Tag Archives: wildlife

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

Ross’s Geese, Winter Evening

February 12, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Motion-blurred photograph of low-flying Ross’s geese on a winter evening in California’s Central Valley.

From time to time I experiment with longer exposure photographs of birds in flight. The idea is that allowing the image to blur as the birds move might suggest their constant motion more effectively than the more typical approach of stopping the motion. Here not only was the exposure relatively long (I think it was 1/30 second) but I was shooting with a long telephoto which also amplifies the motion of subject and camera.

I’m thinking of this as a “study” for future photographs of these Ross’s geese and similar birds that will work with this idea of motion blur. Making this shot let me get a bit closer to understanding the most likely times to find the birds lifting off in the evening, and the best time to try to catch this with a bit of the last sunlight before sunset. I was also able to slightly better establish the shutter speed I would like to work with for this kind of image. The idea is to keep just barely enough shape in the birds that you can recognize what they are, but to allow the motion to blur things enough to eliminate the hyper-sharp realistic quality of the scene and to let the motion blur imply something about the actual flying motion of the birds.

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

Ross’s Geese Taking Flight, Sunset

February 10, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

A large flock of Ross’s geese takes flight in sunset light, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, California.

Every time I go back to this location, it seems to just get better. On this early February evening I had quickly driven over the hill from the San Francisco Bay Area – well, OK, it is a two-hour drive – in time to arrive shortly before sunset and join a group of friends who had come down from the Mariposa, California area to photograph the same subject. I drove out around the “auto tour” route to a spot where I had shot just a week ago, near a viewing platform. Just past this point, there were thousands and thousands of (mostly, I presume) Ross’ geese filling a large pond right next to the gravel road. I set up and gradually, bit by slow bit, moved myself closer to the pond, working carefully to avoid spooking the birds. Eventually I got into position perhaps 20 feet from the pond.

Initially I photographed the birds that were settled in on the pond. As we did this, more birds flew overhead, and some joined this gigantic flock. But the light still wasn’t quite great. As actual sunset approached, the geese began to lift off in large groups. It seemed like there would be some momentary electricity in the air – perhaps I was just sensing a change in their calls – and suddenly a few hundred would simultaneously take off in a large group. I knew I wanted to try to get some photographs of these groups, and I also figured that ideally I would like a bit of cross-light from the very low and warm-colored sun and, if I could manage to pull it off, I would want to get some sort of landscape-ish background of trees and ponds and the distant hills in the golden evening light. I made several attempts before I captured this moment during which the group had just risen enough to mostly clear the trees across the pond.

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

Tree and Bird-Filled Morning Sky

February 3, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Giant flocks of migratory birds fill the winter sky above the Central Valley of California.

There are times when the number of migratory birds visible in California’ Central Valley approaches the level of unbelievable. As we photographed them near the end of January, at one point we noticed that there are almost always more birds than you think you see. Your attention might be caught by a formation of birds flying not too far above. But if you look beyond them you might see another formation up higher. And if you look more closely you might find even more birds higher and further away. For me it is common to review a photograph that I made of one grouping only to discover many, many more that I had not even seen when I made the exposure.

During a lull in the action directly overhead, I looked a bit further out to the east and noticed what might best be described as a “cloud of birds” rising from an area perhaps a mile or more away. At first the cloud stuck together, but soon it began to thin and separate into smaller groups. If you look more closely at this little jpg version of the image, you may still be able to see even more birds than were apparent at first glance. The sidelight on the tree and the plants growing around the pond comes from very early morning sunlight shortly after dawn.

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

Birds, Brush, and Setting Sun

February 2, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Sun sets over Merced National Wildlife Refuge, silhouetting brush and birds.

I’m not usually one to shoot straight into the rising or setting sun, but here you are… straight into the setting sun! While photographing birds and landscape at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge during the last weekend of January, we ended at a bend in the gravel road that loops around the main area of the refuge. We were trying to get close enough to some very big flocks of birds that were settling in on the nearby fields along the ponds, but they were mostly too far away. From time to time flocks would pass overhead, so we were able to photograph them in small groups, but the shots of the larger group – containing thousands of birds – eluded us on this visit.

But when the birds are more difficult to photograph, I end up looking around more at other things. And even in what might seem like a flat and almost featureless landscape, there are elements that contribute to the sense of quiet and space that comes on in the evening in the parts of the Central Valley… and before you know it, I’m shooting landscapes again! We had seen this little clump of trees or brush earlier and used it as an element in some other photographs. We had also noticed that one solitary bird perched motionless on a single tall branch extending above the surrounding thicker brush. Then it occurred to me that if I moved just a few feet to my left that the sun might pass right behind the bird shortly before it set – and a few frames later this photograph resulted.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: wildlife

Tree and Bird-Filled Morning Sky

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