Tag Archives: haze

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Wetland Trees, Late Autumn

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Wetland Trees, Late Autumn
A row of trees with fall color, Central Valley wetlands.

Wetland Trees, Late Autumn. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A row of trees with fall color, Central Valley wetlands.

If there is more beautiful light than muted late-autumn sun on colorful trees against a slightly darkened sky, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen it. It was a foggy day in the Central Valley of California during this brief season between the heat of summer and early autumn and the cold and often gray winter. For a few weeks there is a surprising amount of autumn color out here, though it took me quite a long time to understand this.

Just when is autumn, anyway? I know that the calendar tells me it begins on the late-September autumnal equinox and that it ends on the December winter solstice, but that’s not quite what it feels like. I used to think that it was when the Eastern Sierra aspens change color, roughly during the first weeks of October. But years ago I began to tune in to subtle changes in the Sierra that clearly said “autumn is coming” as early as August. By September corn lilies, bilberry, and willows show color, but in the lowlands it is still effectively summer. In the Great Valley and in the coastal areas closer to where I live, real fall color doesn’t arrive until November, and it lasts well into December. I have even photographed “fall color” in January of the new year!

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Wetland Color

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Autumn Wetland Color
A quiet morning under fog with autumn colors, Central Valley

Autumn Wetland Color. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A quiet morning under fog with autumn colors, Central Valley

Autumn, my favorite season, is a month-and-a-half away by the calendar — and in terms of California weather it is more like three months away. Here the transition is gradual, and the first month of solar autumn still feels more like summer on most days, with warm or even hot temperatures and no sign of changing colors, at least not in the areas closer to the coast. (By early October aspen color does come to the Eastern Sierra Nevada.) We may get teased by a few early weather fronts in October, but the actual rainy season doesn’t start until November — and perhaps later in our changing climate.

This photograph comes from an early December visit to the Great Central Valley, hardly what most people would regard as a great fall color destination. But these wetlands, many of which are preserved in wildlife refuges, attract me in late autumn and winter. Right around the fall/winter boundary there can actually be a fair amount of color out here if you know where to look for it. The main attraction is the migratory birds, but I’ve come to love the quiet landscapes of this region, too. Because I usually arrive very early — typically before sunrise — and on days when most people aren’t out here (I love fog!), I am often nearly the only person sharing these places with a few thousand of my bird friends.

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

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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: Ocean & Coast

Point Sur, December Sky

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Point Sur, December Sky
High clouds, brilliant reflecting light on the water, and fog at Point Sur.

Point Sur, December Sky. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

High clouds, brilliant reflecting light on the water, and fog at Point Sur.

There is a lot of “accepted wisdom” about photography that turns out to be not quite true when you stop and consider your actual picture-making experience..Yesterday I was having a conversation with a photographer friend (Hi, Charlie!) about various things, including the way that some photographs don’t quite make sense to us until we return to them long after making the original exposure. If one ideal is to pre-visualize the photograph perfectly (and I do believe in the value of pre-visualizing), then it would seem that being surprised months or years later to find that a forgotten image works is hard to explain. But it happens — quite a lot, actually. One of my ideas about this is that at first we are too invested in what we believe the photograph to be that we are unable to look beyond that and see what it actually is.

All of this is a long way of getting to a point about this photograph. When I first viewed it right after the day I visited the Big Sur coast, I had a hard time with certain aspects of the light and the color and, to a lesser extent, the way it was framed. Originally I settled on a black and white interpretation. (Yes, a neat way of copping out about the color issues!) Recently I went back and looked at it again, and this is the result. I ended up with a slightly different crop, some work to lighten portions of the scene, and some new thinking about color of clouds and sky and about how to handle the bright yet low contrast reflections on the water out near the horizon.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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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: Ocean & Coast

Headlands and Fog

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Headlands and Fog
Thin fog and brilliant autumn sun along the Big Sur coast.

Headlands and Fog. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thin fog and brilliant autumn sun along the Big Sur coast.

Today’s photograph takes me even deeper into the high key and minimalist landscape frames of reference. For a long time I have been intrigued by the question of just how little detail could be present in a photograph, and the conditions on this morning gave me an opportunity to extend the experiment to the subject of the Big Sur coast.

The light, weather, and geography here often collaborate to produce some remarkable conditions. The potential for various sorts of fog is a given along the edge of the Pacific Ocean. In many sections of this coast the headland ridges descend toward the water repeatedly over huge distances. And because the coast curves a bit toward the east as you travel south, by late morning the sun may be almost directly ahead of you as you compose photographs that include the ocean. I think of this as “the light that is too intense to look at.” Imagine the sun in front of you, the haze glowing brightly, and the details of the scene becoming almost invisible, leaving only the light, atmosphere, and outlines of forms.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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