Tag Archives: trees

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

Geese, Tule Fog, Autumn Trees

December 6, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Migratory snow geese and Ross’s geese in a pond on a foggy San Joaquin Valley morning

Since it was December 1, it seemed like time to start my annual series of visits to California’s Great Central Valley to photograph migratory birds and the landscape of the place. (Actually, I had made one preliminary and very quick visit about a month earlier, but too early for the birds shown in this photograph.) There is a ritual about these visits which, for me, are typically one-day affairs that start very early and end rather late, with a fair amount of driving involved. Up well before dawn, I drive a couple of hours in darkness and often fog, arriving perhaps a half hour before dawn to the stirring sound of many thousands of birds, already awake at morning twilight. I photograph intensively for at least a few hours before taking, at last on most days, a midday break. By mid-afternoon I’m back at work again, photographing through the peak of the visual crescendo just before sunset and then continuing for perhaps another half hour or so until the light is gone. I pack, get into my vehicle, and retrace my two-hour drive back home. (At least the shorter daylight hours of this season allow me to get up a little bit “later” — if you consider 3:45 or 4:00 AM later — and return home in time for a late dinner.)

On this first day of December it was incredibly foggy when I arrived — so much so that it was really hard to make photographs. I usually enjoy photographing in the fog, but this was so thick that almost no sunrise light managed to color the gloom. But before long the light began to come through the fog and eventually I found a moderately large group of white geese settled in on a pond. Among them I saw Ross’s and snow geese, and beyond them there were trees with fall foliage.

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, Before Sunrise

November 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large grove of eastern Sierra fall aspen trees in pre-sunrise light

After spending so many years exploring the Sierra, and for the past 15 or so expanding my explorations to include some of the high east side locations mostly accessible by vehicle, there are little spots all over the range that have become personal favorites — places I return to regularly whenever I get a chance. You might think that they would get “old” after a while, being so familiar. Instead, I find that there is always something new to discover about them, and I enjoy the sense of spending time with old landscape friends!

This is one of those places. In this case, I have to drive to get to it, but it is still typically a nicely lonely place, and I often have it entirely to myself at dawn. A person or two might pass by, but that’s about it. (Though, funny story, this time as I took in the view a small vehicle carrying four deer hunters passed by. We waved and they kept going. Later, as I descended from this spot, heading in the direction from which they had come, I passed through a herd of a dozen deer right on the road.) I usually go before dawn and watch the first light strike the highest peaks and work its way down into the valleys. I made this photograph before the direct sunlight had arrived.

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 and Meadows

November 23, 2017 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Autumn aspen groves broken up by meadows along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada

Yes, still more fall color photographs! I’m getting close to the end of this year’s batch, and you are likely to see other subjects a bit more in the near future. Some of you will be happy about that and others will be disappointed. :-) Overall, this turned out to be a pretty good season for Sierra Nevada color, at least in my view. I heard a few people say that it wasn’t that great, but I think that the elements of luck and timing and location make a big difference — and all of those played out well for me this year.

This photograph comes from a place where there are lots of large groves spread across eastern Sierra hillsides. There are many places like this, so the precise location probably isn’t all that important. I happened to be there at just about the peak of the color, and I found an elevated position from which to photograph down into the backlit trees.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Meadow, Autumn Light

November 13, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Every autumn the Sierra Nevada experiences days when the air is full of wildfire smoke. It was only recently that I came to recognize that a large component of what I’ve always identified as “autumn light” is the atmospheric haze from wildfires — not just those nearby in the Sierra, but including the diffused smoke from wildfires further away in California and even beyond California’s borders. Yes, the lower angle light is part of the effect, but it is the soft and hazy atmosphere that is perhaps the most major element. I’m amazed that it took me this long to fully make the connection, but also happy to find there are still new things to “discover” and understand!

The atmospheric light in this photograph is the result of this effect. It was a very smoky day in Yosemite Valley — the sort of day when you might consider wearing a breathing mask. A big fire was still smoldering just south of Yosemite Valley, its smoke collecting each evening and then flowing downwards into the Valley. I made the photograph just as the edge of the shadow from nearby cliffs was beginning to cross this meadow, and the sunlight caused the smokey atmosphere to glow behind the trees. It is easy to think of wildfire smoke as an impediment to photography, but if you turn your thinking around just a bit you soon realize that these conditions can provide some very special and even lovely possibilities, ranging from the muted and slightly sienna tones of the light to enhanced effects of atmospheric recession. The potentials for producing moody and evocative photographs may actually increase on days like this!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: trees

Geese, Tule Fog, Autumn Trees

Aspens, Before Sunrise

Autumn Aspens and Meadows

Trees, Meadow, Autumn Light

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