Tag Archives: mnwr

Photographs: Nature

Late-Winter Fiddlenecks

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Late-Winter Fiddlenecks
Fiddleneck blossoms near the end of winter.

Late-Winter Fiddlenecks. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fiddleneck blossoms near the end of winter.

Two weeks ago — it seems like years now — I made my last pre-lockdown visit to a favorite natural area on Friday the 13th of this month. We had attended our last public event a week before and were already in the process of adopting social-distancing measures — a bit ahead of the curve and a bit before such things were no longer optional around here. On this visit I minimized my contacts, traveling self-contained back and forth so that the only stop I had to make was at a local gas station when I got back home.

The experience was both rewarding and somewhat strange. The main flocks I go to see had apparently departed just a few days earlier. There was almost no one else there — normally a good thing, but strange now. Against that backdrop it was clear that even on this late-winter day spring was arriving. I paused from photographing birds to make some photographs of an exuberant patch of fiddle neck blossoms.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Evening Clouds, Winter Wetlands

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Evening Clouds, Winter Wetlands
“Evening Clouds, Winter Wetlands” — Dissipating rain clouds at dusk above winter wetland landscape

This past weekend I was doing the long drive back from Death Valley National Park to the San Francisco Bay Areas. This is quite a drive — a long one that takes the better part of a full day, and a route that begins in one of the most arid locations in North America and ends in the cool and moist Bay Area. I have various ways to break up the long drive, and one of them is often to make a final stop at one of the great Central Valley wetland areas a couple of hours from my destination.

In fact, that was my plan on this trip. I wasn’t sure of the weather of my timing, but as I came to the base of Tehachapi Pass in Bakersfield it looked more like my schedule and the weather might cooperate, so I eschewed the usual I-5 homebound route and instead headed up Route 99, with a plan to cut over to wetland further up the Valley. I arrived to find… not too many birds (it was, after all, late in the season) but ponds full of welcome water reflecting a sky filled with dissipating rain clouds.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Cranes, Fog, Island

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Cranes, Fog, Island
A small flock of sandhill cranes at the edge of a small island and reflected on a pond on a foggy morning

Cranes, Fog, Island. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small flock of sandhill cranes at the edge of a small island and reflected on a pond on a foggy morning.

Sometimes I photograph birds (and other subjects) accompanied by various friends and fellow photographers. Other times I go alone. I enjoy both, though there is something special about being “out there” in the wilds on my own as I was on the morning when I made this photograph. Working alone (and sometimes working with kindred spirits, too) allows a kind of intense focus on the subject that borders on obsessions. But, perhaps ironically, it also permits a sort of slow and aimless work that simply allows things to happen.

This was that kind of morning. I was, indeed, quite focused on locating and photographing birds and the foggy morning landscape, and an observer might have wondered when I occasionally stopped and worked one subject for extended periods of time. These cranes were standing in shallow water, and I watched them for some time until they finally seemed to have had enough of me, and they took flight and departed for some distant location.

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.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes

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Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes
A group of sandhill cranes takes to the morning sky above foggy marshland

Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of sandhill cranes takes to the morning sky above foggy marshland.

This photograph continues the theme for the next week or so, leading up to the opening on February 16 of “Birdscapes,” my joint show with David Hoffman at Stellar Gallery in Oakhurst. Today’s photograph comes from rather early in the Pacific Flyway season, way back in November. At this point the earliest winter birds are just arriving and others are still in transit from their summer breeding grounds. On this morning the main show was sandhill cranes, though a few other individual birds showed up, too — egrets, perhaps a few ibises, and lots of “little brown birds.”

The more I am around birds the more I realize that they spend a lot of time doing… not much, or at least not much that seems very active. But interjected into these mostly slow periods are some very active and dynamic moments. Among them are take-offs and landings. These birds are somewhat large, and getting airborne is no simple thing — there is a lot of initial jumping and flapping and perhaps even a bit of footwork to get things moving. This group was just taking flight from a shallow bond on a morning of thin and clearing 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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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