Tag Archives: orchard

Photographs: Agriculture, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Dormant Trees and Fog

Image January 28, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dormant trees in Central Valley winter tule fog.

This is the second in a series of photographs I made of this Central Valley orchard on a very foggy winter morning. On a typical morning with these conditions, there comes a time when the fog begins to move and thin and the light begins to come through the fog and make it glow. (This is tule fog, which forms at night when the moisture level is right, and ends up producing a thin but often very dense layer of low fog.) I had been photographing birds in thicker fog, and when the thinning process began I moved to this location where I thought the trees might be an interesting subject.

In some ways it is an easy matter to photograph a subject like this one. It is naturally mysterious and compelling, both from the fog itself and from the vaguely anthropomorphic forms of the dormant trees. However, once I begin to work with such a subject, things invariably start to become more complicated than I expected — how to create a balanced composition? What camera position gives the most interesting juxtaposition of trunks? How much to focus on trunks and how much on the upper branches How to deal with inevitable intrusions of branches into the scene. My solution is a combination of looking and thinking, relying on intuition, and trying many different approaches.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Orchard, Fog

Image January 13, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The primary goal of my visit to the Pacific Flyway on this early-January day was to photograph migratory birds in the tule fog. I regularly check the weather predictions at this time of year, since it is the time of “interesting weather,” and this can make all the difference when it comes to the photographic potential of a location. On the day before I made this photograph, my check revealed a very good chance for dense tule fog — the kind that sane drivers try to avoid but which attracts photographers. So I was up very early, ready to drive through the fog for the chance to photograph it.

Local conditions can vary a great deal on days like this. Out where I was photographing birds the sky was beginning to clear, but I still wanted fog. So I drove a ways in a direction where the sky seemed darker, and before long I was once again engulfed. I had this orchard in mind as drove, and when I got there I took a gravel side-road to a spot where I could see an uninterrupted expanse of tree silhouettes fading into the distant fog where the sun was trying to break through.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

Sandstone Tower, Fruita District

February 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A sandstone tower stands above the Fruita District orchards in early evening light, Capitol Reef National Park

These sandstone plateaus and mesas seem characteristic of this front-country area of Capitol Reef National Park, and they are perhaps the most striking visual icon of your approach to the park from the town of Torrey, Utah, to the west. The Fruita District is the most accessible area of the park, being right alongside the main east-west highway that passes through the park. It features some picturesque sites and sights that are enough to make almost anyone pull over and look, including the old orchards that apparently gave the area its name and the accessible petroglyphs on low cliffs that run along the road. (Although this portion of the park is quite accessible once you are out here and driving across Utah, most of the park is anything but easily accessible, and getting to other places within its boundaries can involve some very long drives on some fairly bad roads, plus some hiking. I’m fine with that! ;-)

I made this photograph late in the day, after we had done a bit of exploring along the main tourist route into the park, the largely paved road towards Capitol Gorge and other nearby points. Late in the day I happened to spot this little conjunction of creek and fall-color tree and green grass and red rock cliffs as we were about to leave the park.

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: Northern California

Central Valley Sky, Winter

January 30, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Thin winter clouds drift above farmland, Central Valley, California.

Photographing these beautiful winter clouds above the California Central Valley near the Cosumnes River between Stockton and Sacramento involved a certain amount of luck. For the most part it had been an extremely foggy morning – so foggy that at a few points early in the day I simply couldn’t find anything to shoot. Eventually the light began to filter down through the tule fog and I had some good luck shooting further up the valley at the Cosumnes River Wildlife Preserve.

At a certain point as the fog begins to thin it goes through a phase that is not so photographically compelling. The very thick fog can be quite interesting, and the light can be very special just as the sun starts to force its way through the fog as it starts to clear. But they there is a period when it is sort of sunny and sort of foggy, and but perhaps lacks the best aspects of each of the two conditions. That is how it was at about the time I left the Preserve and started back down the valley on my drive home.

Much earlier in the morning I had visited this side road near a bend in the Cosumnes River, so I decided to try it again since it was only slightly out of my way on the return drive. I drove slowly all the way to the end of the side road – to where it runs into the levee at the river – and then turned around to start back. I saw lots and lots of waterfowl, including impressive sandhill cranes and beautiful white egrets, but they were all too far from the road or in areas that didn’t provide the right kind of background. Near these flooded fields I stopped to consider trying to photograph some of the birds, changed my mind, and instead decided to see what I could do with these buildings, the flooded fields, and the sky. It was my luck that this final stop coincided with the near clearing of the fog and the appearance overhead of these wonderful clouds.

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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.

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