Tag Archives: south

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife, Post-processing Workflow

Pelicans, Winter Surf

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Pelcans, Winter Surf
“Pelicans, Winter Surf” — A quartet of brown pelicans flies above raging winter surf off the California coast below San Francisco.

During last week’s extremely big surf we headed right over to the coast to witness and photograph the conditions. Waves were up to 30′ tall and even higher, and a winter “King tide” sent those waves right up onto the shore in many places. You might have seen news reports of damage to some coastal areas. While staying safe, we were able to get pretty close to the action on a drive between Santa Cruz and Half Moon bay, and we made quite a few photographs.

Most of the photographs were essentially seascapes — the watery equivalent of landscape images, featuring the shapes and colors and so on of the moving water. But as I made a series of photographs of this huge wave a line of pelicans flew through the frame, passing just above the raging surf.

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: Fall Color, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Leaves, Creek

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Autumn Leaves, Creek
Trees and bushes with autumn leaves line the banks of an Eastern Sierra Nevada creek.

Autumn Leaves, Creek. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Trees and bushes with autumn leaves line the banks of an Eastern Sierra Nevada creek.

This is another of the “how in the world did I pass by here and never stop to photograph this” images. I’m sure that I have passed this spot scores of times and simply not noticed it… until I just happened to look this direction last week while on my way to something else. I made a mental note, stopped here on my return, and then ended up photographing this spot several times over a two-day period. In truth, part of what I enjoy about returning to photograph familiar places is the inevitable “discovery” of things that have been there all along!

In most years this spot would have been past its prime for autumn colors on the date I visited. It is more typically at its peak several days earlier. But this year in the eastern Sierra felt a bit different. I’m still pondering why it happened but it seemed like the higher elevation trees may have changed a little bit later than usual (or at least retained their colors a bit longer) while lower elevation groves are transitioning on more of a typical schedule. As a result during the second week of October I found color from the highest to the lowest locations — and that’s not typical.

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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California Fall Color, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Grove, Evening

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Autumn Grove
Autumn in a quiet evening aspen grove in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Autumn Grove. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Autumn in a quiet evening aspen grove in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

It is easy to focus on the largest and most impressive elements of the Sierra Nevada landscape — I know that I often do. The range is full of rugged peaks, deep valleys, forests draped across miles of terrain, and more. But eventually, if you spend enough time in this landscape, it becomes apparent that there are things to see (and photograph) almost everywhere… and not just in the iconic places. If you asked me where this photograph was made, I could tell you the precise location — but why? There are countless equivalent scenes all over the range!

The photograph illustrates another principle of photographing such subjects: sometimes “bad light” is actually good light. I made the photograph after the sun had set behind the surrounding tall mountains, as the day’s light was quickly fading. But I love photographing trees — especially autumn aspen trees — in this marginal and soft light. The harsh highlights and shadows are gone and gentle light suffuses the scene.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: White Mountains

Inyo Sunrise

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Inyo Sunrise
Looking south from the White Mountains toward the Inyo Range at sunrise.

Inyo Sunrise. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Looking south from the White Mountains toward the Inyo Range at sunrise.

On my aspen photography trip to the Eastern Sierra during week three of October I took one day off from photographing the autumn leaves and headed east into the White Mountains to visit the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. It had been a few years since my last visit, and it seemed like time. I left the town of Bishop in predawn darkness, planning to be at an overlook of the High Sierra at dawn. Dawn on the Sierra is always impressive, though the photographic challenges on this morning were many. But just at sunrise I looked back to the Southeast, across the Inyo Range and all the way to the peaks of Death Valley, to see an impressive sequence of silhouetted peaks..

From here I continued on to the higher reaches of the White Mountains, an alpine moonscape of round and very high peaks, covered in many places by the remarkable bristlecone pine forest. These trees survive in one of the most challenging environments in California, at high elevations in these dry and barren mountains. At this late-season date there was hardly anyone else there. I saw a couple of cars at the (closed) visitor center, and I was entirely alone for an hour or so at the highest, most-distant grove of 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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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