Tag Archives: morning

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Across the Canyon

Image 1 Comment
Across the Canyon
Morning light on a desert canyon and eroded hills, Death Valley National Park.

Across the Canyon. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning light on a desert canyon and eroded hills, Death Valley National Park.

Weeks ago I thought I was “done” with the photographs from my January visit to Death Valley National Park. As usual, I was wrong. I almost always end up returning later to files that I think I’ve picked over, and I inevitably find something that I missed. (I have a theory about this that has to do with how we see photographs right after we make them versus how we view them later on with some aesthetic distance.) I made this photograph on a morning when thick haze to the east softened the light.

The impetus for this return to the file archive was a posted by a friend who was photographing in the park just before the first day of spring. I recognized her camera position as being very close to a place that I had used in January, and when I went back to my files to verify my hunch I ended up plowing through the archive again. The fact that this photograph sees the light of day now is the result of multiple bits of serendipity. I was there to photograph an entirely different subject, and I only spotted this scene by turning away from that subject. I might never have “found” it again if it hadn’t been for the coincidence of seeing my friend’s photograph.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Nature

Tulip and Dew

Image Leave a comment
Tulip and Dew
Morning dew on a newly-opening tulip.

Tulip and Dew. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning dew on a newly-opeing tulip.

Those of you who know us realize that I’m not really the flower photographer in our household — that would be Patricia Emerson Mitchell. But sometimes she lets me tag along and try my hand at this subject. Recently we visited a local garden together on wet, post-rain morning, where we found that tulips and other bulbs were starting to bloom.

Sometimes tulips can have an almost-artificial perfection. That’s appealing, but I also like photographing flowers that are not quite perfect. (Sometimes I even seek out flowers that are staring to decay a bit, and I’ll even photograph flowers that have fallen to the ground.) The fascinating color gradations of this flower caught my attention.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

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

Three Cranes, Sunrise Sky

Image Leave a comment
Three Cranes, Sunrise Sky
Three sandhill cranes in flight beneath dawn sky, Central Valley, California.

Three Cranes, Sunrise Sky. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Three sandhill cranes in flight beneath dawn sky, Central Valley, California.

In an earlier post I believe I mentioned that I made “more than a few” photographs of cranes flying against this colorful pre-dawn sky. The key on this morning was that a thin layer of high clouds stretched to the east over and beyond the Sierra Nevada. It was more or less the perfect sort of cloudiness to create this light — thick enough to pick up the color and glow, but mostly not thick enough to block the morning light. So I perhaps expended more frames than usual on the cranes that passed in front of my camera position.

I recently read that sandhill cranes are one of the most ancient of bird species, and they do have a sort of primordial quality when in flight. They often fly in small groups of two or three, though sometimes I’ll see groups of a dozen or so… and when they fly back to settle in the evening there may be a hundred or more at a time. They are large birds, and their relatively slow wing strokes and frequent gliding are striking.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

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

Three Cranes in Silhouette

Image Leave a comment
Three Cranes in Sillouette
Three sandhill cranes silhouetted against dawn sky over the Sierra Nevada crest.

Three Cranes in Silhouette. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Three sandhill cranes silhouetted against dawn sky over the Sierra Nevada crest.

A trio of what may be my favorite kind of bird, the sandhill crane. This group is flying above California’s Central Valley on a late-February morning, silhouetted against a brilliantly colorful sky of thin clouds above the crest of the Sierra Nevada.

Photographing birds against this kind of sky is a challenge. Part of me wants to end up with photographs that show the details of the birds’ shape and texture, but an exposure that would accomplish this would entirely lose the brilliant colors of this pre-sunrise sky. So I go with the silhouette effect — though you may be able to spot at least the suggestion of detail on the birds’ wings if you look closely. Truth be told, seeing the details of the birds in this light is extremely difficult and, I think, perhaps not the most important thing.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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