Tag Archives: valley

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Eroded Desert Canyon Walls

July 17, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The eroded rock strata of the walls of a narrow desert canyon, Death Valley National Park

I made this photograph in a place that I most certainly would not want to visit on the day that I am posting this! Back in early April this popular hike up a narrow canyon was relatively comfortable on a day when the temperature might have made it to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. By now, that would be considered to be a “cool” day, since temperatures in these “warm” months frequently go well over 100 degrees. Some people choose to visit Death Valley in those awful conditions, but I’ll take the late fall through early spring season any time!

In Death Valley, more so than in just about any other area below timberline, the geology of the place is laid open for us to see clearly. Things do grow there, but sparsely and rarely beyond a height that might be measured in inches. The primary impression is of rock – monumental mountains of rock, vast washes over which floods have spread broken up rock and gravel, and the valley floors which may range from gravel to sand – but are still, ultimately, rock. Very little grows in this canyon aside from a few tiny plants peeking out of the odd crack or cowering in bits of shade, so here the erosion features and the underlying rock strata are easy to see. As I came to this point in the canyon, the wall was mostly still in shadows filled by reflected light, with just a bit of direct sunlight rimming the edges of some of the rocks.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Egret Quartet

July 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A quartet of egrets on a foggy morning in a green late-winter pasture in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

This gang of egrets was politely waiting for me near the far corner of a wildlife refuge that I had visited on the last-winter morning, hoping to photograph (mostly) geese and cranes. The geese and cranes were a bit shy, and as I worked my way around the refuge’s perimeter road I wasn’t finding a lot of opportunities to photograph them. I could hear them, especially the sandhill cranes, but they seemed to be too far off, hidden by fog, or behind the tules. But I wasn’t in a hurry, so I took my time, stopping and watching and listening. By this later point in the season the initial astonishment at the huge numbers of birds had worn off a bit, and rather than jumping out of the car to photograph huge flocks of birds, as if they were the first and only flocks in the world, had given way to a bit more patience.

It had appeared that it would be a clear morning as I drove toward this location, but just moments before I arrived – a bit before dawn – the cool and damp air did begin to form some fog. This was fine with me, as I’d rather have a bit of interesting foggy atmosphere than have perfectly clear sky. But the fog was relatively short-lived – not like the midwinter fogs that can cover these places for days on end. By the time I finally worked my way over to this spot the sun was starting to break through and the fog was thinning. Because of their stark white color, lone egrets are often easy to spot from a good distance, and four of them clustered together were impossible to overlook. As I edged up closer to them, remaining in my vehicle so as not to spook them, they simply stood there, occasionally swinging their heads one way or another. Before I could make this photograph I first had to wait for an unruly band of red-winged blackbirds to depart, and then I waited for the four birds to move their heads in what seemed to me to be interesting directions.

Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Ross’s Geese, Late November Fly-In

July 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ross’s geese settling in for the night at last sunset light, San Joaquin Valley, California.

Now that I have finally (it was about time!) discovered the migratory bird populations in the Central Valley of California, I’ve become addicted to photographing them. Among my favorites are the huge flocks of Ross’s geese that can appear at times in certain places out there, and which are most active during the morning “fly out” and the evening” fly in” periods.

This was my first “wild goose chase” of the current season, and I had arrived very early that morning… to find thick tule fog obscuring the views of the birds. Early in the morning, I could hear them but barely see them at all, with the exception of one flock settled in close enough to the access road that I could barely make out a few of them in the murk. As things cleared a bit in the morning I could confirm that there were decent numbers of these birds about, but they seemed to be settled in on water that was inaccessible to me for photography. I photographed some other subjects, and eventually moved on to check out some other areas. Late in the day, I realized that I probably had time to swing back through the refuge for about an hour in the evening. When I arrived I found a few birds in the same inaccessible location where I had seen them in the morning, but I also was able to see some flocks passing by and even circling over along the far corner of the area. With this in mind, I began to work my way over there, and was rewarded with a good-sized flock that had settled into a grassy area not too far from the access road. As these geese will do, from time to time they spontaneously all rose into the air and the giant, thick flock circled for a few minutes before settling back in more or less where they were before. I photographed these against the dusk sky about the Coast Range as the last of them came back to rejoin the group on the ground.

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

Geese, Sunset Clouds

July 7, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of geese passes above sunset-lit clouds over northern California

I made this photograph on what turned out to be, no surprise to me, my last migratory bird photography day of this season. (And a productive season it was!) In April the climate begins to shift strongly toward spring conditions in California and in this drought year that meant that not only did it warm up, but places that might otherwise remain wet were already drying out. I started the day at a wildlife refuge where I frequently photograph the birds, especially Ross’s Geese, and was fortunate to begin the day with some classic light Central Valley fog that gradually cleared as the morning wore on. After shooting for a few hours I came to that midday time when migratory bird photography isn’t as great as it is at the edges of the day – a time when one might think about how to kill the next few hours until the light again becomes conducive to photography. I spontaneously decided to not spend it waiting here but to instead drive a good distance north to another place I’ve photographed in the past but which I hadn’t visited this season.

I took my time on this long drive. The route itself requires more than an hour of driving, but a few side excursions added considerably to that. I pulled off the highway to investigate one small town that I hadn’t been through before, and I drive a ways up a side road that crosses the Diablo Range heading west, finding the green spring grasses and some early wildflowers. Back on the main highway, I continued north to an areas where I have photographed cranes and other birds in the past, but in this dry year all of the water was gone and agriculture work seemed to already be underway. I decided to try another wildlife reserve that isn’t far away, and it turned out to still be relatively wet – but the large flocks of birds that I could count on back where I started my day seemed to not be here. I continued my search, eventually spotting the tell-tale white “cloud” that could only mean that a flock of geese was busy in a field a ways to the north, so I quickly drove over there to find a very large flock of snow geese, which I don’t generally see further south. After sunset, this flock of geese flew high overhead in the waning twilight.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: valley

Eroded Desert Canyon Walls

Egret Quartet

Ross’s Geese, Late November Fly-In

Geese, Sunset Clouds

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