Tag Archives: valley

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

Cranes in Morning Sky

Image 2 Comments
Cranes in Morning Sky
Sandhill cranes aloft in winter morning sky

Cranes in Morning Sky. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sandhill cranes aloft in winter morning sky

Photography of migratory birds is often done at the edges of the day, starting before dawn and continuing well into the twilight hours. The birds are often there all day, but the light isn’t. (There are exceptions — for example, day-long tule fog or spectacular clouds.) So I spend a lot of time driving too and from locations in the darkness, and I usually arrive before dawn when there is perhaps just a hint of light in the sky.

While getting up at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning for a long drive in the dark probably doesn’t sound that appealing — and, honestly, it isn’t! — there are certain compensations. Dawn is one of them, especially dawn experienced with the sounds of perhaps tens of thousands of birds awakening and getting ready to burst into the sky. One one of those mornings a flock of sandhill cranes flew overhead and crossed from cloudy skies to clear eastern pre-dawn sky.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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

Morning Fly-Out

Image Leave a comment
Morning Fly-Out
Migratory geese take to the air in morning light and thin tule fog

Morning Fly-Out. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Migratory geese take to the air in morning light and thin tule fog

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am (finally!) going back and revisiting my 2017 (!) photographs. I usually review the previous year’s raw files each December as I come up with my annual favorites post. However, I didn’t do that post (yet) for 2017, and I therefore missed that all-important opportunity look through the year’s raw file archive. Why is that important? For various reasons, which could be the subject of an article at some point, I miss some interesting photographs right after I make them — perhaps I had to move on to other subjects, I may not yet have been able to “see” the images for what they are, etc.

This comes from the very beginning of 2017, in the middle of winter. In many parts of the country winter is when migratory birds show up, as they arrive in our relatively warmer climate from areas that may be literally frozen during this season. Geese are among the long-distance travelers, and every fall and winter I look forward to their return all up and down the California flyway. I photographed this group early in the morning as the sun arrived and the birds began to leave their overnight accommodations in wetland ponds.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake, Forest, Alpine Ridge

Leave a comment
Lake, Forest, Alpine Ridge
A rugged alpine ridge rises across the valley from a subalpine lake and surrounding forest

Lake, Forest, Alpine Ridge. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A rugged alpine ridge rises across the valley from a subalpine lake and surrounding forest

I have backpacked the Sierra Nevada for decades, and for much of that time I regarded the activity as primarily one about moving through the landscape. Days were spent walking through and past glorious scenery, often getting to camp in time to embark on the activities of finding a campsite, setting up a tent, figuring out food storage, filtering water, fixing and eating dinner, cleaning up… and sleeping. There was time to sit and look, but only when the other tasks were finished. Sometime later in my backpacking career I began to understand the value of sitting in one place and soaking it in, and eventually I even managed to convince myself to camp in one spot for more than one night, allowing me to slow down to match the natural rhythms of the place.

On some of the backcountry photography expeditions I’ve done more recently we have tended to set up a base camp and stay in one place for as long as a week. The experience has been surprising and remarkable. On early trips of this sort I would worry at first about how I could possibly find enough to do in one spot for a week. Invariably, by the final day of the visit I discovered that it had not been enough time! This photograph comes from one of these trips, where we camped in one location for a week, spending each day exploring near and far, and getting to know the landscape and light intimately. This photograph was made less than five minutes from camp, at a time of day when a Serious Backpacker would already by on the trail… and perhaps missing such quiet morning moments.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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

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

Seasonal Waterfall

Leave a comment
Seasonal Waterfall
Mist floats above the seasonal cascades of Sentinel Fall in late afternoon light, Yosemite Valley

Seasonal Waterfall. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mist floats above the seasonal cascades of Sentinel Fall in late afternoon light, Yosemite Valley

Tourists often visit Yosemite Valley in the very late spring and the summer, the season when the best-known waterfalls are flowing strongly — Yosemite, Bridalveil, Vernal, and Nevada falls being the most popular. They are spectacular, and they are worthy of a visit on their own. However, they are far from the only waterfalls in the Valley. (And the Valley is far from the entirety of the park!) There are many less-known waterfalls that a quite beautiful.

Many of these other waterfalls are seasonal, flowing for brief periods when the winter snow melts or coming to life mainly after storms. They tend to be quite ephemeral since the conditions that support them are often rather specific and short-lived. A number of the ephemeral Valley waterfalls are fed by streams having their origins in middle-elevation valleys that are not terribly large. As such, the bulk of winter snow melts over a short period of time… and the falls usually dry up completely. This fall is a prime example. It appears in the right conditions along the southern walls of the Valley (oddly, it is close to another, similar seasonal fall), but by summer it diminishes to a trickle and then disappears. On the day I photographed in mid-April it was flowing strongly following recent storms, producing a series of impressive waterfalls that combine to produce a spectacular drop from the rim to the floor of the Valley.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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