Tag Archives: wild

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

Sandhill Cranes, Wetlands Marsh

July 30, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of sandhill cranes stands in a San Joaquin Valley wetlands marsh

This group of sandhill cranes was part of a bigger group that came much closer to us than I am used to. Most of the time when I see cranes they are either a good distance away if they are on the ground or they are in flight and passing quickly overhead. One of my strongest memories of cranes is from a morning of very dense fog, when I could hear their creaking, croaking cries from off somewhere in the distance, but could only catch a brief, half-visible view of them as they passed directly overhead and then disappeared again into the tule fog. But this group was hanging around in a shallow pond, near the dirt access road and even near to lots of other birds.

The cranes almost seem a bit aloof to me. While the geese whirl and turn overhead, and then erupt periodically into a honking riot when something disturbs them, the cranes seem to mostly stand quietly, occasionally walking a bit in the water or, even less often, on the land. The arrangement of this group caught my attention, with all standing together but each adopting its own unique pose.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Purple Trillium

March 15, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A purple trillium flower against a background of green leaves

Visiting Muir Woods National Monument to photograph trillium flowers is almost a late-winter tradition for me. It is also close to becoming a tradition to forget that it is time for trillium, and then realize just in time that they are in bloom. A week or so ago I realized that my previous trillium photographs from this location had been made in early March… so I would have to go now or else miss them this year! In this California drought year — now the third in a row — I wasn’t sure what I would find. Some recent rains had finally brought water to the area, and the creek through the monument was flowing and the ground was actually a bit wet, though it was far from the muddy place that is more typical at this time of year. New plant growth was beginning, albeit less lush than I am used to seeing in this coastal redwood forest.

We did find blooming trillium plants. There were fewer than in some recent years, and many of them seemed to have already blossomed, but with a bit of searching I was able to find some worthy of photographing. This year I decided I wanted to photograph them very close up, so I used a piece of equipment that often lives in my bag for months without ever coming out, a simple extension tube. I was able to position the camera almost directly over this flower, which let me make a background that consists entirely of the larger leaves of the plant.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Burned Forest, Twisting Branches

March 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Bare, twisted branches in burned forest, Yosemite National Park

For a number of years, Yosemite National Park has allowed naturally set fires to more or less burn themselves out under supervision, and management fires are set regularly in areas including Yosemite Valley. For many of us there is a natural negative response to this, at least initially, since we were brought up on a stead Smoky Bear diet of “fire is bad!” It turns out that not all fires are bad. In fact, the healthy forests depend on fire – to clear out underbrush and reduce the fuel load and even to prompt the renewal of plant life. Ironically, there is some thought that one reason for the very big and very destructive fires that have occurred more recently is that fires have been suppressed for so long that too much fuel has built up in the forest, allowing fires that might otherwise be “healthy” to become firestorms that destroy even mature trees.

The evidence of fire is found in many areas of the park, including Yosemite Valley. If you visit late in the season you might find a managed fire underway, closing off sections of the forest and spreading smoke. (While I worry about the health effects of the smoke, I have learned to use it photographically but finding ways to use the haze in my images.) For some time I have worked to find ways to photograph the burned areas. They can have a kind of stark beauty in the right light and when looked at in just the right ways. I had stopped in a more traditional meadow, full of dormant winter grasses and leafless winter trees, when I looked behind myself to see on of the managed burn areas, and these curving and twisting bare limbs against a background of scorched trunks.

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

White-Faced Ibis

March 4, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

White-Faced Ibis feeding in San Joaquin Valley wetlands

As I have pointed out in the past, I’m no bird expert – but I do like to photograph them! For some reason the white-faced ibis has intrigued me for some time. The first time I photographed them it was an accident. I was photographing birds flying overhead on one winter morning when the sky was filled with birds – so many that I mostly just photographed without paying too much attention to the specifics of what I was seeing. Sometime later when I got home and looked at the files I saw that one large group of birds flying in a long row, silhouetted against the brighter sky, had the interesting curved bills that characterize the ibises.

More recently I have learned to look for them, and in some of the places I photograph I now know where to find them, down to the acre in a few cases. In mid-February I went to one of these locations and ended up at a spot where I have seen many of them in the past, often feeding in groups. But this time I saw exactly two. One was behind some reeds and did not make a good photographic subject, but this one was feeding alongside a gravel road right at the edge of the water. I stopped my car – which often serves as an effective blind – and opened a window and waited (somewhat) patiently as the bird worked its way along in the shallow water. The trick is to think of this almost as a portrait – I watch for the bird to turn into the best light, to stand in an interesting position, to face the camera, and to be in a spot that avoids distracting or interfering objects. The egret tends to spend a lot of its time with its beak deep in the water as it looks for food – not a very attractive photographic pose! But it periodically lifts the beak and every so often it briefly stands up straight as seen here. The plumage of this bird is very interesting. It can look just plain dull and almost black in some light. But if it turns its body toward the sun, the feathers become iridescent and have tints of green and red.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: wild

Sandhill Cranes, Wetlands Marsh

Purple Trillium

Burned Forest, Twisting Branches

White-Faced Ibis

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