Tag Archives: rise

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Tule Fog, Wetland Sunrise

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Tule Fog, Wetland Sunrise
The winter sun rises thorugh tule fog above Central Valley wetlands.

Tule Fog, Wetland Sunrise. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The winter sun rises thorugh tule fog above Central Valley wetlands.

This is my favorite season of the year for a whole bunch of reasons. It brings so many special opportunities here on the West Coast. The fall colors come to the Sierra and then work their way downward and westward over a period of up to three months — and sometimes even a bit longer. The hot, dry season of wildfires and haze comes to an end, replaced by cooler temperatures and much more interesting skies and light as Pacific weather fronts arrive. Migratory birds return to the Central Valley… and once again I get to photograph the tule fog!

This photograph comes from a beautiful tule fog morning in the Central Valley some years ago, a perfect morning when the fog was thick but not so thick as to completely obscure the rising sun, here silhouetting the wetland foliage and gently reflecting on the surface of a pond. What the photograph cannot convey — but what it certainly evokes for me — is the sound of many thousands of nearby geese, cranes, blackbirds, and more.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpine Lake, Storm, and Rainbow

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Alpine Lake, Storm, and Rainbow
A trail crosses a rise beyond an alpine lake as rain begins and a rainbow appears against stormy skies, Kings Canyon National Park.

Alpine Lake, Storm, and Rainbow. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A trail crosses a rise beyond an alpine lake as rain begins and a rainbow appears against stormy skies, Kings Canyon National Park.

This photograph comes from a wonderful trip into the Kings Canyon backcountry seven summers ago. A group of five photographers who have been doing such things for almost twenty years (I’ve been going along for a decade) packed in to a remote location at 12,000′ and set up a basecamp. We spent a week there photographing the heck out of the nearby landscape of granite, lakes, and peaks — and enjoying the camaraderie that comes from working together in the wilderness.

By the time I made this photograph I had settled thoroughly into the routines of living and photographing in such a place. I’ve often photographed while hiking through the Sierra, but working from a base-camp gives me time to explore more carefully, to get to know the character of a place, and to experience it in a variety of conditions. Although it was the tail-end of a drought season, we had rain from time to time, and on this afternoon I photographed an area full of lakes as the afternoon showers 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.

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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

Wetlands, Winter Fog

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Wetlands, Winter Fog
Early morning winter tule fog rises from Central Valley wetland ponds as sandhill cranes take flight.

Wetlands, Winter Fog. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning winter tule fog rises from Central Valley wetland ponds as sandhill cranes take flight.

Winter transforms the arguably-mundane California Central Valley landscape. Much of the area is agricultural country, and while that can look bucolic when fields are green, most of the time they are not. During much of the year they are brown, and during the winter the place can be quite muddy. (Don’t regard this as suggesting I don’t like the Valley. I do!)

On a January morning such as the on the day I made this photograph, magic can occur as tule fog rises and drifts about wetlands and as the sky fills with birds. To make this photograph I stopped along an empty rural road next to flooded fields and waited for cranes to take wing along a levee.

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: 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.

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.