Tag Archives: grass

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.

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: 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.

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

High Desert Aspens, Autumn

December 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Yellow and orange autumn aspen trees in the high desert terrain of the eastern Sierra Nevada

My “discovery” of Sierra Nevada aspen trees has gone through a number of phases. I was first aware of these trees many years ago, early in my backpacking career, when I frequently encountered the trees and their fluttering leaves along backcountry trails. (To this day, when I think of the green trees, one of the first places that comes to mind is a humble little thicket along the trail to Cathedral Lakes.) It was not until much later, believe it or not, that I made the connection between these trees and the color show that they put on for us in the fall. Perhaps this was because my orientation to the Sierra was from the west side (rather than the east, where the most spectacular aspen displays are arguably located) and because I rarely visited the range during aspen color season, instead going almost exclusively in summer (for camping, hiking, backpacking, and occasional climbing) or winter (for cross-country skiing.)

Perhaps fifteen or twenty years ago I had my first introduction to the “east side.” I know that sounds crazy, especially for someone who has loved the Sierra for a lot longer than that, but somehow it worked out that way. On the bright side, I had the opportunity to discover a whole new aspect of the Sierra at a relatively later point in my life. After “discovering” the precipitous east side of the range, it wasn’t a big step to expand my season a bit to include late September and October, which eventually became my favorite times to be in the range — for aspens of course, but also for beautiful fall weather and the occasional early season storm. More recently, after perhaps a decade of heavy focus on the eastern Sierra aspens each fall, I have begun to turn my eyes further east, to the color along the base of the range and in the mountains to the east of the Sierra, where the trees often grow in spare, dry surroundings.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Low Water, San Luis Reservoir

November 25, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Low water at the San Luis Reservoir, Autumn

California is currently in the third of three years of historically bad drought conditions. Water is power in the state — and a lot of politics has gone on around the acquisition of water, the use (and misuse) of water, and the construction of water projects. I’ve lived in the state long enough to have been in the valley now filled by this huge reservoir before it was filled. I have a faint memory of traveling across the valley bottom in a car with my dad at the wheel, looking at things that he told me were soon to be submerged — I have a specific recall of a bit of roadway and a bridge. That valley is long gone now, having been filled by the late 1960s.

The reservoir is an unusual one. The water it holds is pumped up into the reservoir from below and stored from year to year, producing some electrical power when the water flows back down from the reservoir to the valley. Essentially, water goes both directions though the dam! At the end of this third drought year the water level is extremely low — as low as I recall seeing it — and some of the huge structures at the dam are well above the water line. This is partly a photograph of those structures, partly a record of a phase in California’s water crisis, and partly a juxtaposition of angles and surfaces and curves, all under beautiful hazy late-autumn California light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: grass

Tule Fog, Marsh

Egret on the Hunt

High Desert Aspens, Autumn

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