Tag Archives: migrator

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

Geese and Evening Sky

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Geese and Evening Sky
Geese and Evening Sky

Geese and Evening Sky. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 1, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A motion blurred photograph of Ross’s geese against the evening sky above California’s San Joaquin Valley

Bird photographers might appreciate the thought I had that it might be appropriate to refer to these “BIF” photographs “blurred in flight” shots. (Among bird photographers, “BIF” is short for “birds in flight.”) I guess I could say that I’m photographing “blinds,” or “blurreds,” – or something. In any case, the experimentation with motion-blur abstractions of flying birds continues.

I photographed these Ross’s geese on New Year’s Day 2013, when I met a great group of friends out in the foggy Central Valley to “chase wild geese” and other migratory birds. I made plenty of the usual sharp photographs of birds, but I’ve felt for some time that those do not always succeed in creating some analog of the ephemeral and transitory character of these critters. Plus, I just sort of like the abstraction of they blurred shapes! Some might say that making blurry photographs is a sign of less the competent photography, but I have to say that this isn’t quite as easy as it might seem. There are a lot of things to consider as I make these images. There is a sort of exposure time sweet spot that blurs the birds sufficiently but which still holds enough of their shape to clearly show their nature. I want abstract shapes, but not so abstract that they no longer clearly suggest birds in flight. Secondly there is the matter of background. Ideally, I think I like to locate the flying birds against fairly plain sky with interesting color. This means tracking the birds as they take flight, close to the ground and with “stuff” behind them, waiting for the moment when they break clear of ground and brush and trees and appear against the right sort of sky, but only for a moment before they move too far away. Finally, as I shoot I watch the constantly evolving relationships of position and shape among the birds of the moving flock, and try to capture moments when they briefly align in interesting ways. This group had stretched into a sort of horizontal cloud of birds when I triggered the shutter.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Wildlife

Two Trumpeter Swans in Flight

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Two Trumpeter Swans in Flight
Two Trumpeter Swans in Flight

Two Trumpeter Swans in Flight. Skagit Valley, Washington. December 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pair of trumpeter swans in flight above Skagit Valley farmland on a cloudy and rainy day, Washington

I had about four or five hours in the Skagit Valley area of Washington in the beginning of December, after the tasks I had gone to Washington for were completed early. I drove up from the Seattle area in the rain, and it was still cloudy, windy, and rainy when I arrived – just what one might expect in December in the Pacific Northwest! The last time I had been there, a year ago, I had encountered amazing flocks of snow geese in a field near the road not far from where it rises to cross the river, and my first thought was that I’d see if this was a regular event or if I had just been lucky the previous year. I must have been lucky! This time there was not a goose to be seen, at least at first, at this location.

Given this development, I decided to poke around on some back roads in the area and see if I could get close enough to trumpeter swans to photograph them with my meager little 200mm focal length lens – about half the length of what I would usually use for this sort of subject. By moving carefully, using my car as a blind, and sitting quietly and waiting, I was able to get a few close shots of the swans in a field. I soon figured out that they would occasionally lift off and fly to another nearby field where there were other swans, so I positioned myself (in the car) between the two flocks and settled in to see what would happen. Sure enough, before long groups of two or more swans started to fly my direction and pass close to the car, usually rising a bit as they passed over. This pair made a bit of a turn around me, so I photographed them against the cloud-filled 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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 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.