Tag Archives: grass

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Cottonwood Leaf, Dry Grass, Winter

March 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A single cottonwood tree lies among dry winter grasses in a Yosemite Valley meadow.

This has been and continues to be a historically dry year in California and especially in the Sierra. More concerning, it is the third such year in a row. In a more typical year — and may those return soon! — the location where I made this photograph would be very wet and perhaps even snow-covered on a day like the one when I visited.

We headed out into the Valley very early on this morning. It was the sort of day when you might hope to find some ground fog in the Valley meadows. We had no luck at the first two meadows we checked, but the third did have a very tenuous and shallow layer of fog, so we stopped. I wandered out into the dry and slightly frosty meadow, and as I did the last of the fog dissipated. As I looked for compositions among the waves of dormant grasses I began to notice that here and there were reddish-brown heart-shaped leaves left over from the autumn cottonwoods.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

The Wetlands, Late Winter

March 7, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

San Joaquin Valley wetlands on a late winter morning

About a week ago we headed off to Yosemite Valley for a few days, primarily to attend the opening reception of the 30th annual Yosemite Renaissance Exhibit in The Valley, but also to spend some time there in what we hoped might be interesting and possibly snowy conditions. Given the way this year has gone, it shouldn’t be surprising that the hopes of snow were not met — though there was a five-minute flurry in the morning in the Valley and we found a few inches of new snow by climbing up out of the Valley. But “there is always something to see,” and there was no shortage of other things to photograph.

On our way to the Valley from the San Francisco Bay Area we made a short morning stop at a favorite migratory bird hangout. Typically we arrive here by dawn and encounter thick tule fog. This morning was different and more spring-like with sun and a few puffy clouds overhead. While it seems wrong to see this weather in what should be winter, it still was beautiful, and I made this simple photograph of a quite wetlands marsh where I more typically photograph in fog very early in the morning.

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

Tule Fog, Marsh

January 19, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tule Fog and Marsh, with a passing bird — “Tule Fog, Marsh” — Thick tule fog obscures the view of a central California marsh

These conditions are among my favorites out in the Central California wetlands — silent except for the calls of birds, almost nothing moving, fog so thick that details quickly disappear, and a gentle glow from sun above the shallow fog layer. Mornings like this one remind me that the photography is about something deeper than getting a clear shot of another bird — it is about somehow trying for that merging of capturing and evoking the mood of such a place, and about personally experiencing the thing.

Subtle and uncontrollable things come into play. I have to slow down a lot and look for compositions in place that are not at all obvious, and the subjects from which I can select are limited to those that are very close. Some elements of the composition exist almost on the very edge of visibility — in this photograph there is a further extent of the tules that is barely visible at all. Focus isn’t easy, and I may choose to “go with the softness,” as I did here. And the bird, suddenly appearing at the lower left, turns out to be utterly unpredictable yet important to the overall effect of the image.

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

Egret on the Hunt

January 18, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An egret hunts in marshland grasses, San Joaquin Valley, California

On this foggy late-December morning I was in this spot mostly looking to photograph sandhill cranes. It seems that the cranes are often a bit shy in the early morning and I often am not able to get too close to them — I try, but they tend to be a bit off in the distance except when they are in flight, and then they typically diverge a bit when they see me. There were lots of cranes on this morning, but they were by the ponds near the more distant trees in this photograph. (If you look closely you can probably spot a few of them.)

Egrets, on the other hand, are often not that far from my route. Out here they tend to be found along creeks and ditches or out in grassy areas where they can hunt, which is what this one was doing. While the egrets are spectacular in flight — with their slow, swooping trajectories and huge wingspans — they may actually be more interesting to watch when they are hunting. They seem to be very careful and very patient hunters, often sneaking up on their prey slowly. Along the way they may stop in some awkward pose, perhaps standing almost still aside from a bit of neck “rocking” or the slow movement of a foot. Then the neck stretches a bit and suddenly the bird stabs its small prey. This bird was hunting in grasses very close to a gravel road, so I remained in my vehicle to photograph it as it looked for its breakfast.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: grass

Cottonwood Leaf, Dry Grass, Winter

The Wetlands, Late Winter

Tule Fog, Marsh

Egret on the Hunt

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