Tag Archives: morning

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.

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

Dawn Sky and Marsh

December 4, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fog-filled dawn sky above a California Central Valley marsh

This is another photograph that sits on the interesting (to me, anyway!) boundary between wildlife/nature and landscape photography. I was here to photograph migratory birds – at least that is what I told anyone who was interested in my goal – but it is often a bit more complex than that. The sources of the complexity range from the question of just what a wildlife photo should/could be, to the relationship between wildlife and landscape in my photography, to the role of opportunism in photography… and the practical matter of what to do when the birds are not where you are!

I began this morning’s photography with some scenes with nearby bird in the foreground water and the sun rising through dense fog in the distance. Then I decided to move along through this area a bit, initially hoping to find cranes and certain other birds along a west-facing section of this wildlife reserve. The birds had their own ideas about where to be and what to do on this morning, and they apparently did not include settling in near or flying directly over my position. But as the early morning fog drifted in and out, it revealed the muted color of the dawn sky so I stopped and made a few more photographs that were (maybe) more about the landscape (and atmosphere and light and, in my mind, sounds) than about the birds themselves. If you look closely, though, you will see a trio of sandhill cranes passing over the marsh and if you look really close you might notice a lot of other smaller birds here and there, too.

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

Taking to the Air

December 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of snow geese take to the air in early morning light above a San Joaquin Valley marsh

I never know exactly what I’ll find when I go out to shoot a subject like that which I focused on today, namely migratory birds out in the San Joaquin Valley of California. While there is a certain amount of knowledge and technique that goes into photographing this subject in this place, there is also a whole bunch of guesswork, luck, and happenstance. The part that I can chalk up to planning includes the choice to be in this place on a cold morning before dawn, enough familiarity with the place to know where to look for the birds and where the light might be good at certain times of day, and enough experience photographing these birds to have developed some knowledge and instincts that I can put to work.

However, so much is not in my control. On this morning I found a good size flock of (mostly) snow geese in a place where I don’t usually see so many of them, and they were closer to the place from which I can photograph than they usually are. So I stopped and photographed them and waited. Not much seemed to be happening at first – the birds mostly just sat in the shallow water – but the light was interesting, slanting in from the right where the sun had just cleared the horizon. When things seem static, there is no clear answer to the question of whether to wait for something to happen or to move on and look for something else. This time my hunch was that it might be worth waiting. And this time that hunch turned out to be the right one. (Just as often it isn’t!) As I waited I found some slightly better angles to shoot from, and eventually additional geese began to arrive and settle in with the group already there. Often some of the most interesting shots are during very brief instants of action, such as the sudden and unexpected lift-off of a flock of birds. So, after standing and watching and seeing little happen for some time, suddenly a lot may happen almost too quickly to photograph it. It pays to be ready to respond quickly. This group of snow geese was not too far in front of me, and when they suddenly took to the sky I was ready to track them as they lifted off. If you look closely you may be able to see water droplets falling from them as they leave the pond.

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

Marsh Grasses and Fog, Dawn

November 26, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I went to this place to photograph birds – at least that was my excuse. In the past few years I have become passionate about photographing migratory birds in the Great Central Valley of California between late fall and early spring – geese, cranes, herons, ibises, and more. Once you hear the cries of these birds as thousands of them flock together on the ground or in water or, better yet, as they fly overhead, you can become obsessed. In the fall I anticipate their return and watch for early signs. A few weeks ago we managed to find cranes further up the valley, and I knew that the geese wouldn’t be far behind – so this trip was, literally, a “wild goose chase.”

But the truth is a bit more involved. As much as I love the birds, I think that I’m at least as attracted to landscapes where they are found, and to the weather conditions of this season. You might think that a bird photographer would want clear skies and bright light, but I look forward more to fog, clouds, and mist and other kinds of interesting atmosphere. It occurs to me that the birds may partially be my excuse for visiting this landscape. I was expected that it might be clear on this morning, so I was happy (strange photographer!) when I drove into thick fog a few miles from my destination. I arrived just before dawn as the sky was somewhere in that color range between blue and purple and pink, but just barely visible though the murk. I made a few true sunrise photographs that included a barely visible sun behind fog and clouds, then moved on along a gravel road to try to locate the cranes that I could hear. As I came to a right angle turn, the fog stretched beyond the nearby grasses and straight toward the low sun in front of me, thick enough that all details in the distance disappeared (with the exception of a few barely visible birds) into a luminous glow that was almost painfully intense

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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

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: morning

Island, Marsh, Autumn Sky

Dawn Sky and Marsh

Taking to the Air

Marsh Grasses and Fog, Dawn

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