Tag Archives: sky

Photographs: England, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Summer Twilight, River Thames

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Summer Twilight, River Thames
“Summer Twilight, River Thames” — The twilight sky above the River Thames on a summer evening in London.

This photograph comes from the end of a memorable day in London back in 2013. Believe it or not, this was our first visit to that city. We made the best of it, staying there for about a week before departing for other destinations. Various relatives from the US and Europe also showed up while we were there, and it was on this day, if my memory is correct, that the whole gang had finally arrived and met up. We had just had dinner together and were now along the Thames watching the day come to an end.

This photograph brings up the subject of how to interpret scenes photographed in very low light. It was the beginning of summer twilight on this July evening — there was still light and color in the sky, but artificial light was becoming more visible as in became darker. My tendency is to interpret light in ways that bring more of it to the subject, but with night and near-night photography it is easy to go so far that you lose the sense of a dark environment. In this photograph I decided to keep things relatively dark, at least compared to what I could have done, in the hope that the effect would be close to how we would perceive the scene in person.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

Geese in Flight, Winter Sky

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Geese in Flight, Winter Sky
“Geese in Flight, Winter Sky” — A flock of snow geese in flight against a winter dusk sky, California Central Valley.

February seems to be the time of year when California’ over-wintering migratory birds become restless. Earlier in the season they often seem somewhat inactive and may be difficult to locate, but on February days, at least in my experience, they are more active throughout the day and are present in much greater numbers . I estimate that at one point I saw perhaps multiple tens of thousands of geese on one large system of ponds.. By evening they were everywhere, and the sound was simply astonishing.

I’ve written that my ideal winter bird photography weather calls for tule fog in the morning and hazy sky during the rest of the day. This was not that kind of day. The sun rose in clear air, and hardly any clouds appeared in the blue sky, aside from a few low clouds far to the east along the line Sierra Nevada. (At times, snow-covered peaks were visible above the clouds.) Just after sunset the sky turned pink above the blue-gray of the earth’s shadow, and this huge flock of (mostly) snow geese wheeled wildly in front of the pink-gray boundary.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Blackbirds in Winter Sky

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Blackbirds in Winter Sky
A murmuration of redwing blackbirds above winter wetlands.

Blackbirds in Winter Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A murmuration of redwing blackbirds above winter wetlands.

When I got to these places in the winter to photograph birds — and to experience the wetland winter landscape — I’m usually looking for larger birds. The geese first attracted me, and then I became fascinated with cranes, herons, ibises, pelicans, and more. At first I probably more or less ignored these flocks of small back birds that seemed to be everywhere. More recently, I’ve come to look forward to seeing them.

They are blackbirds, most likely red-winged blackbirds, but also possibly tri-color blackbirds. To my eye the differences are subtle unless I get close enough to see the definite patch on the wings — red in one case, red and white in the other. (And, occasionally, apparently to confound me, I spot odd things such as yellow bands…) These are flocking birds, virtually always seen in groups, and they fly together, sometimes creating murmurations, flocks of closely-spaced birds that shift and reform in flight. Beyond their visual appearance, the sound they make seems utterly joyous, and there are few things quite like being next to a few hundred of them in full song.

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: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

560 Blue

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560 Blue
“560 Blue” — A man walks past a blue San Francisco building in morning sunlight.

Let me start by pointing out that this is not the first time I have shared this photograph. An earlier interpretation of it exists using a different aspect ratio. I came across it again recently as I scanned through my old raw files, and I decided to take another look at it. This time I altered the aspect ratio, retaining the original 3:2, though I more typically work with 4:3. This allowed me to include the decorative rectangles at the upper right and left. In addition, as I thought more about the role of the blue color in this photograph I decided to simply remove a few elements that were dissonant with that.

The scene is a San Francisco street, and I made the photograph on one of my day trips up to “The City” by train, something that was a regular photographic event for me prior to the pandemic. I was walking up into the main downtown area from the train station, pausing along the way to photograph interesting subjects in the full morning sun across the wide street. I had already made a couple of photograph of this very blue building when I saw the man walking into the scene.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.