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

Ross’s Geese, Winter Evening

February 12, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Motion-blurred photograph of low-flying Ross’s geese on a winter evening in California’s Central Valley.

From time to time I experiment with longer exposure photographs of birds in flight. The idea is that allowing the image to blur as the birds move might suggest their constant motion more effectively than the more typical approach of stopping the motion. Here not only was the exposure relatively long (I think it was 1/30 second) but I was shooting with a long telephoto which also amplifies the motion of subject and camera.

I’m thinking of this as a “study” for future photographs of these Ross’s geese and similar birds that will work with this idea of motion blur. Making this shot let me get a bit closer to understanding the most likely times to find the birds lifting off in the evening, and the best time to try to catch this with a bit of the last sunlight before sunset. I was also able to slightly better establish the shutter speed I would like to work with for this kind of image. The idea is to keep just barely enough shape in the birds that you can recognize what they are, but to allow the motion to blur things enough to eliminate the hyper-sharp realistic quality of the scene and to let the motion blur imply something about the actual flying motion of the birds.

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

Ross’s Geese Taking Flight, Sunset

February 10, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

A large flock of Ross’s geese takes flight in sunset light, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, California.

Every time I go back to this location, it seems to just get better. On this early February evening I had quickly driven over the hill from the San Francisco Bay Area – well, OK, it is a two-hour drive – in time to arrive shortly before sunset and join a group of friends who had come down from the Mariposa, California area to photograph the same subject. I drove out around the “auto tour” route to a spot where I had shot just a week ago, near a viewing platform. Just past this point, there were thousands and thousands of (mostly, I presume) Ross’ geese filling a large pond right next to the gravel road. I set up and gradually, bit by slow bit, moved myself closer to the pond, working carefully to avoid spooking the birds. Eventually I got into position perhaps 20 feet from the pond.

Initially I photographed the birds that were settled in on the pond. As we did this, more birds flew overhead, and some joined this gigantic flock. But the light still wasn’t quite great. As actual sunset approached, the geese began to lift off in large groups. It seemed like there would be some momentary electricity in the air – perhaps I was just sensing a change in their calls – and suddenly a few hundred would simultaneously take off in a large group. I knew I wanted to try to get some photographs of these groups, and I also figured that ideally I would like a bit of cross-light from the very low and warm-colored sun and, if I could manage to pull it off, I would want to get some sort of landscape-ish background of trees and ponds and the distant hills in the golden evening light. I made several attempts before I captured this moment during which the group had just risen enough to mostly clear the trees across the pond.

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

Sandhill Cranes, Dusk

January 31, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of sandhill cranes against the dusk sky above the Merced National Wildlife Reserve, California.

The sandhill cranes are amazing creatures. On the ground they seem rather ungainly, but in the air they seem, to me at least, to fly with remarkable grace and strength. Several things can make them tricky to photograph. On the ground, they are frequently in less than photogenic locations such as turned under fields, and they are skittish, moving away quickly if you come too close. In flight they can appear and disappear quickly, and if you aren’t looking the right direction you can miss them as they fly over. And they seem to come in waves – you can wait for a while without seeing any of them, let down your guard and become distracted, the suddenly groups of them seem to appear.

I had fewer opportunities to photograph them close up at Merced National Wildlife Refuge on this evening than I had earlier in the day back north at Woodbridge Road. But a few did come close and I managed to photograph this portion of a large group that flew over as the evening light was turning portions of the sky pink and purple.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Seagulls, Night Sky

October 14, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

Seagulls fly through artificial lighting at night, San Francisco, California.

I wouldn’t mind if you speculated about how in the world I managed to get this king of lighting on a photograph of birds in flight. Let’s see, it couldn’t be on-camera flash since the light is coming from the side. Perhaps I concocted some elaborate multiple flash setup and then waited for the birds?

I’m afraid that the explanation is much more prosaic. To be honest, we were at a San Francisco Giants game on this evening. We go to Giants games for several reasons: the hope that the Giants might actually play well (not at the moment!), the great views from AT&T park, garlic fries (!)… and for me, photography. I always bring a camera and a lens, and partway through the game I usually take advantage of the upper areas of the stadium to photograph San Francisco and the Bay, often at sunset and dusk.

One more fact. Giants fans who attend games have discovered something astonishing about wildlife, namely that the sea gulls seem to be able to tell when it is the seventh inning or so. At about this point in the game, flocks of them begin to assemble over the park, circling above the field and the stands… and waiting for their chance to feast on the discarded food that is left all over the stadium. (My working theory is that they have somehow learned to associate a full stadium with the appearance of good stuff to eat about two or three hours later. They are apparently as fond of garlic fries as we are.)

So, on this evening when the gulls showed up they began to fly in and out of the stadium lighting, creating a somewhat stark and dramatic effect against the dark sky.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.