Tag Archives: hazy

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Shoreline, Mono Lake

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Shoreline, Mono Lake
A hazy summer morning along the shareline of Mono Lake.

Shoreline, Mono Lake. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A hazy summer morning along the shareline of Mono Lake.

Perhaps you see a few of my photographs and read the accompanying text… in which case you may already know my Mono Lake story: I’m attracted to the immense space and profound quite and stillness of the place, more so than specific features such as tufa towers. Perhaps because I’ve been to those popular features many times, I now tend to poke around in somewhat more obscure places or try to see other aspects of the lake and its surrounding basin.

I made this photograph on a clear sky day when haze — perhaps from wildfires? — was obscuring distant features on the far side of Mono Basin. With the light come from above and beyond those far ranges the atmosphere was luminous and seemed to almost glow. Winds were creating patterns on the surface of the lake. I included some of the near shore, too, perhaps to more clearly show the immense size of the lake.

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: Birds, Photographs: Nature

Flock of Cranes Taking Flight

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Flock of Cranes Taking Flight
A flock of cranes takes to the air early on a hazy winter morning.

Flock of Cranes Taking Flight. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of cranes takes to the air early on a hazy winter morning.

Most of the migratory geese have now left their California winter homes and are on their way back to the arctic shores for the summer. I was fortunate to be able to make a few trips out to see them before we were all locked down by the coronavirus pandemic. On the final visit, several weeks ago now, most of them had already departed.

I made this photograph near the beginning of March. (Remember those innocent days when we were just beginning to think about how our lives might change, but not yet registering the full impact?) This morning featured thin fog — enough of it to mute the light and the features of the landscape, nor to block that glow of dawn light on the bird as they took off toward the rising sun.

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

Goose-filled Morning Sky

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Goose-filled Morning Sky
Goose-filled Morning Sky

Goose-filled Morning Sky. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 21, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thousands of Ross’s Geese fill the hazy dawn sky above the San Joaquin Valley, California

This is a simple photograph of a morning sky almost completely filled with Ross’s geese. We had arrived here in thick fog a couple of hours earlier, first photographing cranes and a few other birds in the murky atmospheric conditions, relieved a bit by some slight clearing right about the time that the sun rose. Two big moments on any goose-photographing day are during the morning “fly out” and the evening “fly in” when thousands of the birds can suddenly take to the air at once in tremendous flocks that may begin with tightly packed geese and then evolve into a wider dispersion of the birds as they circle. Sometimes you can be surprised by one of the compact groups rising up at a distance that seems too far away to be photographable, but then they rise and spread out to cover the sky and begin to reach your own location.

This flock did more or less that. They first took to the air a good distance away near a group of large cottonwood trees. I recall thinking something like, “Too far away for my lenses” as the group first became airborne. Then they began to circle and spread and, yes, before long the edge of the flock was over my position. By this time the original cloud of birds had become, in some ways, more orderly. For example, they were mostly flying at about the same height above the ground – if you had been at their height you might have looked edgewise across a plane-like “surface” of flying birds. And although it may be difficult to see in this small version of the photograph, as the geese turned in various directions, portions of the flock would change color – notice the geese near the top of the frame that are lighter because their bodies are turned to the east and the morning sun, while in the middle of the frame the bird are turned in a different direction and their bodies are almost black.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Ross’s Geese, Golden Hour Fly-Out

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Ross's Geese, Golden Hour Fly-Out
Ross’s Geese, Golden Hour Fly-Out

Ross’s Geese, Golden Hour Fly-Out. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 1, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ross’s geese take wing during the sunset fly-out, San Joaquin Valley, California

As happens often enough to make things interesting, the light at the end of this day of less-than-phenomenal light momentarily made up for some of the earlier “blah” light. It had been a good day of goose (and crane) chasing, but with few moments of sublime light so far. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since even when the light is not at its most astonishing out here, the air and the sound of the birds still makes it worthwhile, especially when a large flock of geese suddenly lifts off in unison or when the sound of cranes floats down as they coast overhead.

But still, we want that light! Just before sunset, as the hazy sky was already starting to dim, the last sun slanted in from the west at a low angle just as this flock of geese was beginning to fly out for the night. I made this photograph just a moment after the foreground group had taken to the air, but while other groups that had lifted off earlier were still visible beyond them as they departed over the grove of trees to the north.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.