Tag Archives: mnwr

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Marsh

January 2, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Skeletal trees and dormant grasses in a winter marsh

We celebrated New Year’s Day as we have for the past few years — meeting before dawn a group of friends and photographers out in the wintry California Central Valley to greet the literal dawn of the new year. We arrived before sunrise, spent the first few hours making photographs, then gathered for a morning champagne toast and shared snacks and stories. After lunch we went back into the field to photograph birds and the landscape until it was so dark that we could barely see one another by the light of the rising full moon. Great times!

While most of my photography on such trips and in such places at this time of year involves birds, occasionally I photograph other things in this valley. During the late morning hours we all felt that need for a walking break. (Most bird photography involves a lot of standing and sitting around.) We wandered out on a trail through a marsh, I got started a bit later than the group. I took only a small, handheld camera with a single lens, not thinking there would be much to photograph. But it was quiet, a gentle breeze moved the grasses, and soft light shone through the hazy atmosphere, so I stopped to make a few photographs of this peaceful and almost silent landscape of trees, grasses, and water.

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

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

Winter Wetlands

December 28, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ponds and trees on a winter morning in the San Joaquin Valley

This is a very familiar spot to me — and probably to some of my friends as well. We often pass through this area while photographing in the San Joaquin Valley, usually looking for migratory birds (and often in very dense fog!). This is a landscape of farmland, interspersed by ponds, in and area of the valley through which large rivers travel — or traveled, until the waterways were “managed” for agricultural and other uses. There are trees, too, though they are often widely separated from one another or else arranged in long rows along roads and property lines.

There are a few birds in this photograph — you may see them on the water if you look closely — but it is more about the landscape. Here it consists of (mostly) those ponds, divided by low levees on which grasses and other plants grow and an occasional tree takes root.

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

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

Sandhill Cranes, Morning Light

December 27, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of sandhill cranes flies in early morning light

It wasn’t that long ago when I first began to photograph the birds in the San Joaquin Valley. I was oblivious to their presence for many, many years — which is strange, since I have traveled across that valley for decades on my way to and from the Sierra and other locations. Perhaps a bit more than a decade ago I got my first hint on a long drive to Seattle, when I passed through the Sacramento Valley and was shocked to see huge flocks of geese in the evening sky. Later, almost as an accident, a friend mentioned a location where there are sandhill cranes and, looking for something to photography, I went off to find the spot and, again, thousands of birds. From that time forward, photographing the birds in fall and winter has become a passion.

At first it was the geese that got my attention. Anyone who has seen flocks of thousands of snow geese or Ross’s geese suddenly fill the sky, or who has heard the sound they make will understand why them made such an impression. But somehow the cranes have become more and more the birds that define these places for me. Their call is like that of no other bird that I know, and they are often heard before they are seen. Their manner of flight is often more sedate than that of geese, and they often tend to fly at low elevations and in straight lines. This group flew overhead in the early morning light.

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

White Pelicans, Evening Sky

December 26, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of white pelicans curves below winter evening clouds

When photographing out in the San Joaquin Valley on late-autumn or winter early mornings and evenings, we are usually very attuned to the sky and cloud conditions. It isn’t always obvious. On some evenings the sky can be quite hazy, even dismal. But that thick haze can work like a scrim on a theatrical set, and when the light appears behind and above it, the sky beyond can be magically revealed.

On the spectrum of skies from drab to flamboyant, this one might best be described as subtle. It was not the kind of neon sky that is almost unbelievable in its intensity and brightness, but there were many layers running in various directions, and subtle effects of color did appear. At just this moment when the sun was just below the horizon, too low to cast direct light on us but still lighting the bottoms of the clouds, a curving ling of white pelicans passed overhead.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: mnwr

Winter Marsh

Winter Wetlands

Sandhill Cranes, Morning Light

White Pelicans, Evening Sky

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