Tag Archives: print

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Snow Geese and Sky

March 30, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Six snow geese against blue sky and thin clouds

When out photographing winter birds in the Central Valley of California there are so many things to photograph and so many ways to photograph them. It might be perfectly blue-sky clear, it might be foggy, or there could be the precursor or remnant clouds of a Pacific weather front. There might be agricultural subjects nearby—cattle, barns and other structures, fields. Or I could end up in a town, with its farmland character. And there are always the birds—close up photographs of individuals, groups clustering together, huge flocks. They might be in trees, on the water, flying, feeding in fields.

While it is perhaps not the sort of shot that I most like, I can’t help myself from photographing groups of birds that fly over. I’m not sure if it the continuing desire to get the perfect arrangement of birds in motion, the technical challenge of making a photograph of such rapidly moving targets, or some primal hunting instinct… but I do know that when I’m not photographing something else compelling, I’ll fire off a lot of photographs of birds in flight. And we had plenty of them on this mid-February day, when the birds seemed both more willing to let us be close and more likely to take flight. This group separated from a much larger flock that was wheeling overhead and passed almost above me before turning west into the sun.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Mushrooms, Redwood Forest

March 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mushrooms grow in the damp soil beneath Muir Woods National Monument redwood forest

On this late spring morning at Muir Woods National Monument I was on the hunt for trillium flowers. Sometimes when I’m looking for one thing I may tend to overlook other interesting things that are right under my nose. I was looking from trillium flowers… and I only saw trillium flowers. But eventually there often comes a moment when I sort of take a slow breath, look away from that central focus, and see the other things around me.

On a damp late spring morning at Muir Woods that “other things” is quite possibly some small living thing that might be hidden away in shadows or down so close to the soil that I don’t see it. And so it was with this small group of mushrooms, poking up from the damp earth in a very shady little spot on a steep section of the hill running alongside my trail. And once I saw this group of fungi, my focus changed and I began to see other mushrooms all over this small spot where a moment before I had only seen dirt.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dense Forest, Clearing Fog

March 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last traces of morning fog drift among forest trees of Yosemite Valley

Back at the beginning of March we were in Yosemite Valley to attend the opening reception of the Yosemite Renaissance XXIX exhibit at the Visitor Center Gallery. (This juried show includes work in a variety of media—including photography—and continues on until May 11.) We decided to take advantage of this visit to spend three days in the Valley and do some photography.

At this time of year the fog that often collects in the Valley’s meadows can provide all sorts of interesting photographic possibilities. With that possibility in mind we went out early in the morning to look around. At first it did not look too promising. The weather was relatively warm and the air seemed quite clear. On a hunch I thought we’d go look at Stoneman Meadow, and we found that it was filled with a shallow layer of fog. (I later heard that it may have been the only foggy location on this day.) The fog moved across the meadow and seemed to be thinning, but they surprised me by becoming a lot thicker and obscuring the views of the surrounding trees. This fog gradually drifted into the nearby forest as it dissipated, and this photograph includes the very last misty remnants of this fog.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: San Francisco

Departing Freighter

March 27, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A freighter heads out of the Golden Gate and into the Pacific Ocean on a winter morning

I was on my way to a location north of the Golden Gate Bridge, having left home while it was still dark and crossing the bridge as the sky just begin to lighten. As I often do when I pass by here, I left the main highway for a short time and went up a ways into the Marin Headlands to see what sort of early morning light might appear over the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. The lights of the City were still on at this early hour, so I first photographed in that direction.

There was a variety of types of clouds around the Bay—fog to the south and east, high clouds above, and a bit of general haze everywhere. As the sun came up behind the East Bay clouds and fog there was a bit of color, though the effect was subtle. A bit later this very large freighter approached the bridge as it prepared to leave the bay. It was one of the largest that I have seen pass beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. I went back to shooting other subjects, but my attention periodically went back to this ship as it moved farther off shore. Eventually a bit of muted sunlight hit the boat and some light came to the higher clouds as it headed on toward an off-shore fog bank and then, I imagine, a much longer voyage across the Pacific.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: print

Snow Geese and Sky

Mushrooms, Redwood Forest

Dense Forest, Clearing Fog

Departing Freighter

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