Tag Archives: mammal

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Harbor Seals

December 22, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three harbor seals resting on a rock at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

This is a photograph from a couple years back, made on one of my frequent visits to Point Lobos. If I recall correctly, there were two reasons that I focuses on these creatures on this visit: there were lots of them, and the light was less than wonderful for landscape/seascape photography!

During certain times of the year, it isn’t hard at all to find these large seals near the shoreline at Point Lobos and in many other locations along the coast. At Point Lobos you can often see them swimming around the kelp beds, with their large heads occasionally poking up from the water. They also spend time on some the half-submerged rocks near the shoreline (as this group is doing) or even hauled out on some of the more secluded beaches and coves.

When I first started photographing them seriously I was surprised to find that they pay attention to humans – sometimes a lot of attention. Sometimes it seems that they are regarding me as carefully as I am watching them! Note that two of the seals are staring straight up at my position in this photograph. This habit gives them the appearance of being very attentive creatures and suggests, to me at least, a degree of intelligence and self-possession.

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

California Ground Squirrel

July 28, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Three photographs of a ground squirrel along a shoreline trail at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

Since I don’t quite think these photographs warrant separate posts, consider this to be my first three-for-one offer on the blog – three photographs in one post! I had taken a break from seascape photography on my recent visit to Point Lobos State Reserve south of Carmel and at the upper limit of what we might think of as the Big Sur coast. I was at the top of a bluff overlooking the “point of the sea wolves,” the actual spot that gives this park its name, and was trying to photograph the rather small number of pelicans that were coming past from time to time. (This was an odd day for photographing pelicans – fortunately that wasn’t the main reason I was at Point Lobos. Ten or fifteen minutes would go by with no pelicans at all… and then a giant flock or 30 or more would cruise by and be gone.)

So, I was parked at a spot along this trail on top of the bluff, waiting for interesting birds to come by when a couple stopped to look, too. As they stood there, this squirrel emerged from the brush and came right up to them – obviously not the wildest wild animal around. (Later I had to chase it off the bench that my camera bag was sitting on.) Since there weren’t any bird in photography range and there was a very close squirrel, and since I was standing there with a 100-400mm zoom on my camera, I figured I might as well get some close up shots for my gallery. This seemingly well-trained squirrel (is there a squirrel modeling school somewhere?) went quickly through a delightful sequence of poses: first all fours on the ground and looking quizzically to my right; then up on hind feet to eat a seed; and finally lowering the paws holding the seed to look ever so cutely at something to the right.)

So, now I have squirrel photographs.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)

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

Four Tule Elk, Point Reyes

May 31, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 9 Comments

Four tule elk in the meadows at Point Reyes National Seashore.

When the day started I had no idea that I might be photographing wildlife today, much less tule elk! In fact, today was meant to be primarily a photography day. We decided to spend the day on a coastal drive, starting with breakfast in Santa Cruz and then heading north to… wherever we ended up. We had a vague idea that it might be interesting to end up at Point Reyes Station perhaps, where there was an open art studio event going on.

By mid-afternoon, that is indeed where we ended up. We stopped in town to get coffee and a snack and wander about just a bit. With no specific plan in mind we sort of decided to head on out to Point Reyes – the actual “point,” not just the general park. On the way back we took a detour down to Drakes Bay for a quick stop. As we drive back up from there to the top of the hill near the main road we saw some strange shapes in the distance behind a fence. The looked like antlers, but that didn’t seem right – this particular area is dairy country and the elk that I had heard about were in a different area of the park. But as we reached the top of the hill it became completely obvious that a small herd of tule elk were grazing right on the other side of the fence. We pulled over and I grabbed my long lens. The elk were kind enough to occasionally look up from the business of grazing and pose dramatically in the low late-afternoon light from the west.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter (follow me) | Facebook (“Like” my page) | 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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Wildlife, Photographs: Yosemite

Crouching Marmot

June 17, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Oh, no, not another marmot! Yes. Another marmot. And I think I have at least one more to post before I’m done. Once again, this critter was hanging out in the rocks at Olmsted Point when I visited on my way across Tioga Pass on June 5, 2010.

I’d love to be able to say that I had to carefully stalk this marmot across the alpine tundra of the high Sierra, but that wouldn’t be true. First, it is really hard to closely approach marmots that are not accustomed to humans, and the back-country marmots tend to be fairly skittish. Second, I would not be carrying the lens that I used for this shot on back-country pack trips. The truth is that this critter is one of the many that hang out at Olmsted Point along Tioga Pass Road. These marmots won’t – fortunately! – eat out of your hand or anything like that, and they do retain some caution… but they will come relatively close to you. I was there because it was the day that the pass was frst opened for the season. The marmots almost seemed a bit amused by all of the humans who showed up that day, and they also seemed to be enjoying a bit of late spring sun.

My approach to photographing them was pretty simple. I put a long lens on my camera – a 400mm telephoto – and found a comfortable spot below the rocks where they hang out. I waited quietly, and when they began to “come out to play,” I was able to photograph them from a decent distance and avoid spooking them.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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