Tag Archives: wetland

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetland Evening Reflections

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Wetland Evening Reflections
A wetland pont reflects a late-autumn evening sky as a weather front approaches

Wetland Evening Reflections. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A wetland pont reflects a late-autumn evening sky as a weather front approaches

This wetland evening was representative of another seasonal “type” here in California — the conditions that arise as one of our Gulf of Alaska weather fronts approaches the state. Once the storm arrives the light can be quite gray, but there is a transitional period when beautiful high clouds begin to move in, but are still broken enough to reveal the sky and to allow direct sunlight to illuminate the landscape and sky.

This was one of those evenings. As it became later the conditions changed from clear to increasingly cloudy. By the time I made this photograph the sun had already dropped behind the clouds to the west, and the light became much softer and much less warm in color. Yet, to my north some of that color still appeared in the higher clouds, and I stopped to photograph this sky and its reflection in a shallow 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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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Pond, Clearing Fog, Morning Light

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Pond, Clearing Fog, Morning Light
Water plants and clearing fog in morning light over a wetland pond

Pond, Clearing Fog, Morning Light. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Water plants and clearing fog in morning light over a wetland pond.

Luckily for me, I live in a part of the world with lots of opportunities to find watery landscapes that may be affected by fog, mist, clouds, rain, and even a brilliant sunrise or sunset. I live less than an hour from the California coast, and only a few hours from spectacular places such as the Big Sur Coast and Point Reyes National Monument. There are many other places not far away that feature this things — water, light, and atmosphere — and if I visit at the right times I get the bonus of quiet and stillness.

I made this photograph on one of those foggy mornings near water. The sun had come up already and the spectacular dawn and immediate post-dawn light was gone. But as the sun rises it also warms the air, and the fog begins to thin and dissipate. When I came upon these interesting water plants, going to brown at the end of their season, the air had cleared enough to begin to reveal more distant details under the soft but directional light.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetland Plants, Dawn

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Wetland Plants, Dawn
Water plants grow in a wetland pond, photographed just before sunrise, california, usa, north, america, mnwr, nature, landscape, central, san joaquin, valley

Wetland Plants, Dawn. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Water plants grow in a wetland pond, photographed just before sunrise.

California is a state of astonishingly diverse landscapes, and quite a few of them can seem almost monumental — the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the vast expanses of deserts, the long Pacific coast shoreline, the redwood forests, and more. These are the subjects that often attract visitors, and I’m not immune to their attractions either. In fact, I’ve spent years photographing all of them, and I continue to do so. But as a person who has lived nearly his entire life in the state, I have learned — sometimes rather slowly! — that there are other, more subtle landscapes that are also quite beautiful.

Wetland scenes like this one are among those that might easily be overlooked at first. In fact, I was guilty of overlooking them for decades, even though I had opportunities to get to know them. It was only in the past decade or some that I became entranced by them, often as a side-effect of photographing other subjects that brought me there. They are found all over the state — near the mouths of rivers, in the shallows surrounding San Francisco Bay and similar bodies, it various flatlands. I made this photograph in a place that most folks looking for California beauty would not visit — a quiet place in an agricultural area where winter rains collect in shallow ponds. I was there on a quiet morning, arriving before dawn when the first light was coming to the eastern sky and the colors reflected on the surface of the still water.

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 | Facebook | Email

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

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetland Dawn Clouds

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Wetland Dawn Clouds
A cloud-filled dawn sky reflected in the waters of a wetland pond

Wetland Dawn Clouds. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Somehow it seems appropriate to make a sunrise photograph the subject of the first post of a new year. In fact, I and a few friends have started a new tradition over the past few years — we meet every New Year’s Day before dawn to greet the literal dawn of the new year together. We make photographs, tell stories, share food and champagne, consider what the coming year may bring, enjoy the camaraderie, and perhaps even consider the fact that yet another year has passed. (Perhaps the only downside — or maybe it is an upside? — is that in order to make it to our meeting place before dawn we all have to get up so early than partying until midnight the evening before is pretty much out of the question.)

So, here’s my Happy New Year wish to you. I hope you have a great year, that you start it and end it among friends, that you visit interesting places, make new discoveries, and enjoy familiar wonders, too. If you are photographer, best wishes for finding a crop of new subjects and for making beautiful, compelling photographs of the new and the familiar. And to all, thanks for following my daily posts and my photography.

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 | Facebook | Email

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

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