Winter Branches and Sky. January 23, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Bare branches of dormant trees against a cloud-dappled winter sky over the Central Valley of California.

This was a bit of a “grab shot,” made almost as an afterthought once I finished with another photograph and was taking down the tripod and putting gear away – hence it is a hand held photograph. I was somewhat aware of these clouds, since I had been photographing the sky (and other things) in a different direction, though those photographs included more distant subjects and a lot of intervening haze and clearing fog. Here, as is often the case during foggy conditions in the Central Valley, the shallow tule fog was in the process of clearing and leaving a very clear view of the sky straight overhead, even while a horizontal views were still obstructed by remaining haze.

The trees are from a more or less random grouping that happened to be next to the road where I had stopped. I cannot say what kind of trees they are. It was my good luck that these wispy (mares tail?) clouds happened to float over at the moment when I was here and looking up. After making this photograph, I got concluded my photography for the day and headed home.

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