Tag Archives: refuge

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Wetlands

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Autumn Wetlands
Late-autumn colors in California Central Valley wetlands.

Autumn Wetlands. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late-autumn colors in California Central Valley wetlands.

As I continue my pandemic project of reviewing years of raw files — and discovering and rediscovering all sorts of interesting things — I have now arrived at the very end of 2012. I’m currently working on the final week or so of autumn and about to move into winter and then on to 2013. One silver lining behind the dark coronavirus cloud is that I have had the time and inclination to revisit these old images and relive some of the experiences I had as I made them.

Every fall migratory birds return to overwinter in California’s Central Valley. Starting in about November I turn my attention that way and start to anticipate visits to this landscape — one that I don’t tend to photograph during the warmer months of the year. But in the cooler and wetter seasons, when the birds can be abundant, this part of California calls to me. I made this photograph on a cold and foggy late-autumn morning as the tule fog was beginning to thin, casting soft light on the autumn foliage of the scattered trees.

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

Geese, Dusk Sky

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Geese, Dusk Sky
A group of geese departs into winter dusk sky above California’s Central Valley.

Geese, Dusk Sky. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of geese departs into winter dusk sky above California’s Central Valley.

The endings of these winter days out in the wetlands photographing birds and Central Valley landscapes can be as magical as their beginnings. The ideal morning begins with thick fog that gradually thins as the sun rises, and there is an excitement about the possibilities of the day ahead. The ideal evening extends until it is almost too dark to see, and hopefully features beautiful twilight color and, with luck, a few last opportunities to photograph birds. It is a time of winding down, of quiet, and perhaps some contemplation or a few final moments with friends before heading home.

On this evening we had very intense sky color to the west, most likely on a day when the air never did completely clear. We kept photographing as the sun set, and as it got darker I continued to make a few final photographs. A small group of geese lifted off from a nearby pond in the cold evening air, flying away against a backdrop of trees, hills, and twilight sky.

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.

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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: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Swans, Sunrise Light

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Cranes, Sunrise Light
A flock of sandhill cranes catches the color of low angle sunrise light.

Swans, Sunrise Light. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of (tundra?) swans catches the color of low angle sunrise light.

About eight years back, on a beautiful January morning, I visited the place where I first photographed migratory birds. The location is south of Sacramento, in California’s Great Central Valley — in agricultural lowlands. (That could, of course, describe huge sections of the Valley.) During most of the year you probably would not regard the area as being exceptionally beautiful, but when the birds arrive everything changes.

And do they arrive! Just counting the large birds, there are sandhill cranes, egrets of several types, ibises, all sorts of geese, swans, and sandhill cranes. At dawn on the perfect mornings, the sky is filled with flocks, flying at different altitudes, crossing in different directions, and making the most impressive racket that I know of. I photographed this group of (tundra?) swans during the brief interval when the sun is low enough in the sky to illuminate their undersides.

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.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Fields

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Winter Fields
A flock of sandhill cranes flies through an evening winter sky about the San Joaquin River

Winter Fields. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of sandhill cranes flies through an evening winter sky about the San Joaquin River

During winter I travel to California’s Central Valley somewhat frequently, ostensibly to photograph birds but, to be honest, also to photograph the landscape — one that often features fog, fields and trees on the trajectory between winter and spring, unusual effects of light, and those birds. In mid-January I was there one afternoon, on my way to an opening reception at the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock. The drive would usually take me about two hours, but I left early to create some time to explore areas along the San Joaquin River as it approaches the delta and eventually San Francisco Bay.

It was an interesting weather day. It was range when I left the San Francisco Bay Area, but I got ahead of the front as I crossed into the valley, and it was partly sunny as I headed east on country roads towards this destination. Out here by the river it was hazy and foggy, as it so often is this time of year, and before long the clouds of that front caught up with me and produced an interesting and evocative “atmospheric soup” that was occasionally illuminated subtly when the clouds above the fog to the west thinned. The photograph looks across fallow and muddy fields where sandhill cranes were collecting and towards the scattered trees that grow nearer to the river, above which a flock of cranes flies past.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.