Tag Archives: water

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Pelicans and Cormorants – Point Lobos

January 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Something a bit different today – I’m bundling three wildlife photographs into a single post. As I queue this message in advance on an early September morning, it appears that I have enough photographs ready for posting to carry me through October! I think I can afford to put three in this post!

All three were made from the same point on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean at Point Lobos, where I had gone – on Labor Day! – primarily to do landscape/seascape photography. It was an interesting and slightly unusual day. Tropical monsoonal moisture had been streaming over the area for a few days, which is not quite a typical pattern in this area, and the morning started out cloudy. Although it was Labor Day, a bit day for travel and tourism, I arrived early enough that things were still quiet.

On a more typical Point Lobos shooting day, at least one without fog, I would likely complete my work and leave by or well before noon. But the broken overcast allowed interesting and filtered light to continue well into the early afternoon, so I stuck around. After shooting in the forest along the north shore – much easier in filtered than in direct light – I decided I would make a loop along the high bluffs on my way back to my car. I came to this spot just as a very large flock of pelicans floated past below, barely skimming the tops of the almost glassy-calm ocean. With filtered top-light and a good vantage point, I decided to put on the long lens and see what might fly by. Here are a couple of photographs of pelicans and cormorants flying right above the water.

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

Sandhill Cranes, Marsh, Dawn

January 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Flocks of sandhill cranes fly through dawn haze above San Joaquin Valley marshland

This is another New Year’s Day photograph – and probably won’t be the last one. The typical process when I shoot here is to start at a parking area near the entrance before the sun comes up, either meeting friends there or else simply pausing to get my gear ready and put on warm clothes. Without fail, I also pause for a few minutes to take in the extraordinary sound of the many thousands of migratory birds, usually coming from unseen places off in the mist or fog, and the sound always makes me smile. I may make a few initial photographs in the dim predawn light, and then I usually move off to start looking for subjects.

On this morning I began my “move” before the sun came up, but moments later I looked over my shoulder to see the first light of the rising sun, and I quickly found this location with a small gap in the tules, a bare tree, and some reflecting water, and I lined them up with the rising sun. In this foggy valley, when the fog is not too thick, there is a brief interval of perhaps a minute or two when the globe of the sun rises behind the fog, which mutes the light and allows me to shoot straight into the sun. Also right about dawn, flights of sandhill cranes lift off and fly in lines above the landscape – and on this morning the two ephemeral events happened simultaneously.

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

Levee Road and Trees

January 6, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A pond reflects trees in foggy morning light along a twisting San Joaquin Valley levee road

This photograph is from my New Year’s Day visit to the San Joaquin Valley, where I went to greet the dawn in the company of thousands of migratory birds and a couple of good friends. After arriving home from the east coast the previous night at about 11:00 and getting to bed after midnight, I arose before 4:00 AM and headed off to the valley. Despite the sleep deprivation, it helped a bit to remind myself that it was already 7:00 AM back in New York, where I had spent the previous week – but only a bit. I arrived before dawn to meet my friends Dave and Charlotte, and we quickly went to work photographing the birds and the early and misty environment of this marshland area.

Shortly after the sun rose I headed out along this road that follows the contours of the levees separating the various ponds. Mostly they travel in relatively straight lines, but here the track takes a winding course among stands of cottonwood trees. When I stopped to look around a bit I glanced back and saw this pattern, with the early light on the vegetation and the slight fog causing colors and contrast to fade into the distance.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Yellow Wall, Hellbrunn Palace

January 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Yellow walls, green shutters, and the ubiquitous metal street lamps, Hellbrunn Palace near Salzburg, Austria

Hellbrunn is the site of the famous water garden, including a variety of “trick” fountains. I had never heard of the place, but our family guides thought it would be a good place to visit, so there we went. It was a palace for a member of Austrian nobility at one point (there’s more to the story than that…), and the story goes that he enjoyed playing tricks on guests. As a result, the grounds feature not only the usual huge lawns, statues, manicured gardens and so forth, but also a lot of water, some used to create all sorts of tricks and oddities.

There are benches from which water may spray on the person sitting there, doorways to small buildings that can suddenly spray the visitor, water that sprays up from sidewalks, and animated scene powered by water, a water powered organ, and more. The buildings, which are quite extensive, also include more staid living quarters, places to entertain guests, and art collections. As we walked around, I noticed the same street lamps attached to the exterior walls that I had seen elsewhere in Salzburg, so I included an example in this photograph of the corner of a brightly painted building.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: water

Pelicans and Cormorants – Point Lobos

Sandhill Cranes, Marsh, Dawn

Levee Road and Trees

Yellow Wall, Hellbrunn Palace

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