Tag Archives: tree

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

Birds Before Dawn

December 19, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of small birds rises into pre-dawn sky about San Joaquin Valley wetlands

This was a long day with lots of driving. In the evening I would be in Oakhurst, in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Yosemite, where I planned to attend the reception for “AVIAN: Birds In A Changing Landscape,” an exhibit of art related to the lives of birds in California. (Two of my photographs are in the show, and it runs through January 14 at Gallery Five.) But before going to Oakhurst I figured I would start my day by visiting the San Joaquin Valley wetlands, the environment where the birds actually live.

After a two-hour drive I arrived a half hour or so before dawn. I grabbed a quick cup of coffee from my thermos, put the big lens on my camera, and turned my attention to the surrounding bird-filled landscape. Within moments I was stunned to see something new to me — an absolutely huge flock of very small birds rose in the distance. My best guess is that they may have been tai-color blackbirds, but the numbers were far beyond anything I had seen here before. The light was too low and they were too far away to make an effective photograph, but before long a very small fraction of the flock came across this section of the wetlands closer to my location, and I was able to photograph them against the pre-dawn sky.

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

From The Gallery Window

December 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A San Francisco street scene viewed from the window of a photography gallery

We came to this place more or less by chance. It was a somewhat lazy day for us — we had attended a concert the night before and stayed overnight near the venue. Since we had another concert coming up on the second evening we decided to not have any serious plans in the morning. We got up late and finally wandered down past City Hall, through a farmers market, and then headed down Market Street. At one point I happened to look across the street and see the sign for “SF Camerawork” above an unlikely looking storefront, so we walked across to take a look, noticed that it was scheduled to open in less than 10 minutes, and decided we would stick around and take a look.

It probably seems odd that I hadn’t ever visited before, especially since this organization has existed in the City for decades, but sometimes odd things happen. In any case, the door finally opened, we climbed the long and marrow stairway, and arrived to find them in the process if installing an upcoming show: Landmark: Yosemite Through The Lens of Contemporary Landscape Photography. Despite the unfinished state of the installation, they allowed us to poke around and see the work that was already hung. They had one of Jerry Uelsmann’s fantastical landscape, several of the Mark Klett & Byron Wolfe juxtapositions of classic photographs collaged with modern photos of the same locations, a few witty Ted Orland pieces, and more. The exhibition space itself is very nice — open and with good light — and at one point I wandered to one of the street-facing windows and took advantage of the upper story location to make a few photographs of the street below.

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

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

River of Aspens

November 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A grove of colorful autumn aspen trees traces the path of a Sierra Nevada gully

Perhaps a more appropriate title could be “Another River of Aspens” — such features are ubiquitous in the Sierra and other locations, where aspens frequently are found along stream beds and can spread out as water might when they reach the lower and flatter elevations. As a result, the “streams” of trees can seem to flow in almost that same way that water might. This is a particularly obvious example, as the trees meander along the descending gully, spread out into a fan at its base, and then arrive at the shoreline of a lake. (The pattern also is similar to that of alluvial fans and even some forms seen below glaciers.)

We were at this location rather early on a fall morning. It is a place that is popular — a bit too popular these days — with photographers and others, but hard to resist if one is nearby for other purposes. We arrived before dawn and spent some time photographing in the cold, pre-sunrise light before we packed up and headed off to those “other purposes” nearby. This very early light is different from what we experience a bit later in the day. It can be quite blue in quality — often so much so that compensation is required during post processing — but the soft light can produce a more subtle effect with light getting into the shadows and revealing some of their details.

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

Cliff Face and Bare Aspen Trees

November 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Bare aspen tree trunks and branches against a backdrop of a Sierra Nevada rock face

There are all kinds of ways to photograph aspens, and they can be photographed during virtually any season: winter trees with snow, spring trees with new leaves, summer trees surrounded by wildflowers and grasses, autumn colors, and this wonderful time when the bare trees stand out against the rest of the surrounding terrain. At this latter stage they can be photogenic on their own or they can be set off against backdrops of other trees, rocks, or the fallen leaves littering the ground.

These specific trees have gotten my attention in the past. They grow against a fractured granite backdrop, and they are in a location where I might go to photograph other fall subjects. So when I go to photograph those subjects, I often end up walking past this spot and pausing. While nearby trees still had a lot of colorful leaves, these smaller trees had already dropped almost all of theirs.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: tree

Birds Before Dawn

From The Gallery Window

River of Aspens

Cliff Face and Bare Aspen Trees

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