Tag Archives: valley

Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Hot Shower $5.00

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Hot Shower $5.00
An inviting sign on a door at a trailhead packstation in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Hot Shower $5.00. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An inviting sign on a door at a trailhead packstation in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

I have been a Sierra backpacker for a long time. How long, you ask? A significant number of decades. My first backpacking trip, something I had dreamed about for a few years, was the summer I turned 16. Two buddies and I headed off into the Desolation Wilderness for something like five days. Unsupervised. (I still cannot believe that my parents allowed this.) Both friends had at least some backcountry experience, one with his family and one in the Boy Scouts. But this was all entirely new to me.

Often we think of the peak moments in the backcountry, the astonishing sunrises, climbing to the summit of a peak, and encounter with wildlife, visiting a place to which few others have been. Or perhaps we tell “hero stories” — the time I took a five day pack trip with a broken toe, my first solo (two weeks long), bad weather, getting lost. But the truth is that a lot of the experience is based on some pretty simple pleasures: sitting on a comfortable rock as the day ends, eating that freeze-dried food out of the pot, traveling for days with friends… and that shower at the trailhead when you return from a week or more in the backcountry.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Autumn Leaves, Central Valley

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Autumn Leaves, Central Valley
Autumn leaves litter the ground at a remote location in California’s Central Valley.

Autumn Leaves, Central Valley. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn leaves litter the ground at a remote location in California’s Central Valley.

Every August I begin to anticipate autumn. Yes, I know. It isn’t August until tomorrow. But bear with me. Summer is nice, but it is not my favorite season. I’ll concede that it is the time of home grown tomatoes, warm evenings, easy outdoor time, and more. But when it comes to my favorite season, it is more or less a toss-up between autumn and winter — and if pressed I think I would have to come down on the side of autumn. Even here in California, autumn brings the promise (and eventually the reality) of cooler temperatures, along with more interesting and varied weather and a color change that rivals that of spring.

This photograph comes from very late fall last year, on an early December morning when I was out in California’s Great Central Valley to photograph a rather different subject. I had arrived before dawn. It was cold and there was frost here and there. After photographing through sunrise I paused for breakfast and a cup of coffee… and looked down to see this little patch of autumn.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Follow the Leader(s)

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Follow the Leader(s)
A flock of sandhill cranes taking flight over Pacific Flyway wetlands on a winter morning.

Follow the Leader(s). © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of sandhill cranes taking flight over Pacific Flyway wetlands on a winter morning.

Yeah, I know — MORE cranes! I can’t help it. They have become my favorite Pacific Flyway migratory birds, plus I had some excellent opportunities to photography them this past winter. (This topic came up in a recent online discussion in which the question of how I managed to find/corral a large number of them came up. I’m thinking of adopting a new moniker: “Crane Wrangler.”)

On this late-winter morning there was just a hint of fog in the air as the sun came up — just enough to mute the first light and some of the more distant colors. A large contingent of these birds, probably well over 1000 of them, was standing in shallow wetland ponds. As the light increased, they gradually began to depart in small groups, and I tracked them as they flew across the scene.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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

Sandhill Cranes, Winter Wetlands

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Sandhill Cranes, Winter Wetlands
A large group of sandhill cranes assembles in Pacific Flyway wetlands on a winter morning.

Sandhill Cranes, Winter Wetlands. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large group of sandhill cranes assembles in Pacific Flyway wetlands on a winter morning.

This was one of the larger assemblies of sandhill cranes I have seen in California’s Great Central Valley. (Though it still fall far short of the largest group I’ve seen, in an out-of-the way spot in the delta region east of San Francisco Bay.) There are quite a few visible in the photograph, but many more were outside the frame on both sides and extending well into the distance. It seems to me that they are more likely to be part of such groups late in their California season, or at least that the groups are less remote from observation points.

At the point I photographed them, most of the cranes were still relatively settled in on this pond, with only a few coming and going. A bit later they began to depart, typically in small groups of perhaps a half dozen or so. But at this moment, aside from the five who thoughtfully occupied the upper part of the frame, they were mostly stationary as the early morning sun came to the wetlands.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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