Trees, much less groves or forests, are a bit of a rarity in much of the Scottish Highlands, at least compared to what we might expect in similar mountain country in the Western United States. Much of the highlands landscape is devoid of trees, and when they appear they are scatted in small groups… or part of tree farms. So it was a very pleasant surprise to arrive on the coast near Applecross and see these lush, green trees next to the River Applecross.
Continue reading River Applecross
As a person who has spent a lifetime exploring California’s High Sierra Nevada, I have seen a lot of rugged, alpine scenes. “My” mountains typically require me to climb to near or above 10,000′ to see scenes like this. But here in Scotland, on the Isle of Skye specifically, the mountains rise from essentially sea level. While the peaks are all below 4000′, they nonetheless present the same alpine scenery I find among the highest peaks in the Sierra.
Continue reading Mountains, Morning Light
I have been sharing a lot of photographs from this year’s spectacular wildflower bloom in Death Valley National Park — and I’m not quite done yet! In dry years one may have to go off searching (sometimes in vain) for landscape-carpeting flowers like these. But this year, after a previous season of good rainfall the flowers were easy to find.
How easy? I made this photograph just a few minutes from the busy Furnace Creek area. Here the desert gold flowers spilled across a broad wash, past small hills, and on into the more distant wide valley. Beyond are the dark hills at the north end of the Black Mountains.
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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
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.
Surprisingly, for those of us who love winter, spring can evoke some of the same bittersweet feelings that autumn evokes. The season of interesting weather, dramatic skies, and migratory birds is passing. With that in mind I made one more visit to the Central Valley to see if the birds had departed. Some had — I saw no sandhill cranes at all. But I was treated to a stupendous dawn fly-out of geese.
I half expected that snow geese and Ross’s geese would have left already. In the past they were there at the beginning of the month but gone before the Ides of March. I arrived before sunrise and saw no geese at all, but a few minutes later I heard a few in the distance. I headed that way, and soon tremendous fly-outs began all over the surrounding wetlands. Thousands of geese took off into the colorful cloudy sky above the distant Sierra Nevada during the next half hour. And then they were gone.
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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
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.