Tag Archives: hunt

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

Egret on the Hunt

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Egret on the Hunt
Egret on the Hunt

Egret on the Hunt. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 22, 2014. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An egret hunts in marshland grasses, San Joaquin Valley, California

On this foggy late-December morning I was in this spot mostly looking to photograph sandhill cranes. It seems that the cranes are often a bit shy in the early morning and I often am not able to get too close to them — I try, but they tend to be a bit off in the distance except when they are in flight, and then they typically diverge a bit when they see me. There were lots of cranes on this morning, but they were by the ponds near the more distant trees in this photograph. (If you look closely you can probably spot a few of them.)

Egrets, on the other hand, are often not that far from my route. Out here they tend to be found along creeks and ditches or out in grassy areas where they can hunt, which is what this one was doing. While the egrets are spectacular in flight — with their slow, swooping trajectories and huge wingspans — they may actually be more interesting to watch when they are hunting. They seem to be very careful and very patient hunters, often sneaking up on their prey slowly. Along the way they may stop in some awkward pose, perhaps standing almost still aside from a bit of neck “rocking” or the slow movement of a foot. Then the neck stretches a bit and suddenly the bird stabs its small prey. This bird was hunting in grasses very close to a gravel road, so I remained in my vehicle to photograph it as it looked for its breakfast.

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Coyote On the Hunt, San Joaquin Valley

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Coyote On the Hunt, San Joaquin Valley
Coyote On the Hunt, San Joaquin Valley

Coyote On the Hunt, San Joaquin Valley. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 1, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lone coyote in sunset light hunts in a winter field, San Joaquin Valley, California

If you are out and about much in my part of California, especially near the edges of the day, occasional encounters with coyotes are to be expected. I’ve had my share over the years. One of the most memorable, perhaps 15 or 20 years ago was when I was a very serious cyclist and out for a morning 50-miler south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Is I rode down a country road next to a steep hill, a coyote suddenly flew (almost literally!) down the slope and landed on the road just feet in front of me. I’m not sure who was the most surprised or panicked at this development, but my memory of the event has the coyote doing an immediate 180 degree turn and racing back up against the hill just before we collided. On other occasions I’ve seen them at a distance or I’ve been hiking along only to look up and see one very close by.

Even though I knew that they inhabit this place, where we were photographing migratory birds in the San Joaquin Valley, coyotes were pretty much the last thing on my mind when another member of my group said, more or less, “look behind you!”. I shooting over the top of my car and photographing geese in developing golden hour light, so I turned around – now using the car as a back-rest rather than as a blind! – and simply tracked the animal as it made its lazy way along the field on the other side of a drainage ditch. I made no attempt to conceal myself – it would have been pointless – and the coyote barely seemed to care as it went about its evening hunt, crossing slowly in front of me and eventually disappearing into tall brush to my right.

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.

Commentary, Ideas, Photographers

Two Photographers: Two Videos

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I came across a couple of interesting videos of photographers on the web today.

The first is a wonderful video of Michael Kenna photographing in the snow in Hokkaido, Japan. The video is partly an interview, partly a visual narrative of Kenna at work, and partly a collection of interesting scenes and images associated with some of his photographs. There is a lot to think about and consider in the video, and it struck several chords for me. Among many was his use of the word “hunt” to describe the act of looking for and finding photographic images, and not perhaps just in the sense of tracking and capturing an image, but also, I think, related to the need to be patient and to understand the “quarry.” I often have thought about the “hunt” aspect of looking for subject. (Link originally seen at George Barr’s Behind the Lens blog.)

The second video is rather different but also features a very talented landscape photographer, Charlie Cramer. Unlike the slow moving and rather poetic video of Kenna with its long silent shots and occasional sparse music, this video interview (on the Marc Silber show)  is pretty “straight ahead” – basically a record of Charlie talking about his ubiquitous framing guide, a sheet of mat board with a 4 x 5 cutout that he uses to help him visual photographs while he is in the field. This is interesting and Charlie makes a compelling case for using this “tool.” (I’ve thought about it, but never “gone there.” Perhaps I will now…) More interesting to me were a few side comments that Charlie makes in the course of the interview. For one, he refers to the frame as a “blood pressure meter,” and suggests that he more or less “just knows” when a scene is going to work because when he views it in the frame he feels his blood pressure rises. (In another context he has spoken of hearing the scene whisper, “Take me!”) The point, I think (and forgive me if I have this wrong, Charlie!) is that all of the rules of composition in the world won’t help you that much in the end – essentially you need to be able to look at the subject and “just know” that it will work and how.