Tag Archives: fog

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Trees, Marsh, Fog

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Trees, Marsh, Fog
Trees grow in flooded San Joaquin Valley marshland pond

Trees, Marsh, Fog. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees grow in flooded marshland pond

On January 1st, New Year’s Day 2018, a group of friends and photographers gathered to greet the dawn (literally!) of the New Year, raise a toast or two, hang out, and photograph birds and the expansive landscape. It meant going to bed early on New Year’s Eve, but I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the first day of the new year. (Though that 4:00 AM alarm and two-hour drive in the dark was perhaps just a bit less festive…)

After photographing all morning the bird action seemed to slow and we all gathered for a quiet little party in a parking lot near large ponds. A bit later all of us felt like we needed a walk, so we broke off into groups and followed a trail around a marsh and to some tall trees. I was the last one to start, and I decide to simply bring along my smallest camera with a single little lens, foregoing the usual Big Bag Of Gear and Gigantic Tripod. As much as I was more of a mind to walk and think than to photograph, I couldn’t help but stop and make a few handheld photographs of the complex landscape of the marsh.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Morning Cranes, Pond

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Morning Cranes, Pond
A large flock of cranes, resting in a pond on a foggy morning, prepares to take flight

Morning Cranes, Pond. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 9, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large flock of cranes, resting in a pond on a foggy morning, prepares to take flight

I made this photograph on a bit of a gray morning. As I drove toward this place the sky was clear, but just before sunrise the typical Central Vally tule fog began to develop. It did not completely sock the area in, but it turned the sky gray and obscured views of distant trees and other subjects before long.

As things come to life in the early morning hours in these wetlands areas, the cranes are often the first birds to take flight in large groups. (Though, unlike geese, whose groups may include thousands of birds, a group of cranes is often fewer than ten.) I was early enough to spot where the cranes were coming from before all of them were gone, and I arrived at this spot to see a large group of them standing in the shallow water, gradually taking off a few at a time. If you watch quietly, the birds seem to be very quiet — but almost without warning some of them will appear to stretch forward a bit, and soon they take to the air.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Pond, Trees, Sky

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Pond, Trees, Sky
Colorful trees arranged around San Joaquin Valley wetlands under autumn sky with clearing fog

Pond, Trees, Sky. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 9, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful trees arranged around San Joaquin Valley wetlands under autumn sky with clearing fog

When I have written about some of the previous photographs of these San Joaquin Valley areas, where I go to photograph birds in the late fall and winter, I have described the cycle of my earlier mornings in such places: awake hours before sunrise, a two-hour drive in the dark, frequent arrival in thick tule fog, the first sound of birds after I stop my car and get out, the sensations related to photographing in the cold and foggy morning, the first light, sunrise. This photograph comes from a bit later in the morning, closer to the time when the rapidly changing early morning conditions stabilize and things begin to seem more static.

On this morning there had been some of the usual tule fog at daybreak. I photographed in those conditions for the first hour or two, but by 8:00 the fog was mostly gone and all that remained of it was the common Central Valley winter haze. Above that was the huge expanse of sky that I’m often aware of here — sky stretching unbroken from the low hills in the west to the distance Sierra Nevada crest far to the east. By this time the birds were generally much less active and the quick pace of the sunrise hours gave way to the slow, still quality of the midday hours.

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

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.
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.