Tag Archives: gravel

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Old Tree, Sunrise

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Old Tree, Sunrise
“Old Tree, Sunrise” — Winter sun rises through tule fog behind an old tree along a Central Valley backroad.

Once again the weather reports predicted tule fog in the Central Valley, so I was up and on the road early. My hope was that I’d find more geese and cranes to photograph this time — there weren’t as many as I expected on my previous visit. At the same time, I knew that the wet conditions might diminish their numbers. It turned that this was the case, and there were almost none of the birds I came for in the morning. But there was fog!

It was almost a perfect foggy morning. Most of the drive was in clear air, but I hit heavy fog perhaps ten minutes from my destination, so thick that photography was initially a challenge. I photographed this tree later as the fog thinned. It still was around, but so close to the ground that the blue sky was visible above this sprawling old tree as the sun rose beyond.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Levee Road, Tree, and Fog

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Levee Road, Tree, and Fog
“Levee Road, Tree, and Fog” — Thick morning tule fog obscures the view past a tree on a gravel levee road.

This unassuming photograph of a rural levee road, tree, and fog in California’s Central Valley encapsulates the feeling of winter in this place for me. If you know the area or one like it, perhaps you can fill in the sound of bird calls, feel the cool and damp air, remember the unhurried feeling of moving along such a road early in the morning. I go here to photograph birds, but always end up focusing on the landscape, too.

As lovely as this light is, it can be challenging to photograph. A motto for me when I work on prints is, “more light!” However, here I have to suppress that urge a bit since the fog diminishes the brightness. (Though the high clouds are so bright they are hard to look at.) Color can also be challenging, with a tricky balance between the inherent blue of the foggy light and the warmer colors of plants and (sometimes) the sky.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Levee Road and Tree

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Levee Road and Tree
“Levee Road and Tree” — A tree next to a foggy levee road under winter morning sky.

My plan was to photograph birds migratory birds on this foggy Central Valley morning. But the fog was so thick when I arrived that I couldn’t even seen the birds. And then, as the fog began to thin, the light was so beautiful — and the birds still so scarce — that I ended up mostly making landscape photographs. I made this one when the shallow fog had cleared enough to reveal the early morning sky, even though the fog bank still covered the landscape beyond the levee road and tree.

I visit this place often at this time of year — a rather nondescript part of the Central Valley. It isn’t just that it’s not the sort of place you would notice as you drove past — it is so far off the beaten track that the odds are you would never even go there. But after years of poking around here I have come to love the landscape, especially on foggy winter mornings like this.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Canyon Narrows

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Canyon Narrows
A desert mountain wash winds through narrows between tall cliffs, Death Valley National Park.

Canyon Narrows. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A desert mountain canyon winds through narrows between tall cliffs, Death Valley National Park.

Believe it or not, this is Titus Canyon, through which a remarkable road passes. The road runs almost thirty miles from near the Nevada border, over mountains, past old mines, and eventually emerging into Death Valley. Or at least it used to. We hiked into the canyon from the west end in late March — when it was closed to vehicles due to damage in a big storm last year. The road is essentially obliterated, and the canyon is as it was in pre-road days.

This photograph is an example of a principle that occurred to me many years ago when photographing redwoods and considering how to portray their extreme height. The counter-intuitive principle sometimes turns out to be, “go wide, not tall.” I feel that a wide landscape format creates a subjective sense of “it is so tall that it won’t fit in the frame.” In this case, I think it also emphasizes the twisting, meandering path that the canyon takes through the narrows.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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