Tag Archives: silhouette

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

Sandhill Cranes, Marsh, Dawn

January 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Flocks of sandhill cranes fly through dawn haze above San Joaquin Valley marshland

This is another New Year’s Day photograph – and probably won’t be the last one. The typical process when I shoot here is to start at a parking area near the entrance before the sun comes up, either meeting friends there or else simply pausing to get my gear ready and put on warm clothes. Without fail, I also pause for a few minutes to take in the extraordinary sound of the many thousands of migratory birds, usually coming from unseen places off in the mist or fog, and the sound always makes me smile. I may make a few initial photographs in the dim predawn light, and then I usually move off to start looking for subjects.

On this morning I began my “move” before the sun came up, but moments later I looked over my shoulder to see the first light of the rising sun, and I quickly found this location with a small gap in the tules, a bare tree, and some reflecting water, and I lined them up with the rising sun. In this foggy valley, when the fog is not too thick, there is a brief interval of perhaps a minute or two when the globe of the sun rises behind the fog, which mutes the light and allows me to shoot straight into the sun. Also right about dawn, flights of sandhill cranes lift off and fly in lines above the landscape – and on this morning the two ephemeral events happened simultaneously.

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: Nature, Photographs: New York City

Winter Trees, Central Park

December 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Low-angle late afternoon sun on winter trees casts shadows across Central Park lawns, New York City

For this photographer, New York provides a much wilder landscape than anything in the Sierra – though here “wild” may have a slightly different meaning. I like New York a lot, and I find the pace and density energizing, at least for a while. Most of the time, it provides an almost completely different sort of shooting for me (with only some of my San Francisco photographs being a bit similar in concept). I shoot entirely handheld, with a small camera, and almost entirely with a single prime lens. (Contrary to what you’ll here, a reason for shooting with the prime is that it requires less thought, since there are fewer options to consider, thus allowing me to work a lot faster.) I make many photographs, the great majority of which are not wonderful and which will never been seen by anyone else. But every so often something happens in front of the camera that is worth the search.

But this is not that kind of photograph. It was shot handheld and using that very same prime lens, but it is a landscape. On this afternoon in Central Park the winter sun was low in the sky, and beautiful light filtered through hazy sky. There were thousands of people out in the park, having a different sort of “outdoor experience” than I’m used to – not a solitary sort of thing at all. There was the usual assortment of pedicab and carriage rides, food stands, people walking dogs, bike riders and runners… and always beyond the winter-bare trees the skyline of tall buildings. In this corner of the park I found a place to point my camera towards some trees and into the low afternoon sun.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Receding Ridges, Afternoon Rain

October 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A passing afternoon rain shower mutes the details of Olympic Mountain ridges, Olympic National Park

I made this photograph on the same afternoon and evening as several of the other Olympic National Park photographs that I have posted recently. We went up to Hurricane Ridge in the late afternoon in hopes of photographing evening light across the valleys and mountains visible from that overlook, and we were partially rewarded. The conditions varied from moment to moment – occasional sun broke through clouds, atmospheric haze thickened and thinned, there were brief rain shows and a rainbow.

When we arrived the conditions were such that we imagined that they could evolve in any of several directions. We hoped for the possibility that the clouds to the west might break and allow light through. We worried that these clouds might thicken and cut off the late light entirely. When rain showers moved across the scene in front of us and dripped a few showers our way we thought that rain might develop. (We did get our light, but only briefly, and not for this photograph.) I made this photograph during that time when rain seemed like a distinct possibility. A semi-transparent curtain of showers gradually appeared over the valleys and range to our south, obscuring the details of the scene.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Paoha Island, Mono Lake, Evening

September 22, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Pastel colors in evening clouds above Paoha Island reflect on the surface of Mono Lake

On this evening I ended up at Mono Lake on more or less a hunch about the clouds – thunder clouds had built to the east out over the basin and range country and even a bit over the Sierra, and I had heard a report of thunder and lightning a bit north of here, so I decided to chance an evening visit to the south shore of the lake. Mono Lake evening light can be very special, but it can also be a bit tricky. Because the tall peaks of the Sierra Nevada crest lie directly to the west, the light leaves the lake itself well before actual sunset, so you often might end up relying on the clouds themselves to provide most of the interest. Smoke from a wildfire to the south near Mammoth Lakes had also been affecting the atmosphere, creating a lot of haze and some unusual colors.

In any case, I drove out to a point along the south shore of the lake – not the well-known South Tufa site, though visible from there – and watched the mostly uninspiring light of this very hazy evening. But there I was, and there wasn’t time before the end of the light to get from Mono Lake to other places that might be interesting, so I stayed and photographed and thought about how I might be able to work with the light and conditions that were available to me. There were beautifully shaped clouds, and they rose high enough above the lower atmosphere to gain some clarity. The haze muted the shapes and colors of the far hills and the darker shape of the island. So I composed the scene to just barely hold the island and a bit of the lake at the bottom, and used that to anchor a scene that was mostly sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: silhouette

Sandhill Cranes, Marsh, Dawn

Winter Trees, Central Park

Receding Ridges, Afternoon Rain

Paoha Island, Mono Lake, Evening

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