Tag Archives: fog

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Geese, Dawn Sky, Fog

March 2, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tens of thousands of Ross’ geese take to the dawn sky above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

We always hope for fog on our winter visits to these places where the Pacific Flyway migratory birds are found out in California’s Central Valley. Despite the attractions of clear and sunny mornings — especially when it comes to driving — the fog lends mystery to the landscape and works wonders with the early morning light. We were not disappointed on this morning, and the fog was very thick when we arrived. For a short time it was thick enough to make driving difficult, but as dawn approached the atmosphere cleared enough to let us see clouds above the airborne geese.

At this point in the season, the time when the geese depart for points (far) north is very close, and it seems like the geese must know. They seem to be much more active and they congregate in larger numbers, frequently taking to the air in astonishing clouds of thousands or tens of thousands of birds. Within minutes of our arrival on this morning, huge groups of them took to the air all over the surrounding landscape, starting out in tightly packed flocks that gradually expanded to fill the sky.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Wetlands Island, Fog

February 27, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Thick tule fog obscures the view of a San Joaquin Valley wetlands island

I can’t think of nicer weather for California’s Great Central Valley! (Well, unless you really need to get somewhere by car, in which case this kind of pea soup fog will slow you down, drive you nuts, and make you worry about those drivers who insist on traveling through it at high speeds.) I had a pretty good idea that it was going to be “this kind of day” as I approached this favorite bird photography location. Most of the drive had been clear, but a few miles away the fog suddenly thickened and soon I was creeping along narrow back roads at low speeds.

Our photography begin in fog so thick that we really could not see any of the birds that we heard, even though they were obviously not that far away. Finally it began to thin enough that we could see a few birds, dimly, though the mist. We photographed them for a while, and then I decided to make another circuit of the spot before the fog dissipated. Partway along the fog became less thick and it began to glow from above. I stopped, switched gears from bird photographer to landscape photographer, and made several photographs of these mostly obscured islands and trees and bushes.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Wetlands Tree, Fog

February 19, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A tree and brush reflected in still water of a fog-shrouded wetland pond

These are my favorite days in California’ Great Central Valley, the winter days when the tule fog forms and covers the landscape, making almost everything seem mysterious. On days when most sane people avoid driving in this fog, I head this direction hoping I’ll find it. In certain areas, even when it is clear almost everywhere else, the fog can form above the winter wetlands and quickly drop visibility to near zero. (One of the strangest but characteristic experiences is driving slowly through pre-dawn darkness and fog so thick that you can barely see more than feet in front of you, yet being able to look straight up through the shallow fog layer to see the moon and stars overhead.)

It was tremendously foggy on the February morning. Arriving at this refuge we could hear thousands of geese and cranes off in the invisible distance in almost all directions, but we could not see a single bird. Eventually, on a perimeter road circling the wetlands, I came across this spot were a few trees stand in the shallow, still water. The fog hides distant elements of the landscape or at least mutes them, giving prominence to closer features that might otherwise be lost in background detail. The central tree, visually muted even though it is barely fifty feet from my camera position, curves above the reflecting water and its skeletal form stands out from the nearly invisible background plants and water that are almost invisible in the fog.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Morning, Sacramento Valley

January 11, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter clouds and morning fog, Sacramento Valley, California

I’ve been driving through California’s Great Central Valley (composed of the northern Sacramento Valley and the southern San Joaquin Valley) for decades, on my way too and from the Sierra and on travels north toward the Pacific Northwest and south toward Southern California. I confess that for many years it was just a place to pass thought on the way to someplace else, though years ago I began to develop an affinity for the sensations that came from driving across on a hot summer evening on the return from the Sierra or from slowing down for the winter fogs on the way to/from ski trips. And then I became away of the winter migratory birds, almost by accident, and I started regarding the winter valley as a destination rather than a route, and I have gradually come to appreciate the place itself.

This has also been (yet another) opportunity for me to relearn an important photography lesson, namely that it isn’t so much about going to distant exotic places (though I’ll do that, too, when I can) as it is about slowing down and paying attention to what there is to see wherever your are. And once I did that, this place that was little more than “the place I drove through” has become the subject. This photograph came on a short trip that I made with the goal of pushing out the boundaries of my experience in the Valley a bit. This time I headed further north up the Sacramento Valley to visit some areas that, frankly, I didn’t know existed until I started researching a bit. This area shares a lot with the more familiar locations where I photograph birds and landscapes every winter — the birds, the immense sky, the flat landscape, water everywhere — but it turns out to have its own personality, too. The birds are similar but not identical. (I photographed bald eagles here for the first time in California.) I saw snow-covered hills to my west in the dawn light. A small and isolated group of mountains rose to the east. And there was water everywhere, far more than where I photograph further south, and a surprise to anyone who has ever visited this area during get hot, dry summer months.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: fog

Geese, Dawn Sky, Fog

Wetlands Island, Fog

Wetlands Tree, Fog

Winter Morning, Sacramento Valley

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