Tag Archives: wetlands

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetlands Pond, Winter Sky

Image Leave a comment
Wetlands Pond, Winter Sky
Winter dawn clouds reflected in a California Central Valley wetlands pond.

Wetlands Pond, Winter Sky. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Winter dawn clouds reflected in a California Central Valley wetlands pond.

We were not sure quite what we would find this morning. We had been photographing in this area over the past couple of day, mostly in less-than-spectacular conditions. The first day was marked by the passage of an exceptional weather system, and the second was “pleasant” but less than striking. Hey, it happens! We know that another from was due in as we headed out before dawn, so we were excited to see colorful sky develop as the first light appeared.

Arriving at our destination, the pre-dawn sky was perhaps the most intensely red that I’ve seen in this location. I made a few photographs of that, but it was actually a bit difficult to see how to make a useful photograph of it. (Stay tuned, though…) A bit later, just as the sun was about to break the line of the horizon, the sky overhead had lost the most intense color, thus providing a bit more color variation as I photographed across a Central Valley wetlands 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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | 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. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

White Pelicans, Tule Fog

Image Leave a comment
White Pelicans, Tule Fog
A flock of white pelicans swims acroiss a webland pond blanketed by morning tule fog.

White Pelicans, Tule Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A flock of white pelicans swims acroiss a webland pond blanketed by morning tule fog.

When I began photographing before dawn on this late-autumn morning, the fog was extremely thick. I could hear birds all around me, but I was barely able to see them and photographing them was initially out of the question. Gradually the fog began to drift a bit, and it thinned a bit in the light from the sun rising above the fog. Before long birds began to become visible, though I was still working at the borderline of sufficient light. It was at about this point that I caught sight of this line of white pelicans swimming slowly across a pond.

Every time I encounter these birds I think back to the first time I saw them. I had seen and photographed the coastal brown pelicans for years, but somehow I did not realize that white pelicans were in California! On a morning like this one I photographed some white birds that were barely visible in the fog… and misidentified them as geese or similar. Later, looking closely at the photographs, it hit me that these were very strange-looking geese, indeed! It was only at that point that I even realized that there were white pelicans here!

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 | Twitter | 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. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

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

Autumn Trees, Levee Road

Image Leave a comment
Autumn Trees, Levee road
Trees with autumn leaves along a road winding along a levee in Central Valley wetlands.

Autumn Trees, Levee Road. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Trees with autumn leaves along a road winding along a levee in Central Valley wetlands.

It just occurred to me that this sequence of photographs roughly narrates the course of a typical day here at this time of year. The ideal day starts before sunrise in thick fog. Then the fog becomes lighter and takes on the colors of dawn if things work just right. Eventually the fog thins more and the light becomes brighter and more directional. Before too long the fog dissipates and I’m left with the winter atmospheric haze, which softens the landscape even as the colors intensify.

I was hours into photographing this location when I came to these trees. Although it was still cold, the sun was shining confidently through the midday haze. The atmosphere was still a bit soft, but the fall colors were stronger. I initially stopped to photograph a bird perched at the top of one of the trees, but soon the bird left and I went into landscape photography mode.

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 | Twitter | 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. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

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

Wetlands Tree, Tule Fog

Image Leave a comment
Wetlands Tree, Tule Fog
A wetlands tree in thick autumn tule fog.

Wetlands Tree, Tule Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A wetlands tree in thick autumn tule fog.

Believe it or not, this is a color photograph, made on a late-autumn morning in California’s Great Central Valley. The dense tule fog did not simply reduce visibility — it also drained the color right out of the landscape. Foggy landscapes can have color — the blue tones of thick fog in the very early hours, and the warmer tones of shallow fog glowing in sunrise light. But in this case it was a bit later, and the colors of the earliest light had faded and backlit fog glowed and muted the color.

When photographing a subject like this I find myself on a fine line between not enough fog and not enough detail. Sometimes the fog is so thick that a subject that seems visible in person has so little contrast that it almost is invisible in a photograph. But too much definition and the mystery of the fog diminishes. Here I think I have hit the middle ground — there’s perhaps just enough detail to delineate the broad features, but many fine details are missing or softened.

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 | Twitter | 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. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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