Tag Archives: pond

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Wetlands

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Winter Wetlands
Flooded winter wetlands with broken-down tules .

Winter Wetlands. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Flooded winter wetlands with broken-down tules .

Places like this fascinate me. The location is in California’s Great Central Valley, a 400+ mile long feature running up and down the state, separating the coastal mountain ranges from the Sierra Nevada. Most people are probably familiar with it from driving through or across it on their way to some other place. It is largely agricultural, though these days population centers are expanding rapidly and parts of the valley are increasingly urban. Bottom line? It is hardly a place that most people would regard as a scenic attraction.

I get it. And most of my visits are more of the “passing through” than the “going there” sort — except in winter when I often make it my destination. Winter provides a relief from the valley’s generally hot and dry climate during most of the year, and wet areas appear when rain falls, especially where rivers meet and were old marshes once existed. The soft light and the expansive sky can be a relief from the urban experience. Here, wetland ponds are full from recent rains, and interesting tule islands stand where someone has chopped town the vegetation before the pond was flooded.

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

Fog and Morning Light

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Fog and Morning Light
Tule fog covers a Pacific Flyway wetlands pond as morning sun begins to break through high clouds.

Fog and Morning Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Tule fog covers a Pacific Flyway wetlands pond as morning sun begins to break through high clouds.

This was one of the foggier mornings I’ve spent out along the Pacific Flyway, and that wasn’t the only unusual thing about the weather. Driving out here hours before dawn, most of the route was clear of any fog. But when I turned off the highway onto a narrow country road the fog was instantly so thick I could barely see to drive. As I continued it varied, sometimes thinning a bit, but always shallow enough that I could look up and see the setting full moon. I arrived at my destination if foggy darkness and headed out to make photographs.

On a typical morning, even when it is quite foggy, the light changes when sunrise colors arrive a one the fog. But high clouds kept this morning kept the light at bay and it remained gray. Eventually the tule fog thinned enough in a few spots that the higher clouds occasionally became visible for a moment, and weak sunlight sometimes made it though the murk. I made this quiet photograph during one of those moments when the fog began to glow just a bit.

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: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Departure

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Departure
Sandhill cranes take to the air in the ealry morning tule fog.

Departure. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Description

My expectations are pretty straightforward. When I arrive at these locations before dawn to photograph birds, I want exactly the right amount of fog, enough developing sunrise light overhead to warm to the light a bit, the right birds against a photogenic background. (A cup of coffee and a fresh muffin would be nice, too, but that might be pushing things.) The reality is usually a bit more complicated.

I certainly found fog when I arrived on this morning. Perhaps a bit too much fog. It wasn’t quite the sort where you might be more successful making audio records of birds than photographing them, but it was close. As I moved around looking for the right birds in the right place, I eventually came upon a group of cranes, barely visible at first in the gray light. Although it isn’t really apparent in the photograph, it was sunrise, and the birds seem to know this even when the sun’s light is blocked by the tule fog. And if it is sunrise, the birds know that it is time to rise from the ponds and head off to wherever it is that they spend their days.

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.

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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

Cranes in Fog

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Cranes in Fog
A group of lesser sandhill cranes in thick morning fog, California Central Valley.

Cranes in Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of lesser sandhill cranes in thick morning fog, California Central Valley.

Awake almost three hours before sunrise, I headed to the kitchen to make coffee — enough to wake me up and enough to fill a thermos for later. I had mostly packed the car the previous night, so I just had to grab a small bag and head out the door to begin a two-hour pre-dawn drive to a place where I expected to find migratory birds and plenty of tule fog, two subjects that I chase during the winter months. The fog began a half hour before I arrived at my destination, and when I arrived as the first light came to the sky I heard thousands of birds in the distance.

At first it was too dark and the atmosphere too opaque for photography, so I headed out to find the source of the sounds. Soon I encountered a large flock of snow geese which departed a moment later. Moving on I got to a spot where I could hear the easily recognized sound of cranes nearby. I could just barely see them though the thick fog, but I stopped and waited, and as the fog drifted a bit I was able to spot them and make a few photographs of a group standing in shallow wetlands.

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.

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