Tag Archives: nature

Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Sunset Flight

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Sunset Flight
Geese in flight above fields at sunset

Sunset Flight. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese in flight above fields at sunset.

Expect to see quite a few bird photographs during the next week or so. David Hoffman and I are featured in “Birdscapes,” an exhibition of our bird photography at the Stellar Gallery in Oakhurst, located near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. The two of us photograph birds and the landscapes they inhabit all along the Pacific Flyway. There is a lot more information about the show including details of location and dates at this web page. The show opens next week and we’d love to see you at the artist reception on Saturday, February 16 at 5:00-8:00pm at the gallery. If you are heading to Yosemite to see the recent snows or to try your luck at photographing Horsetail Fall, why don’t you swing by and see us?

I made this photograph on a winter evening, as a slight foggy haze filled the atmosphere and the western sky turned a lovely shade of pink. A large flock of geese was alternately feeding on pastureland and erupting into the sky en masse. I made this photograph at the very end of the day as the last faint sunlight illuminated the birds on the ground as other birds arrived to join them.

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 and Amazon.

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

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow

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Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow
A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky.

Long before I understood what I was seeing I had noticed and was intrigued by that band of darker sky just above the horizon during the morning and evening twilight, very close to the time that direct sunlight appears on the highest points. There is something very mysterious about it, and it suggests to me great distances beyond those encompassed by the immediate scene. Eventually I learned what now seems obvious — this is the edge of the shadow of the earth, dropping away in the moments before dawn and rising in the moments following sunset. (To this day, every time I think of this, I recall photographer Gary Crabbe’s “interpretive dance” as he explained this at a talk I attended years ago — one hand extended out and upwards pointing to the shadow, and the other extended at a slight downward angle pointing to the unseen sun. Thanks, Gary!)

I made this photograph from a high point east of the Sierra crest one September. I headed out this way in pre-dawn darkness not sure what I would find. I was pleasantly surprised to find extensive aspen color, even though it was just past mid-September, and then to find an open overlook from which I could take in a large section of the Sierra as dawn 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 and Amazon.

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

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 Aspens, Cliff

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Autumn Aspens, Cliff
Autumn aspen trees cling to ledges along the face of a cliff in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Autumn Aspens, Cliff. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees cling to ledges along the face of a cliff in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

The aspens in this photograph have fascinated me for years. Nearby are some relatively large, tall, and straight trees, but for the most part the trees in this scene are small, slender, and sometimes even a bit misshapen. They manage to eke out a living on what appears to be solid rock as they send their roots into narrow cracks.

These trees seem to have, at least in my experience, a fairly short period of maximum color. Or at least that is what I tell myself when looking to explain why I have somehow almost always missed their best color. But it also appears that they change colors earlier than some of the other trees in the area — I made this photograph just past the middle of September, nearly two weeks before the typical start of the more widespread fall color season in the Sierra.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Blue Heron

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Great Blue Heron
A great blue heron standing in a winter pasture

Great Blue Heron. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great blue heron standing in a winter pasture.

Great Blue Herons are soloists — I virtually never seem them in groups, with only one strange exception. Both herons and egrets are closely related, and I recall being surprised a few years ago to encounter bird pairs consisting of a great blue heron and a great egret. I particularly remember watching one such pair land and then fly off together.

But this one was definitely alone. Earlier in the season I had seen few great blue herons, but by this point I was beginning to spot more of them, and I had already encountered several on the day I photographed this one — including one memorable critter that flew back and forth in front of me several times, gliding above a shallow bond. The bird in the photograph stood alone in a large pasture that was beginning to green up after winter rains. Up close they are remarkable birds, and their attentiveness to surroundings becomes apparent.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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