Wetlands and Evening Sky. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 18, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Evening sky reflected by the surface of San Joaquin Valley wetlands
The late fall, winter, and early spring seasons bring to most interesting skies to California’s Central Valley landscape. In the summer – when, frankly, I most often drive through here on the way to some place else – the sky is mostly just plain blue with the typical amounts of haze. (Contrary to popular opinion, the LA Basin is not necessarily the location of the worst air in California – that “distinction” actually belongs to portions of the Great Valley.) But in winter there seems to be much more variation and conditions can sometimes change quickly – as they did on this photography day in mid-December.
While it can often be very foggy in this part of the Valley, on this day there was only light fog in the early morning and some lingering haze. This actually turns out to be beautiful light for photography as the haze mutes and softens the light in ways that I love. By midday the light was, well, midday light – and we took a break in a nearby town for lunch. When we returned to the field by mid afternoon early clouds from a weak approaching weather system were beginning to appear. When a really big front comes through at this time of day, the light is basically switched off – but this weak front brought alternating bands of blue sky, partial clouds, and thick clouds that blocked the light. For a few minutes before the end of the day everything turned blue – sky, water, and clouds – and I stopped to take of my long birding photography lens and use a wide-angle to make a photograph of this scene that is almost entirely sky.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.