Tag Archives: nature

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

Juniper and Red Rock Cliff

January 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary juniper tree grows at the base of a Utah red rock cliff

This being Utah, it represents a place that will likely be in need to attention and support from all of us who love our shared national lands, in opposition to those who would privatize them for purposes of extractive industry, damn the consequences. The photograph comes from an autumn visit to Southern Utah nearly five years ago, when I joined a group of fellow photographers to explore areas from Capitol Reef to Zion and points in between. This is, as many of you know, stunningly beautiful country, particularly if you get off the main roads a bit and poke around in odd washes and canyons and remote routes.

This lovely juniper tree grows at the base of a sculpted sand stone face that is marked by all sort of veins, weathering, and water stains. The tree grows from what appears to be nearly solid rock, likely finding sustenance on whatever debris has filled a crack at the base of the cliff over the years. The colors of this part of the world area simply extraordinary, with the base being the infinite shades of sandstone color, bathed in everything from direct sun to light that has become saturated by bouncing its way among the colorful walls until it reaches the depths of narrow canyons.

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

Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Egret, Airborne

January 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A great egret flies past, skimming above wetland plants

In some ways these magnificent birds are very accessible, but in other they can be hard to photograph in interesting ways. They are common at the locations where I frequently photograph birds, and when I have decent cover (shooting from a vehicle or similar) I can frequently get relatively close to them without scaring them into flight. The key is a very slow and cautious approach and sensitivity to the body language of the bird — there are often hints when egrets think that I am getting too close. From just outside that boundary the egrets are large enough to fill the frame in good conditions, and I have lots of photographs of them on the ground feeding. Perhaps too many!

That’s the problem. An egret on the ground is interesting, but not often quite as interesting as an egret in the air. (Grounded egrets can be beautiful in the right light and with the right background and so forth.) In flight they are beautiful birds, typically using slow wing motion and often gliding, and they assume impressive poses when taking off and when landing. However, the lift off is sudden and the flight path typically takes the bird away from me. But sometimes I get lucky, as I did with this specimen. I was actually unaware of its presence and, in fact, it may have been unaware of mine. I had stopped to photograph something else when the bird suddenly flew into range from my left and passed in front of me as it made a gentle turn around my position. I’ve learned to react fairly quickly and to get the camera up and tracking, but in the best of circumstances it is still a challenge. The first couple of frames are almost humorously off-target, but then I found my subject and centered it in the frame as it passed by very closely.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetland Pond, Reflected Sky

January 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late afternoon light on a pond reflecting the winter sky

I made this photograph during our annual New Year’s Day visit to the migratory birds of California’s Central Valley, something that has become more or less a tradition during the past few years. The idea is to join a few like-minded friends to greet the literal dawn of the new year, and to then spend the day photographing. The only problem with this as a New Year’s Day celebration is that we have to get up at about 3:30 AM, making it somewhat difficult (or at least unwise!) to stay up until midnight the night before.

This time we arrived, as always, very early, and spent the morning working our way around the vicinity trying to figure out where the best locations would be for photographing the birds. The usual schedule has us photographing for a few hours into the late morning, then taking a sort of time out in the middle of the day — often including a nap to compensate for that early wake-up call — and then resuming the wild goose chase at some point in the afternoon. Late in the day we were still trying to decide where we wanted to be for sunset, so we drove a gravel road that took us past this pond on our way to a likely goose roosting spot — and I saw this beautiful reflection of the winter sky along the way.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Autumn Tree, Broken Branches, Ground Fog

January 19, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A tree with autumn leaves, surrounded by broken branches, with thinning ground fog below

When we think of Yosemite Valley the first things that come to mind are likely to be towering cliffs, waterfalls, peaks, domes, and other monumental things. The Valley is a place built on a grand scale, but more subtle surprises await if you are there at the right time. Especially between late fall and early spring, when the conditions are right beautiful ground fog frequently appears in meadows, drifting back and forth and gradually thinning as the morning warms.

On this morning I intended to be in the Valley early, but other things distracted me on my way there from Oakhurst (including fog in another valley!), and I arrived in the Valley a bit later than planned. At that point I had more or less written off my plan to go fog-hunting, so I was thrilled to catch the very tail end of the morning fog in a few spots here and there. This tree, a somewhat well-known elm, was just out of the fog that still lay across the surface of the meadow beyond.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: nature

Juniper and Red Rock Cliff

Great Egret, Airborne

Wetland Pond, Reflected Sky

Autumn Tree, Broken Branches, Ground Fog

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