hunt” aspect of it — searching for a subject and focusing in on some amazing specimen or specimens. Sounds pretty exciting, right? But the truth about this sort of photography (and, to be honest, lots of photography) is that it tends to involve a lot more “not photographing” than actual photographing. A typical day of photographing a subject like this one involves quite a bit of just being there with my eyes open, hoping I’m in the right place at the right time. It tends to be a slow and quiet activity, punctuated by occasional bouts of intense activity. I’ve been in the field with folks who weren’t used to this, and I can often sense their anxiety of slowing down enough as they wait for something to happen. Over time I have learned to love these slow, quiet periods — like the very quiet scene in this photography. I often think nostalgically about them more than about the brief, intense moments.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Wetlands

Image Leave a comment
Autumn Wetlands
Late-autumn colors in California Central Valley wetlands.

Autumn Wetlands. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late-autumn colors in California Central Valley wetlands.

As I continue my pandemic project of reviewing years of raw files — and discovering and rediscovering all sorts of interesting things — I have now arrived at the very end of 2012. I’m currently working on the final week or so of autumn and about to move into winter and then on to 2013. One silver lining behind the dark coronavirus cloud is that I have had the time and inclination to revisit these old images and relive some of the experiences I had as I made them.

Every fall migratory birds return to overwinter in California’s Central Valley. Starting in about November I turn my attention that way and start to anticipate visits to this landscape — one that I don’t tend to photograph during the warmer months of the year. But in the cooler and wetter seasons, when the birds can be abundant, this part of California calls to me. I made this photograph on a cold and foggy late-autumn morning as the tule fog was beginning to thin, casting soft light on the autumn foliage of the scattered trees.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Cloud Shadows and Fog

Image Leave a comment
Cloud Shadows and Fog
Cloud shadows on the surface of the Pacific Ocean off of Point Reyes National Seashore.

Cloud Shadows and Fog. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cloud shadow on the surface of the Pacific Ocean off of Point Reyes National Seashore.

This is a rather subtle landscape or seascape photograph, perhaps to the point of minimalism. I made it on a foggy afternoon along the interior of Drakes Bay at the Point Reyes National Seashore. The fog had thinned a bit by this time, but it was obstinate enough that it had not lifted even in the afternoon. Some light was coming though the cloud deck but it was extremely diffused — though it had enough directionality and the fog enough luminosity to lay a subtle shadow across the water below a thicker line of clouds.

Days like this one are slow, quiet, and mysterious along the Pacific Coast. The scale of the landscape diminishes to some extend and the “clear to the horizon” views are gone, as is the dome of the sky. From high locations such as the one from which I made the photograph, even the sound of the surf is muted.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.