Tag Archives: great

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Egret Among Clouds

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Egret Among Clouds
An egret flies into early morning winter sky with fog and clouds

Egret Among Clouds. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An egret flies into early morning winter sky with fog and clouds

In some ways the great white egrets seem less special than some of the birds that arrive and depart in huge flocks each season. The first sight of these birds in impressive — whether it is a solitary bird flying past with its characteristic slow wing motion, a bird hunting in grassland or shallow water, or perhaps a small group in a winter field. But eventually you figure out that they are far from rare, and you can find them in many areas that have the right combination of water and food.

However, in flight they have a remarkable degree of gracefulness. They almost always fly alone, and they tend toward slow-moving, steady flying, often coasting or moving wings slowly. There landings are momentarily very beautiful as wings flare just as they hit the ground. This bird took to the air nearby and then flew slowly into a cloudy golden hour sky.

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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Redwoods Great And Small

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Redwoods Great And Small
Dense Northern California redwood forest containing both old-growth and young trees

Redwoods Great And Small. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dense Northern California redwood forest containing both old-growth and young trees

I’ve lived on the fringes of California’s coastal redwoods ever since my family moved to the state when I was four-years-old. For years we did weekend trips to places like Big Basin Redwoods State Park, often hiking through the trees and beyond. So I have always been familiar with these extraordinarily tall trees and with the special forests they inhabit. However, it wasn’t until much later that I understood how truly rare the original old-growth forests are. I recently read that only 5% of the original forest was left mostly untouched — meaning that 95% of the trees (19 out of 20!) were cut down during a fairly short period, mostly in the 20th century. This was an astounding example of where greed can push humankind, and we can reasonably imagine that without intervention all of the old-growth forests would have been lost forever. If that greed had gotten its way, you would have to reimagine scenes like this one with only the slender trees on the right, because certain parties would have cut up every accessible tree like the one on the left.

Today it seems bizarre to recall the strong objections to saving these remnants back when the Redwood National Park was first proposed. Even conserving parts of the last 5% of the ancient forests seemed to be a bridge to far for interests blinded by their long-term investments in a nearly depleted natural resource, and they fought bitterly against that parks. There are several lessons in this. This was not isolated resistance to conservation — it has been the pattern with the creation of essentially all of our great American parks and other efforts to protect wilderness and natural areas. There are [i]always[/i] a few very loud voices shrieking that the protection of a few last remnants of America’s great landscape will ruin their economy. (Witness the Utah minority today working to undo national monuments.) However, now that our park system is well over a century old, it is plainly obvious that virtually every single protected area is regarded as a treasure and virtually no sane person would argue that we did the wrong thing by protecting them.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Great Egret, Reflection

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Great Egret, Reflection
A great egret and its reflection in a wetland pond

Great Egret, Reflection. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great egret and its reflection in a wetland pond

While I don’t know the full extent of their (likely huge) range, these birds are ubiquitous in California. I remember when I first noticed them, many years ago when I was a dedicated cyclist. In those days I commuted to work by bicycle, covering between 30 and 55 miles a day, and portions of my ride always passed creeks and drainage canals. You might miss them speeding past in a car, but on a bicycle I frequently looked into these waterways and spotted these impressively large and nearly pure white birds. As time went on I found them all over the place — they can be found in many agricultural areas, for example, and I have photographed them feeding in kelp beds along the Pacific Ocean shoreline.

In flight they alternate between ungainliness and beauty. They can seem a bit gangly and awkward at times — their take-off can be somewhat awkward, for example. On the other hand they flare their wings beautifully upon landing. I don’t usually go out specifically to photograph the egrets, but sometimes it seems unavoidable since they turn up in so many places. They seem to have somewhat clearly defined boundaries when it comes to human presence. They more or less ignore us until we get too close (though this boundary changes depending upon whether they are feeding or not), but get a bit too close and you can see them “tighten up” and prepare for a sudden take-off, at which point you most often have only the opportunity to photograph them from the back as they depart. This bird had been hunting and seemed a bit more willing than most to let me photograph.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Egret, Blue Hour Fog

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Egret, Blue Hour Fog
An egret hunting in blue hour fog

Egret, Blue Hour Fog. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An egret hunting in blue hour fog

For those who don’t know the term, “blue hour” is that twilight period when the light tends to become soft and blue, most likely because the primary illumination is from the blue sky itself, with no assistance from direct sunlight. You might not notice the depth of the blue color of the light if you don’t think about it carefully or look at a photograph. Our eyes adjust to the color and see things as being “normal,” but the camera records (more or less) “what is.” Most often when people refer to blue hour they are referencing that period of early twilight — just after the red sunset tones have faded, but before it becomes extremely dark. Of course, there are two “blue hours” every day – one before sunrise and one after sunset.

I usually start my bird photography before it becomes light, and I frequently have to wait a bit before starting to photograph. On this morning it was exceptionally murky — not only was it still dark, but the tule fog was very thick. Eventually I looked for subjects that I could photograph in this challenging light. You are never far away from an egret in places like this, and it wasn’t long before I came upon one that was hunting in the nearby vegetation. In many cases I might try to compensate for the blue tones and the darkness, but here I instead decided to “go with the blue” and produce a photograph that feels more like such mornings actually feel.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.