Tag Archives: trees

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Geese, Dawn Sky, Fog

March 2, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tens of thousands of Ross’ geese take to the dawn sky above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

We always hope for fog on our winter visits to these places where the Pacific Flyway migratory birds are found out in California’s Central Valley. Despite the attractions of clear and sunny mornings — especially when it comes to driving — the fog lends mystery to the landscape and works wonders with the early morning light. We were not disappointed on this morning, and the fog was very thick when we arrived. For a short time it was thick enough to make driving difficult, but as dawn approached the atmosphere cleared enough to let us see clouds above the airborne geese.

At this point in the season, the time when the geese depart for points (far) north is very close, and it seems like the geese must know. They seem to be much more active and they congregate in larger numbers, frequently taking to the air in astonishing clouds of thousands or tens of thousands of birds. Within minutes of our arrival on this morning, huge groups of them took to the air all over the surrounding landscape, starting out in tightly packed flocks that gradually expanded to fill the sky.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sierra Foothills, Late Winter

March 1, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First growth of the season brings green to Sierra Nevada foothills in late winter

During late winter many parts of California undergo stunning conversion. During the previous summer the landscape dried out under summer heat. As summer turns to fall the heat does not immediately abate, and the landscape may reach its driest point. Then, in a normal year, the winter rains finally arrive. At first the changes — mud, mostly — don’t speak of spring, but at some point in the middle of winter plants again gain a foothold and begin to sprout everywhere. Short and very greens grasses spring up. Wildflowers begin to appear on the hillsides.

This photograph is of an area that seemed to be starting the late winter transformation. Though some trees are still leafless, the hills are otherwise covered with the first, short grasses. A few flowers have begun to appear on some of the chaparral plants. And beautiful light is everywhere. This begins a short but intense period of wild land growth here. The short grasses turn to lush, thick grasses. Wildflowers take over, and the leafless trees begin to show new colors.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Lake and Peninsula

February 15, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees grow on a peninsula at a Yosemite subalpine lake, late summer

We have passed nearly halfway though our annual circuit around the sun since I made this photograph. It is now slightly past midwinter, and the photograph was made in late summer, a few weeks before the arrival of solar fall, though the signs of autumn were already everywhere in this drought-affected portion of the Sierra backcountry.

The haze in the atmosphere beyond the peninsula with its sunlit trees comes from wildfires that were burning all over Yosemite and the rest of the Sierra. One small one was burning just across a nearby ridge and a more distant but larger fire periodically fill the air with thick smoke. Wildfire smoke is a normal feature at the end of the season, but this year it was much worse than normal. Fortunately, every day the winds shifted, the smoke moved away, and we got some beautiful near-autumn weather — time to enjoy the golden-brown meadow grasses, walks around the lake, and the occasional climb up onto grants slabs that rose from its shoreline.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest, Lake, and Haze

February 6, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A hazy late-summer day at a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake, Yosemite National Park

With all of the recent urban and street photography I have been posting — which is a bit seasonal pattern, given my travel tendencies — I’m also making an effort to go back through some older photographs from last year to find landscape photography that escaped my notice on the first pass. This always happens with photographs — for some reason certain images don’t make sense right after I make them, but when I come back to them later on with a fresh eye I see potential that I missed. Right now I’m revisiting late-summer photographs from a week-long backcountry stay at a Yosemite lake.

For me, this photograph holds many of the subtler elements of the High Sierra experience — not the spectacular grand vistas, but something deeper and ultimately perhaps more powerful. In this beautiful late-season time of year, the meadow grasses around this quiet lake have finished the wild growth phase of summer and have already turned golden-yellow in preparation for autumn and then winter. Lower angle light comes over the shoulder of the granite ridge whose base is visible beyond the trees. Widely spaced trees stand at the edges of the meadow and even trace weaknesses in the granite slabs on the higher slopes.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: trees

Geese, Dawn Sky, Fog

Sierra Foothills, Late Winter

Lake and Peninsula

Forest, Lake, and Haze

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