Tag Archives: merced

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

Landing in Fog

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Landing in Fog
Geese land in morning tule fog, California Central Valley.

Landing in Fog. © Copyright 20202012G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese land in morning tule fog, California Central Valley.

Back when I first began photographing this subject, I tended to think of these conditions as being barely worthy of photographing. Challenges abound — it is hard to stop the motion of flying birds when using a long lens in low light, the thick fog often renders the birds invisible, and it can be cold and wet! But over time my perspective shifted and I came to hope for conditions like these at the start of a day of bird photography.

Finding the birds in these conditions can be something of a challenge. Often I’ll hear them — many thousands of them — somewhere out there in the fog. But the birds are too far away to be visible, aside from an occasional outlier that quickly appears in the mist and is gone just as fast. So we move on, hoping that we’ll eventually find a spot where the birds a close enough or that the fog will eventually thin a bit. On this morning we had traversed almost the entirety of this location before we came upon a huge flock very close to the gravel road. We stopped and watched quietly as the first came and went.

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 and Amazon.

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

Geese in Fog

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Geese in Fog
Geese feed in a California Central Valley pasture on a foggy morning.

Geese in Fog. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese feed in a California Central Valley pasture on a foggy morning.

As I work my way through the raw file archives from past years — a wonderful exercise in this pandemic-limited times — I don’t just think about the images as photographs. I also recall the experiences of making them — the feelings of the locations, the people who were with me, the surrounding non-photographic activities. During the past few days I’ve been thinking about the overall experience of a full day of photographing a subject such as these migratory birds, and as I do so I’ve considered how different it is from what many folks might imagine.

When people think of bird photography I believe that they relate to the “hunt” aspect of it — searching for a subject and focusing in on some amazing specimen or specimens. Sounds pretty exciting, right? But the truth about this sort of photography (and, to be honest, lots of photography) is that it tends to involve a lot more “not photographing” than actual photographing. A typical day of photographing a subject like this one involves quite a bit of just being there with my eyes open, hoping I’m in the right place at the right time. It tends to be a slow and quiet activity, punctuated by occasional bouts of intense activity. I’ve been in the field with folks who weren’t used to this, and I can often sense their anxiety of slowing down enough as they wait for something to happen. Over time I have learned to love these slow, quiet periods — like the very quiet scene in this photography. I often think nostalgically about them more than about the brief, intense moments.

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 and Amazon.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Ross’s Geese in Flight

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Ross's Geese in Flight
A large group of Ross’s geese in flight above California’s Central Valley.

Ross’s Geese in Flight. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large group of Ross’s geese in flight above California’s Central Valley.

Recently I shared another photograph of Ross’s geese made on the same day as this one. The two photographs could not be more different! I made that other photograph in fading evening light, and I opted for a rather long shutter speed, resulting in a soft and abstract image of the motion of birds taking off. This photograph was made earlier in good light, and while it also focuses on birds taking to the air, there is no softness in this one!

How many birds? I don’t know. (Though if you are interested and patient you can count birds in a small area and then multiply to reflect those in the rest of the frame!) I took a close enough look to say that the birds are primarily Ross’s geese, which is not to say that there might not be a few stray snow geese sneaking into the party.

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 and Amazon.

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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.

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

Sudden Flight

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Sudden Flight
A flock of Ross’s geese takes to the air at the end of the day.

Sudden Flight. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of Ross’s geese takes to the air at the end of the day.

As an afternoon of migratory autumn/winter migratory bird photography runs on into sunset and then twilight, it is inevitable that there will eventually be too little light to photograph the way I might during the daytime. But I usually continue until it is virtually dark — to the point that I may need a headlamp to stow my equipment when I finish. During that final low-light period I often end the cycle of increasing ISO and pushing shutter speed, and instead I drop ISO down to the minimum and let the exposure times lengthen, allowing me to work with motion blur from birds in flight.

We had positioned ourselves near a large flock of geese in a pasture, and they were gradually become more restless, beginning to take off in small groups and depart for parts unknown. Groups tend to depart together, and as they do they rise, with little or no warning, en masse and take to the air. It is hard to say what makes a photograph “realistic,” but I often feel that these masses of blurry birds may suggest the quality of these departing flocks at least as truthfully as stop-motion photographs.

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 and Amazon.

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.