Tag Archives: morning

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

Sandhill Cranes, Marsh, Dawn

January 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Flocks of sandhill cranes fly through dawn haze above San Joaquin Valley marshland

This is another New Year’s Day photograph – and probably won’t be the last one. The typical process when I shoot here is to start at a parking area near the entrance before the sun comes up, either meeting friends there or else simply pausing to get my gear ready and put on warm clothes. Without fail, I also pause for a few minutes to take in the extraordinary sound of the many thousands of migratory birds, usually coming from unseen places off in the mist or fog, and the sound always makes me smile. I may make a few initial photographs in the dim predawn light, and then I usually move off to start looking for subjects.

On this morning I began my “move” before the sun came up, but moments later I looked over my shoulder to see the first light of the rising sun, and I quickly found this location with a small gap in the tules, a bare tree, and some reflecting water, and I lined them up with the rising sun. In this foggy valley, when the fog is not too thick, there is a brief interval of perhaps a minute or two when the globe of the sun rises behind the fog, which mutes the light and allows me to shoot straight into the sun. Also right about dawn, flights of sandhill cranes lift off and fly in lines above the landscape – and on this morning the two ephemeral events happened simultaneously.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Levee Road and Trees

January 6, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A pond reflects trees in foggy morning light along a twisting San Joaquin Valley levee road

This photograph is from my New Year’s Day visit to the San Joaquin Valley, where I went to greet the dawn in the company of thousands of migratory birds and a couple of good friends. After arriving home from the east coast the previous night at about 11:00 and getting to bed after midnight, I arose before 4:00 AM and headed off to the valley. Despite the sleep deprivation, it helped a bit to remind myself that it was already 7:00 AM back in New York, where I had spent the previous week – but only a bit. I arrived before dawn to meet my friends Dave and Charlotte, and we quickly went to work photographing the birds and the early and misty environment of this marshland area.

Shortly after the sun rose I headed out along this road that follows the contours of the levees separating the various ponds. Mostly they travel in relatively straight lines, but here the track takes a winding course among stands of cottonwood trees. When I stopped to look around a bit I glanced back and saw this pattern, with the early light on the vegetation and the slight fog causing colors and contrast to fade into the distance.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Pre-Dawn Light, San Joaquin Valley

December 27, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pre-dawn light and thin fog above marshland in California’s San Joaquin Valley

A foggy fall landscape with birds from California’s San Joaquin Valley, where I often go at tho time of year to photograph migratory birds and the often foggy, cold, and damp places they live. The region is largely agricultural, with lots of cattle being raised nearby – but in the winter the pastures are flooded and a huge variety of birds can be found here, including geese, herons, white pelicans, cranes, ibises, egrets, and more.

As I usually do, I left the San Francisco Bay area very early in the morning, well before dawn, so that I could arrive here before the sun came up. I had already been shooting a while when I stopped next to this pond where a small group of coots (?) were clustered together. I had been looking for some sort of foreground focus around which to build a photograph that included those interesting clouds over in the direction of the Sierra Nevada, clouds that here are just beginning to pick up the dawn light that had yet to reach the valley, were there was still a light blanket of fog.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Island, Marsh, Autumn Sky

December 22, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late-autumn morning sky above islands and flooded marshland, San Joaquin Valley

We arrived here in predawn darkness for a day of bird photography. I never know exactly what I’ll find when I start a morning out here, especially since I most often start before sunrise and frequently in thick fog. On this day, the air was a bit murky before dawn but there was no thick fog, and as we drove the perimeter of this marshy area we could not only hear the cranes and geese and other birds, but we could even see them a bit. The atmosphere was “interesting,” to use a euphemism for “doesn’t look promising but you never know what might happen!” No thick fog… but clouds overhead that might or might not allow some interesting light at sunrise.

Perhaps 10 minutes before sunrise it was time to pick a subject and be ready for it. At about that point we arrived at this flooded pond with its odd little tule-covered islands. It was still gray, but I figured that if color did arrive at sunrise I might be able to fill the frame with the sky – both the actual sky and its colors reflected in the water – and split the image with the island and the thin horizon line. So I swapped my long bird lens for my widest ultra-wide and set up right along the edge of the water. The sunrise itself was blocked by thicker low clouds to the east, but as the sun rose above them it began to light higher cloud layers above the low-lying atmospheric haze and everything turned to shades of blue.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: morning

Sandhill Cranes, Marsh, Dawn

Levee Road and Trees

Pre-Dawn Light, San Joaquin Valley

Island, Marsh, Autumn Sky

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