Tag Archives: trees

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

White Pelicans, Pond

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White Pelicans, Pond
A row of white pelicans swims sedately in clearing morning fog

White Pelicans, Pond. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A row of white pelicans swims sedately in clearing morning fog.

White pelicans seem to keep to themselves at the locations where I photograph birds. I’ve gotten to know a few small groups here and there, and I’ve noticed a few things about them. During a season they seem to establish a “home base” and stick to it — and I can almost be certain to find them at the current year’s location. They stick together in groups of perhaps a few dozen, spending a lot of time clumped together near the water, seemingly doing next to nothing. In the morning they frequently fly out after many other birds have already done so. And because their groups are relatively small, these fly-outs happen quickly.

This group was a little ways from its usual spot on this day. They had swum — or perhaps more accurately, floated — across a large pond and eventually drifted quite close to me. Their passage was quiet and sedate, with little movement above the water line. Eventually they arrived at whatever point they had selected, and before long there were headed back the way they had come.

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: Wildlife

Geese, Pond, Dawn Sky

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Geese, Pond, Dawn Sky
Ross’s geese in a wetland pond on a foggy morning beneath dawn sky

Geese, Pond, Dawn Sky. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ross’s geese in a wetland pond on a foggy morning beneath dawn sky.

There is often a particular esthetic around bird photography that concentrates on close photographs of individual birds. I’ve often thought that the reasons for this particular approach are several. For some bird photographers – though not so much for me — this work is an outgrowth of “birding,” and in that endeavor being able to view individuals close up is a goal. There’s also an element of the technical challenge. It isn’t easy to get in position to fill the frame with one bird, and it is even more difficult when the bird is in flight. On top of that, we must acknowledge that for at least a subset of bird photographers, the acquisition and use of really big and really expensive lenses has its attractions.

I’m not immune to those things, but I often find myself approaching birds in a somewhat different way. Few of my photographs feature a single bird filling the frame. (I can do that, and I have, just not that often.) More typically, the photographs include a group of birds — a couple of them together or perhaps thousands — and place them in the landscape. The latter is quite likely linked to my long interest in the landscape as a subject. This photograph clearly fits that lineage — it is what I think of as a “birdscape,” a photograph including birds in the landscape they occupy. I made this photograph in a water-filled place on a foggy morning when soft and colorful dawn light briefly lit the sky.

David Hoffman and I have an exhibit of “birdscapes” opening very soon at Stellar Gallery in Oakhurst, California, near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. If you’ll be in the neighborhood — going to see the Yosemite Valley snow or to photograph Horsetail Fall? — stop by and take a look at our photographs!

February 16th-March12th. Reception February 16 5-8:00PM. Stellar Gallery, Oakhurst, California

Birdscapes — David Hoffman and G Dan Mitchell
Birdscapes — David Hoffman and G Dan Mitchell

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.

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

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow

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Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow
A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky.

Long before I understood what I was seeing I had noticed and was intrigued by that band of darker sky just above the horizon during the morning and evening twilight, very close to the time that direct sunlight appears on the highest points. There is something very mysterious about it, and it suggests to me great distances beyond those encompassed by the immediate scene. Eventually I learned what now seems obvious — this is the edge of the shadow of the earth, dropping away in the moments before dawn and rising in the moments following sunset. (To this day, every time I think of this, I recall photographer Gary Crabbe’s “interpretive dance” as he explained this at a talk I attended years ago — one hand extended out and upwards pointing to the shadow, and the other extended at a slight downward angle pointing to the unseen sun. Thanks, Gary!)

I made this photograph from a high point east of the Sierra crest one September. I headed out this way in pre-dawn darkness not sure what I would find. I was pleasantly surprised to find extensive aspen color, even though it was just past mid-September, and then to find an open overlook from which I could take in a large section of the Sierra as dawn 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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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.

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

,Autumn Aspens, Cliff

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Autumn Aspens, Cliff
Autumn aspen trees cling to ledges along the face of a cliff in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Autumn Aspens, Cliff. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees cling to ledges along the face of a cliff in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

The aspens in this photograph have fascinated me for years. Nearby are some relatively large, tall, and straight trees, but for the most part the trees in this scene are small, slender, and sometimes even a bit misshapen. They manage to eke out a living on what appears to be solid rock as they send their roots into narrow cracks.

These trees seem to have, at least in my experience, a fairly short period of maximum color. Or at least that is what I tell myself when looking to explain why I have somehow almost always missed their best color. But it also appears that they change colors earlier than some of the other trees in the area — I made this photograph just past the middle of September, nearly two weeks before the typical start of the more widespread fall color season in the Sierra.

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.