Tag Archives: joaquin

Central Valley, Winter Dusk

Central Valley, Winter Dusk
Central Valley, Winter Dusk

Central Valley, Winter Dusk. Merced National Wildlife Refuge, California. December 11, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A line of geese fly in front of the first clouds of an approaching winter storm front above California’s Central Valley.

This photograph was made at a late enough time in the evening that it was becoming hard to see in the same detail that the camera has. The sun had gone down and the light reflected up into the clouds was beginning to fade, and Central Valley haze filled the air, partially obscuring the details on anything more than a few hundred feet away.

We were surprised and pleased to have a spectacular sunset as the clouds of an incoming weather system that had early blocked the light were now lit up from below as the sun dropped to the horizon. The intense colors of the red clouds were almost too bright to photograph. Here I used a long lens to isolate a small section of the terrain to the west that held a group of silhouetted trees, with the Coast Range mountains beyond, and the sky turning all shades of purple, orange, and red. Although it may be difficult to see in this small jpg, a long line of geese is traveling from right to left high in the sky.

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.

Ross’s Geese, Dusk Sky

Ross's Geese, Dusk Sky
Ross’s Geese, Dusk Sky

Ross’s Geese, Dusk Sky. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 21, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A row of Ross’s geese stretches into a line as they fly in front of dusk sky on a winter evening above California’s San Joaquin Valley.

The post-sunset twilight period is one of the most special of the day in these Central Valley wildlife refuges. There is a transformation at this point that fascinates me, even after seeing it a number of times. During the day, it often seems that not much is going on. The larger flocks of birds are mostly settled in somewhere, with only small numbers flying from place to place, albeit with an occasional momentary eruption of geese. As sunset approaches, the geese become more active, taking flight and moving from location to location. On this evening, the process was mostly one of leaving rather than arriving, as the flock nearest to us gradually left the pond where they had been settled and then flew off to more distant points. As the sun sets the wildlife seems like it is going to settle down. But then, as darkness comes on, special things happen. In this particular location, just as things quiet, the cranes return. Unlike the geese, who flap and squawk, the cranes have a distinctive and less raucous cry and then float in with much less flapping of wings. And at close to this same time, I often begin to notice that geese are flying in smaller groups all throughout the sky. At this San Joaquin Valley location, it can seem that they stretch all the way to the Diablo Range to the west. Simultaneous with this, if there are clouds in the sky, they take on the rich post-sunset colors that can perhaps be seen better by the camera than the eye.

The idea of this photograph was simple. I wanted to find and photograph a line of geese in front of a colorful section of the dusk sky. To make this work, I have to become aware of cloud patterns and where the most colorful portions of the sky are, and both clouds and colors are in a constant state of change. As groups of birds fly into view I try to guess which of them might follow a path across these areas of the sky, at which point I pick up a group in the viewfinder and follow it as it crosses into the scene. I am probably less attentive to the birds than to the non-bird portions of the scene that slide across my viewfinder, and I wait until the birds appear against a particular pattern or color of sky and clouds to make exposures. Obviously, little of this is in my control beyond the timing of my attempts to take advantage of whatever the sky and the birds happen to provide to me! In some ways, it still amazes me that it is possible to capture a simple scene like this one. Both technique and equipment play an important role here. In order to work with birds that may be a good distance away and in order to constrain my field of view to small sections of the sky, I work with a 400mm focal length. I must hand hold the camera rather than using the tripod, adding an additional challenge. By this time the light is so low that I find myself shooting at ISO 3200, something that would have been darned near impossible even a few years ago. And somehow, in light that is rapidly fading toward darkness, it is possible to photograph a moving flock of birds against a dusk sky.

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.

Winter Haze and Trees, Central Valley

Hazy California Central Valley light on groves of trees as tule fog clears, Merced National Wildlife Refuge
Winter Haze and Trees, Central Valley

Winter Haze and Trees, Central Valley. Central Valley, California. December 11, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Hazy California Central Valley light on groves of trees as tule fog clears

In early December, 2012 I had my third opportunity of the season to photograph winter migratory birds. (The first time was last month when I made a quick foray to nearby Central Valley refuges, the second was shortly after that when I found myself with a free day in the Seattle area and drove up to Skagit Valley to photograph trumpeter swans and snow geese.) This was an especially great trip since not only were there birds about (Ross’s geese, a few odd snow geese, white-faced ibises, sandhill cranes, white pelicans, a few egrets and a single great blue heron) but the conditions turned out to be good almost all day and I was joined by a band of great folks: Michael Frye and Claudia Welsh, Dave and Charlotte Hoffman, and my wife Patty Mitchell. And what a day it turned out to be!

Things did not begin so promisingly. As Patty and I drove over from the south San Francisco Bay Area there was a lot of fog and continued to thicken until shortly after leaving Los Banos behind, where we encountered the classic pea soup Central Valley tule fog. Although it was so shallow that we could look up and see pre-dawn Venus and the new moon, ahead it was so thick that the road was barely visible in front of us. It was still thick when we reached the refuge and met the rest of the gang, and on the first part of our drive around the refuge the fog was so thick that we could barely seen any birds, although we could hear them. (One of the most mysterious experiences was hearing sandhill cranes nearby and being able to tell that they were airborne and moving but not see them at all until they would momentarily and briefly partially emerge from the murk and then just as quickly disappear.) Finally, as we came around the far side of the refuge we found a very large group of Ross’s geese close to the dirt road, and from here on things only got better. We had hours of shooting in the fog, which only slowly diminished and didn’t thin out enough to let sun through until probably noon or so. But this was actually a Good Thing, as on a perfectly clear morning the sense of mystery that fog imparts would have been missing… and the shooting probably would have been over in an hour or two. Instead, we continued until it was after 1:30, at which point we finally broke away long enough for lunch before returning for an evening shoot. Again, conditions that started out looking unpromising – the clouds of an incoming weather front were beginning to block the sky to the west – turned out to be perfect and even exceptional as the geese continued their show and the sky lit up brilliantly right at sunset.

I suppose that this photograph proves that I’m still a landscape photographer at heart. While looking around the refuge for birds, my eyes kept moving to the groves of large cottonwood trees and the smaller individual trees, many of which still held a bit of fall color. I’m also a really big fan of misty, hazy atmosphere, and we had that in spades. The fog did lift, but it left behind a beautiful luminous atmosphere and could glow in the right light.

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.

Birds, Trees, Ponds – California Central Valley

Birds, Trees, Ponds - California Central Valley - Migratory birds fly over a group of trees at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge as others congregate in a pond.
Migratory birds fly over a group of trees at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge as others congregate in a pond.

Birds, Trees, Ponds – California Central Valley. Merced National Wildlife Refuge. February 4, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Migratory birds fly over a group of trees at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge as others congregate in a pond.

In my continuing mission to share as many photographs of this little grove of trees in as many ways as possible, I now present – The Trees In Black and White… ;-) I have shot this little group on two successive weeks now, and I’m starting to almost regard them as personal friends. They are located out along the “auto tour” route at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge in California’s Central Valley. From certain angles late in the day they stand in front of a beautiful, luminous glowing sky as the sun moves to the west.

I made this photograph in the early evening, before the golden hour light. Due to these lighting conditions and the typical characteristics of the Valley at this time of year, there was a great deal of atmospheric haze. While later light would reveal the ridge of the coast range in the distance, at this time the glowing haze blocked that view, and its effect can even be seen on the trees along the far levee. As large flocks of birds flew by – I think they were geese – they would pass behind and above the trees. Often they were in odd positions – too low to be visible behind the trees or so high that I would have had to expand the angle of view more than I wanted. But patience helps. I figure that eventually some birds will almost always fly past in the more or less right position, and here a lower string of birds was accompanied by a few flying higher. As I often do with this sort of subject, I compose a landscape around a combination of what I do see (the foreground water and birds, the levees, the trees) and what I imagine I might see if I’m lucky (birds occupying the space on either side and above the trees). Then I wait. I recall pressing the shutter release when the central three birds were centered above the tallest trees.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.