Tag Archives: nature

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

Winter Surf and Coastal Bluffs

Image 2 Comments
Winter Surf and Coastal Bluffs
Winter surf rolls in beneath steep shoreline bluffs along the rugged Big Sur coast of California.

Winter Surf and Coastal Bluffs. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter surf rolls in beneath steep shoreline bluffs along the rugged Big Sur coast of California.

Although I have been down this section of California’s spectacular coast in the past few weeks, this photograph comes from a few years ago — in a very different time when many of the things causing tumult in our world were almost inconceivable. Among them, back then the idea that a pandemic might change our attitudes about traveling to such places was not even on our radar. Let’s hope that we can return to a world more like that one soon.

I think of this as a somewhat generic photograph of the Big Sur coastline — not because it isn’t a spot of great beauty, but because such places are everywhere along this part of the western edge of the continent. The sun was out on this late winter day, but storms out in the Pacific had brought impressively large waves, raising a thin layer of sea spray along the edge of the water.

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.

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

Morning Dance, Sandhill Cranes

Image Leave a comment
Morning Dance, Sandhill Cranes
A quartet of sandhill cranes dances in foggy morning light.

Morning Dance, Sandhill Cranes. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A quartet of sandhill cranes dances in foggy morning light.

About a week ago I made my first visit of the season to areas of California’s Central Valley where I like to photograph migratory birds in the late autumn and winter. Many birds have already arrived, but a month or so from now there will be all sorts of them (migratory and year-round residents) up and down the Great Valley: geese, cranes, ibises, herons, pelicans, egrets, and more.

This first visit was a brief one — I arrived early but left at midday. I had been thinking of making the trip for a week or so, but had not seen the weather I was hoping for. Then I heard that there might be a bit of tule fog — that’s my kind of weather! — so I quickly decided to get up hours before dawn the next morning and drive over there in darkness. It was still too early in the season to find the vast flocks of birds that will arrive later, but I did spot some large groups of sandhill cranes. This quartet was holding forth near a larger group, and at this moment had begun a vigorous performance of the crane dance.

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.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Aspen Leaves Cluster

Image 2 Comments
Autumn Aspen Leaves Cluster
A cluster of Eastern Sierra Nevada aspen leaves in full autumn color.

Autumn Aspen Leaves Cluster. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cluster of Eastern Sierra Nevada aspen leaves in full autumn color.

Here it is — finally — what I expect to be my final photograph from this year’s autumn aspen color in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. Like many of the others, I made this photograph while wandering about in a little grove that happened to be showing exceptional color this year. To some extent that color was because my timing was just about right, but it also seemed like a more colorful year than usual, with more of the red and orange leaves that I usually see.

When I’m in the field I often line up a sequence of potential photographic opportunities to explore as the light evolves. I might start with a subject that will work in pre-dawn light, then move to one that focuses on the first light of sunrise, and then be ready to photograph things that work in the light that arrives a bit later. That’s what happened with these leaves. The light on a major landscape subject that I was photographing had mostly run its course a half hour or so after sunrise, so I moved to this grove which was still in the shadow of a nearby hill. That light was perfect for making close up photographs of leaves, since the soft light reveals details in everything from shadows to highlights.

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.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Sur Point Lighthouse, Winter

Image Leave a comment
Winter surf below Sur Point and the Sur Point Lighthouse.

Sur Point Lighthouse, Winter. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter surf below Sur Point and the Sur Point Lighthouse.

As happens from time to time, I made a series of photographs of this subject on this winter day. One advantage of digital photography is that it is possible — and useful! — to make quite a few exposures of transient subject like water and clouds whose precise appearance is difficult to predict and for which precise timing is almost impossible. While I’ve seen photographers make hundreds of exposures of really active subjects such as moving water, this one wasn’t quite so difficult — just a series of waves moving up onto the beach and the varying qualities of the drifting spray. My first inclination was to share a different photograph from the set, which I did perhaps a few weeks ago. But now, in looking at the files more closely, I’ve changed my mind and I think I prefer this one.

At any time of year the light along this section of the California coast can be quite interesting. Because the coast doesn’t run on a perfect north-south line, instead angling to the east as you head south, for much of the day offshore features are backlit to a greater or lesser extent. (The sun also reflects off the ocean’s surface in wonderful ways, even at midday when the sun is directly south.) This meant that the rocky shape of Sur Point was deeply backlit, and exposing for the shadow details would risk losing details in the rest of the scene — so I decided to treat it as more of a silhouette. (Some details are visible, though hard to see in a web version.) In the end, that nearly black form may help enhance the visibility of the mist and spray being blown from the big winter surf.

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.

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