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Geese, Tule Fog, Autumn Trees

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Geese, Tule Fog, Autumn Trees
Migratory snow geese and Ross’s geese in a pond on a foggy San Joaquin Valley morning

Geese, Tule Fog, Autumn Trees. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 1, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Migratory snow geese and Ross’s geese in a pond on a foggy San Joaquin Valley morning

Since it was December 1, it seemed like time to start my annual series of visits to California’s Great Central Valley to photograph migratory birds and the landscape of the place. (Actually, I had made one preliminary and very quick visit about a month earlier, but too early for the birds shown in this photograph.) There is a ritual about these visits which, for me, are typically one-day affairs that start very early and end rather late, with a fair amount of driving involved. Up well before dawn, I drive a couple of hours in darkness and often fog, arriving perhaps a half hour before dawn to the stirring sound of many thousands of birds, already awake at morning twilight. I photograph intensively for at least a few hours before taking, at last on most days, a midday break. By mid-afternoon I’m back at work again, photographing through the peak of the visual crescendo just before sunset and then continuing for perhaps another half hour or so until the light is gone. I pack, get into my vehicle, and retrace my two-hour drive back home. (At least the shorter daylight hours of this season allow me to get up a little bit “later” — if you consider 3:45 or 4:00 AM later — and return home in time for a late dinner.)

On this first day of December it was incredibly foggy when I arrived — so much so that it was really hard to make photographs. I usually enjoy photographing in the fog, but this was so thick that almost no sunrise light managed to color the gloom. But before long the light began to come through the fog and eventually I found a moderately large group of white geese settled in on a pond. Among them I saw Ross’s and snow geese, and beyond them there were trees with fall foliage.

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.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Unclassified, Photographs: Yosemite

Young Tree, Meadow, and Forest

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Young Tree, Meadow, and Forest
The last ground fog clears in the distance beyond a young Tuolumne Meadows tree.

Young Tree, Meadow, and Forest. Yosemite National Park, California. August 15, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last ground fog clears in the distance beyond a young Tuolumne Meadows tree.

In mid-July we were in the Tuolumne Meadows area for a single night, camping at the main campground. It was a little bit of a lazy trip — photography was on the agenda, but the main reason we were there was to field-test some new gear that we plan to make more substantial use of on an upcoming trip. Very heavy wildfire smoke also put a bit of a damper on photography on the first day and into the evening. So when I went to sleep that night I wasn’t really sure if the smoke would clear in the morning, and I entertained the possibility of sleeping in.

A half hour before dawn I awoke and peered outside. It was hard to see in the faint light, but it appeared that the smoke had pretty much cleared, so I unzipped my sleeping bag, quickly dressed warmly, grabbed camera gear, and was on my way to the nearby meadow. I arrived before the first sun arrived, a very quiet and peaceful time when few others are out and about. In fact, for an hour I had “my” section of the meadow and surrounding forest entirely to myself. Soon the first beams of sunlight arrived and the thin ground fog began to dissipate. I love shooting into the morning light, especially when there is a just a bit of haze in the atmosphere. If you look closely you may be able to see the last remnants of the ground fog on the far side of the meadow.

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.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Low Tide, Fog, Drakes Estero

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Low Tide, Fog, Drakes Estero
Thinning fog above Drakes Estero at low tide

Low Tide, Fog, Drakes Estero. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. July 23, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thinning fog above Drakes Estero at low tide

I spend a mid-July day hiking — at least once I had completed my obligatory bakery stop at Point Reyes Station — a route at Point Reyes National Seashore that I’ve had my eyes on for some time. It is a trail that starts in the upper recesses of Drakes Estero and, if you turn at the right junctions, finally goes all the way to headlands above Drakes Bay. I had, in fact, started this hike at least once in the past, but always a bit spontaneously and too late in the day, and each time I had turned back before completing it. This time I planned more carefully, and I was on the trail in plenty of time to complete the round trip.

This is a spare landscape, mostly without the vertical scale of places like the Sierra or even of the Big Sur coastline. Bare bluffs run along the peninsula that runs out toward the actual “point,” and the view extends more in the horizontal than the vertical direction. But what it lacks in vertical relief, this landscape can make up for as a canvas on which effects of atmosphere and light may play. My plan was to begin my hike at about the time the morning fog broke up, and to then follow the fog/sun line as in moved toward the coast. I was not entirely successful (it never did clear at the coast) but I timed it just about right for the start of the walk. This photograph comes from that early section of the route, when the clear sky above the dissipating clouds reflected its blue color onto the waters of the estero.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

North Shore, Fog

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North Shore, Fog
A foggy morning along the north shore cliffs of Point Lobos

North Shore, Fog. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. July 18, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A foggy morning along the north shore cliffs of Point Lobos

In mid-July I managed to get to Point Lobos State Reserve, south of Carmel, on two occasions during the same week. It stayed foggy the entire time on the first visit, but on the second it began to clear back from the coast by mid-morning, and fog-softened light was present here as I walked along the north shore of the park. (Oddly, it was foggy inland as the area right along the coast began to clear.)

The photograph appears to show a clear view across water and into a cove where with steep rocks and tall trees at its head. In fact, my shooting position is quite covered with trees, and it was a bit of a trick to find a spot with a clear view like this. At the point at which I made the photograph the fog was still there, though it was beginning to thin a bit, and some soft light was beginning to make its way through the murk.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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