Coots, Pond, Autumn Sky. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A flock of coots and autumn morning sky reflected in a wetland pond.
Autumn and winter are my favorite seasons, especially but not exclusively for photography. In my part of the world these are the seasons for the most compelling light, the most interesting skies, and transitions of all sorts — the color transition of autumn, the shortening (and subsequent lengthening) of daylight hours, the quicker transitions between rain and sun and fog and wind. Rather than waiting for those occasional special days, as one often does in the summer, I can just head out and be almost certain of finding something.
This morning was full of surprises. I was up and on the road hours before dawn, expecting to end up in a place full of thick tule fog, where I would photograph a sunrise obscured by this fog and then continue to photograph as it lightened and then cleared. But none of that happened. The weather forecasts were off, and instead it was almost completely clear of fog, opening expansive views to the morning sky. This sky was filled with the early clouds of an incoming Pacific weather front, with only a thin band of clear sky in the distance beyond the edge of the clouds. Shortly after the moment of sunrise, the still-low sun sent its light across the bottom of the cloud deck and the light caught the curving textures of the clouds, here reflected in the water of a pond.
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.
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