Tag Archives: pre

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Central Valley Winter Sky

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Central Valley Winter Sky
Pre-sunrise winter sky and thin fog above Central Valley wetlands.

Central Valley Winter Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pre-sunrise winter sky and thin fog above Central Valley wetlands.

These days it is hard to precisely put my finger on the character of California’s Great Central Valley, comprised of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys and the delta where they merge with the San Francisco Bay. Many years ago a drive though the valley was all about agricultural communities, but today things are less homogeneous. Some areas seem more like extensions of the urban San Francisco Bay Area — see towns along the busy I80 corridor and the “bedroom communities” from which long-distance drivers commute in each day. Other towns further into the Valley, including many along Highway 99, have become so large that their agricultural roots seem more distant. To be sure, agriculture remains pervasive in the Valley, as a drive though almost any portion of it will make clear.

Among the features that continue to define this valley for me are its flat geography and the vast expanse of uninterrupted sky. This photograph focuses on both. I chose to place the horizon very close to the bottom of the frame since that’s were it is when we look up at skies like the one in this photograph. It was very early on a late-winter morning, before the sun had come up. The light was blue and thin dawn tule fog was dissipating above these 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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Dawn, Eastern Sierra

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Autumn Dawn, Eastern Sierra
Successive ridges rise from the high desert toward the crest of the Eastern Sierra Nevada in pre-dawn autumn light

Autumn Dawn, Eastern Sierra. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Successive ridges rise from the high desert toward the crest of the Eastern Sierra Nevada in pre-dawn autumn light.

Yes, I know I was supposed to be photographing aspen color. But there are other subjects in and around the Sierra during the autumn! It turned out that I arrived a bit before the peak color, so my inclination to photographer other things, too, was perhaps a bit stronger than it might have been a few days later. I also knew that some aspen subjects that I wanted to photograph would be in better light a bit later, and that left me time for a quick foray to this location before dawn.

I have photographed from this location previously, so I’m pretty familiar with the view, the camera position possibilities, and the potential for lots of interesting early light on the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada. However, as familiar as all of that may be, there are always surprises. I made this photograph a few minutes before the sun cleared the eastern horizon (or, more accurately, the mountains to the east) so the light had taken on the warm, colorful quality of dawn, but without the harsh quality of the first direct sunlight. The photograph spans a wide range of zones — from the sagebrush of the high desert to the summit of one of the highest Sierra peaks in this area.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Creosote Bushes, Dunes

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Creosote Bushes, Dunes
Creosote plants and soft, blue-tinted pre-sunrise light on Death Valley sand dunes.

Creosote Bushes, Dunes. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Creosote plants and soft, blue-tinted pre-sunrise light on Death Valley sand dunes.

No, I’m still not done with the Death Valley photographs! This shouldn’t be a surprise — I was there twice so far this year. Both trips were made primarily for the purpose of photography, and I had a total of about eight days to do this work. I made this photograph on the second visit, during the first week of April when the seasonal change takes off, the weather begins to noticeably warm, and when the plants tend to come back to life.

We were out in the dunes reasonably early on this morning, and I made this photograph before the sun had yet risen, in that quiet and still time before dawn when the light is soft and still has a bluish cast. Shortly after we entered this area of the dunes I climbed to a ridge of sand overlooking a large area and set up. Most of the photographs I made here on this morning came from essentially this one spot — I probably didn’t move more than 25 feet from the initial spot as I looked to refine compositions. I loved the foreground line of creosote plants. Most of them seemed to be dead or dormant, though the plant at the left was turning green and sending out new flowers.

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

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.

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.