Tag Archives: grass

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New York City

Winter Trees, Central Park

December 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Low-angle late afternoon sun on winter trees casts shadows across Central Park lawns, New York City

For this photographer, New York provides a much wilder landscape than anything in the Sierra – though here “wild” may have a slightly different meaning. I like New York a lot, and I find the pace and density energizing, at least for a while. Most of the time, it provides an almost completely different sort of shooting for me (with only some of my San Francisco photographs being a bit similar in concept). I shoot entirely handheld, with a small camera, and almost entirely with a single prime lens. (Contrary to what you’ll here, a reason for shooting with the prime is that it requires less thought, since there are fewer options to consider, thus allowing me to work a lot faster.) I make many photographs, the great majority of which are not wonderful and which will never been seen by anyone else. But every so often something happens in front of the camera that is worth the search.

But this is not that kind of photograph. It was shot handheld and using that very same prime lens, but it is a landscape. On this afternoon in Central Park the winter sun was low in the sky, and beautiful light filtered through hazy sky. There were thousands of people out in the park, having a different sort of “outdoor experience” than I’m used to – not a solitary sort of thing at all. There was the usual assortment of pedicab and carriage rides, food stands, people walking dogs, bike riders and runners… and always beyond the winter-bare trees the skyline of tall buildings. In this corner of the park I found a place to point my camera towards some trees and into the low afternoon sun.

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

Tree and Marsh

December 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary tree in marshland in the San Joaquin Valley, California

I have a bit of history with this tree. It is at a place where I frequently photograph at this time of year out in California’s San Joaquin Valley. These ponds are in an agricultural area that supports large populations of birds in the cooler seasons, and as I make my way around this place I often end up stopping here.

The stark tree stands alone at the edge of a pond, and there are often birds in its branches. Somewhere I have a photograph in which the branches are nearly full of red-winged blackbirds, and I’ve seen larger birds there, too. I’ve encountered it in completely clear conditions and in fog so thick that it was barely visible. This morning started out with some fog, but not much by wet-season San Joaquin Valley standards, and some sun made it through within a few minutes of sunrise. The foggy atmosphere stuck around enough to soften the light and mute colors a bit, but visibility was good and it was possible to see the blue sky above, with its layers of diminishing fog near the ground, lighter clouds beyond, and the blue sky above all else.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Taking to the Air

December 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of snow geese take to the air in early morning light above a San Joaquin Valley marsh

I never know exactly what I’ll find when I go out to shoot a subject like that which I focused on today, namely migratory birds out in the San Joaquin Valley of California. While there is a certain amount of knowledge and technique that goes into photographing this subject in this place, there is also a whole bunch of guesswork, luck, and happenstance. The part that I can chalk up to planning includes the choice to be in this place on a cold morning before dawn, enough familiarity with the place to know where to look for the birds and where the light might be good at certain times of day, and enough experience photographing these birds to have developed some knowledge and instincts that I can put to work.

However, so much is not in my control. On this morning I found a good size flock of (mostly) snow geese in a place where I don’t usually see so many of them, and they were closer to the place from which I can photograph than they usually are. So I stopped and photographed them and waited. Not much seemed to be happening at first – the birds mostly just sat in the shallow water – but the light was interesting, slanting in from the right where the sun had just cleared the horizon. When things seem static, there is no clear answer to the question of whether to wait for something to happen or to move on and look for something else. This time my hunch was that it might be worth waiting. And this time that hunch turned out to be the right one. (Just as often it isn’t!) As I waited I found some slightly better angles to shoot from, and eventually additional geese began to arrive and settle in with the group already there. Often some of the most interesting shots are during very brief instants of action, such as the sudden and unexpected lift-off of a flock of birds. So, after standing and watching and seeing little happen for some time, suddenly a lot may happen almost too quickly to photograph it. It pays to be ready to respond quickly. This group of snow geese was not too far in front of me, and when they suddenly took to the sky I was ready to track them as they lifted off. If you look closely you may be able to see water droplets falling from them as they leave the pond.

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

Marsh Pond and Trees

December 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Reflected fall colors of trees and grasses at a flooded California Central Valley marsh.

One more photograph from my late-November “wild goose chase” to California’s Central Valley. My main goal was probably to photograph migratory birds, including geese, but that never keeps me from also photographing the landscape. Although the skies were completely clear when I left home well before dark for the two-hour drive to this place, when I arrived there a thick fog was developing in this seasonal marshland… which is just what I had hoped for! The final 15 minutes of my drive were in mostly thick fog, and when I actually arrived the early morning light was almost completely muted by fog.

A bit later this morning, after my first circuit of the place, as I began a second lap around the ponds and marshes, the thick fog had given way to a soft atmospheric haze that allowed some sun to penetrate but which also muted the intensity of the autumn colors of grasses and cottonwood trees and other plants. For a few minutes I took off my wildlife photographer hat and put on my well-worn landscape photographer hat (you didn’t know I carried multiple hats, did you?!) and photographed the isolated trees along the levees between the marshes.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: grass

Winter Trees, Central Park

Tree and Marsh

Taking to the Air

Marsh Pond and Trees

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