Tag Archives: fog

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Tree, Wetlands, Morning Fog

December 25, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Merry Christmas 2015!

Thin dawn fog floats around the base of a solitary autumn tree in San Joaquin Valley wetlands

This landscape is ostensibly about the migratory birds at this time of year, from late fall through the winter months. These ponds, which are just fields during the hot Central Valley summer, typically fill with shallow water and become the winter home for uncounted numbers of geese, sandhill cranes, ibises, and more. It was, in fact, the birds that first brought me out here in the winter, and they still call me back every year.

But there is much more to this landscape than photographs of birds. In fact, my strongest sensory associations with the place are not about the visual appearance of the wildlife for the most part, but are instead about a host of other things. And this simple photograph, for me at least, evokes the sensory recall of those other elements. To a person who may not have been here at this time of year, many things familiar to me cannot be contained in the photograph. The sound of the birds, continuous and often raucous, is central — and it is the thing that most immediately gets my attention when I visit. The fog is a big part of the experience — not just its ability to mute the details of the landscape, but also the sensations of cold and damp and what it does to the quality of light, especially at dawn. In addition, this is one of those California places allow me to extend the color season for three months or more. It begins in September in highest reaches of the Sierra, works its way down (as aspens change) to the high desert (with cottonwoods), then the Sierra foothills, then to the coastal hills, and finally to the lowlands where, as in this photograph, “fall” color remains until nearly the new year.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Central Valley Trees and Fog

December 21, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late autumn trees and fog, San Joaquin Valley

I have had my eye on these trees for several years now. In fact, I have photographed them a few times, though I wasn’t quite happy with the results. They stand near a spot that I frequently visit during the late fall through winter months, when migratory birds live in the nearby wetlands and fields. In fact, that is why I was there on this December day. After a couple of hours of bird photography I looked over in the direction of the trees and thought that the light might be right for a photograph.

The light in this part of the Central Valley is astonishingly variable, especially in the winter and near-winter months. There can be high thin clouds, a Pacific weather front, general haze, or fog so thick that you can’t see 100 feet… unless you look up to see the stars and the moon! This day was quite variable, and that was part of the fun of photographing it. Fog was forming when we arrived before dawn. It stuck around a while, thinned and morphed into a sort of general atmospheric haziness. Above the fog there were high clouds that also muted the light a bit. Here and there, actual fog banks formed. This photograph has a little of all of these things: the light on the trees is muted, fog banks stand in the distance with high clouds overhead.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetlands, Early Light

December 15, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light and fog along a San Joaquin Valley levee.

I seem to have developed a ritual for photographing this favorite San Joaquin Valley location. Almost invariably I arrive very early in the morning, in the half hour before dawn. Often I meet photographer friends who have arrived from other places. We stop at an area near the entrance and greet one another, engage in a bit of small talk, marvel (again!) at the sound of tens of thousands of migratory birds just beyond out sight. We get in our vehicles and we start a circuit of the wetlands, first looking for a place to photograph the dawn. By now, after photographing there for a few years in variable conditions, we all have our favorite spots — this place if there is heavy fog, that spot if the birds are close by, another if it looks like we may have a clear view of sunrise.

On this morning I moved quickly past the first ponds to round a corner on the perimeter road and then stopped near a junction of several levees, at a spot that has often proved fruitful for my photography. There was a thin fog in the air and high, broken clouds were above the Sierra far to the east. Depending on which direction I chose to point that camera I found a range of subjects. Birds were nearby, the Sierra were in the distance, and in between was that flooded wetlands. As the first thin sunlight from the rising sun came through the fog I swung my camera back in the direction from which I had arrived and photographed along the levee route, past trees and brush to a long grove of old cottonwoods lying along the boundary.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetlands Dawn, Sierra Crest

December 14, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The peaks of the High Sierra rise beyond San Joaquin Valley wetlands on an autumn morning

In the late fall and winter, California’s Great Central Valley manages to provide some of the most diverse and beautiful effects of light and atmosphere that I know of. In a way this is ironic, since most of us probably tend to think of the place as a fairly boring, flat, and drab bunch of agricultural land that is too often smoggy and hot and dry in the summer. But in the winter, especially if you get away from the drive-through freeways, there is a lot to see here. This is especially true in the wetlands areas, with their wildlife, trees, ponds and fogs.

I arrived before dawn on this early December morning and, to be honest, I was not initially overly hopeful about the sunrise prospects. In fact, moments before I arrived I had driven past beautiful pre-dawn reflections on nearby marshes and decided to keep going toward my destination, only to arrive and find much less striking light. Sometimes the most brilliant sunrise light can blind me to more subtle beauties, but on this morning I found a quiet spot overlooking water and trees, stopped, and just photographed the beginning of the day. In this photograph the wetlands trees are reflected in the water as they march away into the slightly foggy distance, a few sandhill cranes fly past, and in the distance the crest of the Sierra Nevada rises toward the sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: fog

Tree, Wetlands, Morning Fog

Central Valley Trees and Fog

Wetlands, Early Light

Wetlands Dawn, Sierra Crest

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.