Tag Archives: late

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Clearing Storm, Sierra Crest

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Clearing Storm, Sierra Crest
A late-spring storm clears along the Sierra Nevada crest near Bloody Canyon.

Clearing Storm, Sierra Crest. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A late-spring storm clears along the Sierra Nevada crest near Bloody Canyon.

This photograph comes from an early-season trip across the Sierra crest a few years ago. It must have been quite a day. The first photographs from the set were in springtime Yosemite Valley. By the end of the day I had crossed Tioga Pass and headed out to the east of the range and into high desert near Mono Lake, the location from which I made this photograph late in the afternoon.

If only I kept a diary of these things! My hunch is that this was my “first trip of the season” across recently-cleared passes, on which I often take stock of the conditions at the beginning of a new summer season. From the looks of the clouds hugging the crest along the eastern Yosemite boundary, winter had not yet quite let go. There was still a decent amount of snow, clouds draped the crest, and it looks like there is some active precipitation.

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

Red-Winged Blackbird Territorial Display

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Red-Winged Blackbird Territorial Display
Red-Winged blackbird on its perch, late-winter territorial display.

Red-Winged Blackbird Territorial Display. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Red-Winged blackbird on its perch, late-winter territorial display.

One beneficial personal effect of my bird photography has been greater awareness of parts of the local natural world that I had not paid a lot of attention to. As I have mentioned previously, I not really a “birder” in the usual sense of the word, and while I’ve enjoyed observing birds in the wild I can’t claim to be an expert on them. But photographing them has encouraged me to ask questions about what I’m seeing and to learn more.

There are two similar types of small blackbirds where I photograph, the tricolored blackbird and the red-winged blackbird. Both seem to my untrained bird-watching eyes to be pretty darned similar, apart from the extra bands of color on the shoulders of the former. Both are common in grasslands and related agricultural areas. Some sources suggest that populations have declined due to climate change and the loss of habitat, and that their range has shrunk. Apparently the eye-catching display — puffed out feathers and “exhibit of the colorful shoulder patches — is, at least during the late-winter period when I made the photograph, used to mark territory prior to the breeding season.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Creosote, Early Evening Light

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Creosote, Early Evening Light
Soft evening light on creosote growing in windblown unes at Death Valley National Park.

Creosote, Early Evening Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on creosote growing in windblown unes at Death Valley National Park.

Desert light (like that in quite a few other places) can go through a remarkable transformation late its the day, a transformation that mirrors the one taking place in the morning. In the middle of the day, the light is often quite intense, rather bluish (from that gigantic light panel we call the “sky), and the landscape is full of harsh contrasts between highlights and shadows. At some point in the very late afternoon, assuming a cooperative surrounding landscape and the right weather conditions, the light imperceptibly begins to soften and warm in color. If you were not attuned to this you might not notice at first, but eventually it becomes obvious as the process accelerates and intensifies, producing a sort of “crescendo of light” that often peaks just before it ends.

I made this photograph somewhere in the middle of that cycle — far enough along that the color has definitely warmed, but not so late that the full sunset redness has arrived. At this point the light changes rapidly, and features that I had not noticed suddenly become interesting. I often find myself working quite quickly at this point — perhaps in contrast to how some people imagine landscape photography works. In these situations I often like to work with zoom lenses with long focal lengths. This allows me to quickly respond to things I see at varying distances, to isolate smaller sections of the landscape, and to quickly try out different compositional ideas.

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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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Snags, Late Winter Fog

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Snags, Late Winter Fog
A group of dead trees next to a riparian meadow on a foggy Central Valley winter day.

Snags, Late Winter Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of dead trees next to a riparian meadow on a foggy Central Valley winter day.

Like several other photographs I have recently shared, this one comes from the Central Valley of California and was also made in the winter. However, this one is from a few years ago and in a slightly different location than my usual haunts in the valley. I made the photograph late in the migratory bird photography season, actually just after the main flock of geese had departed and when the place seemed downright lonely without them! That feeling was amplified on this particular visit, as it was right after the initial March 2020 lockdown, when so much about the trajectory of the pandemic was still unknown. We didn’t yet understand how it was spread or even how serious it was. At that time we were still paranoid of any contact with others, and I recall seeking out the most isolated gasoline station I could find on my way home.

The specific location is of a sort that fascinates me. Much of this valley is no longer exactly natural, being given over to huge agricultural areas. While the sense of vast space remains, what lies beneath it is largely affected by humans. However, in a few places the landscape is not so conducive to agriculture, and the land feels wilder. This is such a place, a shallow depression following the path of a creek which may be dry in summer but can flow rather powerfully in wet winters. I paused on a levee next to the area and photographed across a few old snags and into sun-lit fog.

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.