Tag Archives: usa

Photographs: People, Photographs: Southern California

Observation Deck, Griffith Observatory

December 19, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Visitors to Griffith Observatory overlook Los Angeles twilight.

We were in Southern California over the Thanksgiving holiday, visiting our daughter and son-in-law. On the weekend we decided to head up to Los Angeles for various things, including a visit to the Frans Lanting show at the Annenberg Space for Photography. We finished up there, headed out for food (of course!) and then decided to head to Griffith Park.

We were apparently among approximately 350,000 people with the same idea! I’m not sure what a typical crowd looks like here, but this one was huge. We finally abandoned our rental car well below the observatory and found a shuttle bus that went up the hill. We arrived a bit before sunset and found that hordes were already there. But I can see why — it is a spectacular location. Although I was only carrying my “little camera,” I decided to see what I could come up with. Eventually I photographed the actual sunset, but first I turned the camera towards the people crowded onto the walkways around the observatory and standing in the beautiful light watching the evening develop.

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

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

Geese Rising

December 18, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of geese takes to the air above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

Sometimes bad light turns out to be good light. Late in the day I made one last circuit of this location, hoping to find some birds to photograph in sunset light. However, the light was obscured by the clouds of an incoming weather system and much of the light at this location became rather flat and gray. (The light to the west was another story, and another photograph made within moments of this one includes a rather spectacular sky in the distance.) It was cloudy enough that most of the light had faded before sunset, and there wasn’t much left after that at all.

Yet… the flat light has its advantages. One of the challenges of photographing airborne birds is that when they rise against the sky they are often lit from above, and it can be difficult to get a photograph that isn’t simply a silhouette. But the soft light fills those shadows, and here there was also a bit of gentle light coming from the western sky through sunset clouds that had picked up a bit of color. As I stood around watching a large group of geese (mostly snow geese) settled in a pond, the suddenly erupted into flight en masse, in the typical wild show of fluttering wings and loud vocalization. The turned and passed right in front of me before continuing on to some unknown place far to the west.

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

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

Geese, Sunset Sky

December 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Geese, Sunset Sky Thousands of migratory geese fly into the sunset sky above the San Joaquin Valley

Thousands of migratory geese fly into the sunset sky above the San Joaquin Valley

My pattern when photographing migratory birds is generally to arrive early, photograph until I’m too tired or the light becomes less interesting, take a midday lunch break, and then return to make more photographs. Late in the day, as evening approached, I returned to this area to see what I could find. Geese were around — one large flock near the entrance to this refuge and another visible in the distance on the far side. I made my way slowly around the perimeter, eventually arriving at the spot where that more distant group had settled in.

For a while I photographed them settled in shallow water among plants, thinking that perhaps this was where they would spend the night, in which case I might just continue to photograph here until dusk. But before long I began to sense that familiar restless in the flock, and a few small groups of geese took to the air from moment to moment, leaving the rest of the noisy flock behind. Then, suddenly and for no apparent specific reason, the birds suddenly lifted off, with virtually the entire flock taking to the air at once and heading off to the southwest. I quickly photographed as they passed directly overhead, then continued to follow them as the group stretched out toward the western hills and sunset clouds.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Nature

Blue Hour, Wetlands

December 16, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late autumn evening clouds reflected in wetlands of the San Joaquin Valley.

I have become a passionate photographer of winter migratory birds in California’s Great Central Valley, and I spend as much time as possible out there between late fall and the start of spring. For most of my life I was almost completely unaware of the great migration that takes place just a couple of hours east of my home and midway between there and “my” Sierra Nevada. For a few months this valley that seems primarily like farmland (at least to us coastal folks) for the rest of the year becomes a wildlife haven.

But it isn’t just about the birds. The birds may be the main draw, but they are certainly not the whole show, and the landscape itself fascinates me, especially with its surprising and varied effects of atmosphere and light. The ubiquitous fog creates mystery and the clouds of winter weather fronts produce beautiful skies. The dusk ending of a day out here rarely fails to produce some twilight magic.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: usa

Observation Deck, Griffith Observatory

Geese Rising

Geese, Sunset Sky

Blue Hour, Wetlands

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