Tag Archives: grass

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Fire Trail, Calero Hills

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Fire Trail, Calero Hills
“Fire Trail, Calero Hills” — A trail through Central California oak grassland with winter morning light.

This is an unusual post — a “make up” post to restore a lost photograph to the archives. It is an old photograph from 2006 that probably once appeared on this website but seems to have disappeared. I regularly share older “From the Archive” images on social media, and as I prepared this photo for sharing I was unable to find an original post here. Consequently, I worked up this slightly revised version and am sharing it here today.

The photograph comes from a San Francisco Bay Area park where I have hiked and photographed for decades. I visit at all times of the year and in all imaginable conditions. This one comes from a morning hike in the winter, when the low angle sun cast strong shadows across the landscape beneath the skeletal forms of winter trees.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Levee Road, Tule Fog

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Levee Road, Tule Fog
“Levee Road, Tule Fog” — Tule fog shrouds the winter landscape along a California Central Valley levee road.

A couple of weeks ago I made my way out to California’s Central Valley for what I hoped would be a day of bird photography augmented by landscape work. My favorite days at this time of year begin with tule fog that clears before noon. There is wonderful transitional light as the conditions change, and once the fog lifts there are usually opportunities for bird photography. Well, I got the fog I came for… and it never left! (The birds? Not so much.)

This spot along a levee road skirting wetland ponds is very familiar to me. I photograph here all the time, and I’ve photographed literally this same scene often — at dawn, in fog, late in the day, after dusk. It includes several elements I associate with this place: skeletal winter trees, new growth after winter rains, and the landscape fading into the distance under the fog.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Three Trees and Pasture

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Three Trees and Pasture
“Three Trees and Pasture” — Three dormant trees in a newly-green Central Valley pasture.

A band of photographers and friends has met in a semi-wild place every New Year’s Day for about a decade. We get join welcome tothe new year, share stories, and photograph birds and the landscape. Until this year we had a streak of good weather New Year’s Days, but we were due for bad weather — and we got it! It wasn’t exactly horrible, but it was rather wet and gray… except for a few moments when the clouds parted enough to allow some light.

These three bare trees are old friends of mine. I’ve visited and photographed them for years. This time I was intrigued by the light on more distant trees, the ominous skies, and the newly green pasture. That winter green is a characteristic of much of California. it must almost seem to those from other places that our seasons are backwards — brown and dry in the summer and lush and green in the middle of winter.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lakeside Meadow, Boulders, and Trees

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Lakeside Meadow, Bourlders, and Trees
“Lakeside Meadow, Boulders, and Trees” — Before the sun arrives, a scene at the shore of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake with meadow, boulders, and trees.

The Sierra Nevada is a place of diverse terrain — rugged alpine ridges and summits, gentle meadows, both dense and open forests, streams and rivers, and more. But my favorite places are mostly like this one, where the last trees are about to give way to barren alpine country, and where meadows, running water, and lakes are plentiful.

This scene is typical of that region. It is along the shoreline of a moderate-sized lake at just over 10,000′ of elevation. Away from the meadow and the lake, forests of good-sized lodgepole pines grow, but here in the open it is all about the light, meadows, rocks, sparse trees, and water.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.