Tag Archives: national

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

Geese Take Flight in Dusk Sky

June 17, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Motion-blurred photograph of a flock of Ross’s geese taking flight in dusk sky above the San Joaquin Valley, California

This is another example of what I’ve taken to referring to my “blurreds in flight” photographs. (Yes, a bad pun on the common subject of “birds in flight,” also known as “bif” photographs.) Very early morning or dusk seem like good times to experiment with this, as the very dim light often pushes the ability of photographer and gear to continue to shoot as ISOs rise, apertures enlarge… and eventually one runs out of maneuvering room. Just lower that ISO and let the birds blur!

But that’s not really why I do these. While I suppose that I’m just as interested in trying to produce very sharp images of birds frozen in flight by high shutter speeds and accurate autofocus, I sometimes feel that this more clinical approach isn’t the only way to capture or express the qualities of these animals and what I can observe of their lives. In a sense, the still camera “lies” about what we can actually see of these birds when we are there and watching them. In low light, often observing from a distance, when a group of Ross’s geese suddenly takes flight in a wild maelstrom of honking and flapping wings, we really cannot see all of the specific details of each feather and the impression we have is more often one of wild motion and surprise. While I don’t think a photograph can ever fully or accurately depict this, allowing the motion to become visible by using slow shutter speeds might evoke a sense of these animals that the razor-sharp, stop-action photographs might miss.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Tree Covered Hillside, Cliff

June 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early autumn afternoon back-light on high country trees and shadows on a sandstone cliff face, Zion National Park

Perhaps surprisingly, trees were a big draw for me during my several visits to Zion National Park in October last year, and not just the trees that were getting their fall color. The junipers and pines are also intriguing, especially when backed by sandstone or lit from behind by low angle light as in this photograph.

This area near the eastern boundary of the park has intrigued me but also puzzled me each time I have stopped there. Nearly is a significant and named park feature that seems to be the main reason for stopping. It is an impressive geological feature… but, for the life of me, I have not been able to find a way to make an interesting photograph of it. Yet each time I passed by, I stopped and looked and pondered and (most often) did not photograph it. However, with each successive stop I began to pay more attention to other features in this spot: the big cliff on the other side of the valley on which colors fade from gray-white to red, the many trees that stand with enough space between them to allow back-light to pick them off individually, and more.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Unclassified, Photographs: Utah

Autumn Maple Tree, Slot Canyon

June 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The red and gold leaves of an autumn maple tree against the lichen-covered and layered sandstone walls of a slot canyon, Zion National Park

When we passed through Zion National Park about a week and a half from the end of October, it was mostly too early for fall color in Zion Canyon, but things were starting to get interesting in the high country along the Mount Carmel Highway, where we spent most of a day looking for and photographing fall color, red rock, canyons, and much more. It seemed to me that the predominant sources of autumn color here were maples, and some of them were quite brilliant.

This tree was growing along a wash at the bottom of a red rock canyon which in places took on the appearance of a slot canyon. Between the tree, with its golden-yellow, oranges, greens, and bits of red, and the cliff, with shades of brown, white, red-orange, and even blue and purple, it is hard to think of very many colors that don’t make an appearance here. I of course liked the colors of this tree, but I also found the water-sculpted steep canyon walls to be interesting, with their folded shapes, lichen, and brighter color where the underlying rock could show through.

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

Marsh and Fog

June 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Water plants disappear into the fog.

On this late-November day, I had initially gone to a Central Valley wildlife refuge in hopes of photographing migratory birds. When I arrived the fog was so thick that birds were just about impossible to see. I went ahead and made a slow circumnavigation of the refuge, stopping to try to photograph birds from time to time. The first that I found – by hearing rather than seeing – were a group of Ross’s geese that were just barely visible through the fog, but not really photographable in the ways that I had in mind. A bit further along the perimeter road, an egret stayed put long enough that I could point the lens out the car window and make a few photographs, and shortly after that I came upon a group of white-faced ibises. I photographed these, too, but in the thick fog the results were not very exciting. I continued on around the refuge, finding nothing.

At this point I was starting to think that I might simply have to wait for the fog to clear, but instead I decided to make one more circuit and see if there was any way to photograph the landscape in this fog. As I did this, and temporarily let the bird photography idea slip aside, I started to see some interesting subjects in the plants growing in the water and on small drier clumps surrounded by the marsh. This simple photograph was made shooting handheld from the car, with the camera pointed into the thick fog which caused the landscape to fade into gray no more than 100 yards away.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: national

Geese Take Flight in Dusk Sky

Tree Covered Hillside, Cliff

Autumn Maple Tree, Slot Canyon

Marsh and Fog

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