Tag Archives: morning

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Badlands, Morning Light

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Badlands, Morning Light
Soft morning sunlight on colorful badlands terrain, Death Valley National Park.

Badlands, Morning Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Soft morning sunlight on colorful badlands terrain, Death Valley National Park.

This area of Death Valley attracts me on almost every visit to this desert landscape. Unlike many of the places I like to visit in the park, it isn’t in the “back of beyond,” and I often photograph here on a morning when I don’t want to travel too far, for example on the final morning of a visit. Like many badlands locations, this area provides an astonishing wealth of potential photographic subjects, and their appearance changes with the light.

In keeping with the usual practice, we visited early one morning on this trip, arriving in the area before sunrise so that we would be ready for the arrival of the first light. This morning sun can be intense, but a bit of high cloudiness softened the light a bit, and this made the colors a bit more visible.

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.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Mouth of the LIttle Sur

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Mouth of the LIttle Sur
Sun breaks through morning fog along the Big Sur coast at the Little Sur River on a spring morning.

Mouth of the LIttle Sur. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Sun breaks through morning fog along the Big Sur coast at the Little Sur River on a spring morning.

Try as I may, I cannot pass this spot without at least a brief stop. The hill (a future sea stack?) sits at the terminus of the Little Sur River, where it takes a meandering route across the beach before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. Backed by the rugged cliffs of the Big Sur coast, it is a remarkable little scene, especially on a day like this when I found myself at the edge of the fog bank, and light came and went as the fog oscillated back and forth. Beams of light traversed the face of the distant faces and raced across the beach.

If you follow my posts you know that I live close enough to the Pacific Coast to go there and photograph for the morning, and that I’ve been going there for decades. The coast is as beautiful as always, especially when I arrive early enough to beat the tourist traffic, but it is showing some rough edges these days. The extent of recent wildfires is concerning, and areas still suffer from washouts that occurred during flooding. Given that last fact, it is ironic that drought is also affecting the landscape, and places that should be in the middle of their intensely green spring growth are already turning brown.

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.

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

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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

Cranes, First Light

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Cranes, First Light
The first morning sunlight on a flock of sandhill cranes standing in a wetlands pond.

Cranes, First Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

The first morning sunlight on a flock of sandhill cranes standing in a wetlands pond.

The light and atmosphere were a bit unusual on this morning. There was just a bit of ground fog, along with some general haze. As the sun came up, a thin layer of clouds to the east over the Sierra Nevada blocked the direct sunlight. These factors combined to produce a very muted and subdued quality as I photographed groups of sandhill cranes in ponds at this wetlands location, standing in groups and occasionally flying off.

As I photographed in this subtle light I knew that eventually the sun would rise about that eastern cloud deck, and that this would produce a few moments of very warm-colored light that was still softened by the haze and fog. I made this photograph of the cranes just as that first direct sunlight arrived.

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 | 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

Cranes Departing

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Cranes Departing
“Cranes Departing” — Restless sandhill cranes take flight from wetlands on a winter morning.

On a typical winter morning where migratory birds hang out, the cycle of early photography often follows a familiar arc. I arrive in near-darkness and start photographing right away, especially when the birds are very active. Rather than being selective about where and when… I follow the patterns that the birds present. If cranes are taking off from a pond, I go there. If a huge flock of geese is flying out, I photograph that. Despite arriving with a plan, these first moments are often about improvising with the conditions I find.

Then, around sunrise or just afterwards, things may slow down a bit. A bit more strategizing may be effective, and I take stock of the light and atmosphere, the locations of birds before figuring out what I’ll do next and where I’ll do it. On this morning I settled on near a large group of sandhill cranes that was still hanging out in and around a shallow pond. I stopped and waited, expecting that they would soon become restless and begin to fly out, a few birds at a time. And, indeed, that is what happened.

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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

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