Tag Archives: north

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Water Plants

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Water Plants
Water plants and their reflections on a foggy late-winter day in California’s Central Valley.

Water Plants. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Water plants and their reflections on a foggy late-winter day in California’s Central Valley.

During the first week of December I finally made my first trip of the season to my favorite bird photography area in Central California. In autumn, all up and down the state, we start to see the arrival of the winter migratory birds, and I’ve become addicted to photographing them and the landscapes in which they appear. I would have gone a bit earlier this year, but I was waiting for the right combination of fog and driving conditions. Yes, I WANT fog. But, no, I don’t want it so thick that dangerous driving conditions are an impediment.

From my perspective, the best bird photograph days in these places start with fog that begins to thin by mid- to late-morning, allowing some filtered, directional light to appear. This was not that kind of day. It ended up being uniformly gray. There were interesting birds around, but not in the numbers that we’ll likely see later. For these and other reasons, by mid-morning I turned my attention mostly away from the birds and towards the landscape. During the early season, as the shallow ponds begin to refill, there is more of a feeling of autumn than winter, and lots of interesting plants still stand in the water. The plants in this picture might be of limited interest — they certainly are not prominent landscape features — but their reflections caught my attention.

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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Waiting Man

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Waiting Man
A man stands at the curb with his head bowed, San Francisco.

Waiting Man. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man stands at the curb with his head bowed, San Francisco.

This photograph comes from a day spent doing street photography while walking through San Francisco… just a few short months before our world changed in early 2020 and such activities become difficult, if not impossible. I still photograph “street” a bit in the areas not far from where I live, but I haven’t been back to shoot this way in San Francisco since the “before times” — though I’m starting to imagine being able to do so once again. I did just a bit of this kind of photography when I spent a few days up there during our Open Studio event at a gallery in North Beach, though I’m still distracted by streets full of masked people.

I know that some people wonder why this “nature photographer” wanders off to photograph urban environments, and some are even perplexed by the photographs. There are lots of reasons for a landscape photographer to also be a street photographer. In some ways the genres are complementary, and doing one actually has the potential to improve the other. If nothing else, photographing street can remove the “I don’t have anything to photograph!” excuse, since there’s potentially something right outside your front door. In addition, for photographers who are often more comfortable photographing things than people, this work can be a way to stretch your boundaries.

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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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

Five Sandhill Cranes

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Five Sandhill Cranes
A chorus of five sandhill cranes in California’s Central Valley.

Five Sandhill Cranes. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A chorus of five sandhill cranes in California’s Central Valley.

I have seen a lot of sandhill cranes, but the group behavior seen here was new to me — the entire quintet raising their heads and displaying open beaks. I’m endlessly fascinated by the things that the birds and others do, and I’m often mystified by the purposes of these actions. In fairness, they may also be mystified by people showing up nearby, standing around with large metal and glass objects, and pointing them in their direction.

It is a bit unusual to get very close to sandhill cranes, at least in my experience. They have boundaries, and they are not amenable to having them crossed. I’ve mentioned previously that groups of them flying toward me will almost always divert to one side or the other rather than flying directly over head. When approached — which I always do in a non-aggressive manner, never getting very close — they seem fine up to a point. But once that point is reached, usually while I’m a good distance away, they are clearly uncomfortable with my presence and I don’t get closer. I’ve often had the best luck when photographing from a vehicle, especially when I can approach slowly and silently or, better yet, when I can park and wait for them. That’s what happened here — I was stopped along a rural roadway and they walked parallel to my position, perhaps more securely since my vehicle was on the opposite side of a berm from 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, 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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

The Edge Of The Grove

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The Edge Of The Grove
Autumn color at the edge of a grove of white-trunk aspen trees.

The Edge Of The Grove. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn color at the edge of a grove of white-trunk aspen trees.

In a recent post I mentioned that I was almost done with fall color photographs for the year. Maybe. Sort of. But no promises. So here’s another one. This grove is a bit atypical for the Eastern Sierra, where we often see small groves of trees that are twisted and bent, and where continuous groves a tall, straight trees are the exception. I’m not certain why this is the case in “my” mountains, but I suspect it has to do with the rugged and often-rocky landscape, the relatively dry climate in parts of the range, and likely other factors. This grove on the eastern edge of the range abuts sagebrush high desert country, and perhaps the more open terrain allows the trees to get more light than they might receive in a deep valley.

This photograph differs from most that I share in that it is a re-working of a photograph that I shared a few years ago. A photograph is not necessary a finished thing, and a given version represents what and how the photographer saw the image at a particular point in time. We change and our way of seeing changes, and when we look back at earlier work it is common to reimagine how we might interpret the subject. Here the changes are mostly along the lines of “tuning up” the image a bit. There’s a slight tightening of the crop, some differences in how the colorful leaves appear, and some small changes to the foreground and the shadows.

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.