Tag Archives: yellow

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

Marsh Pond and Trees

December 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Reflected fall colors of trees and grasses at a flooded California Central Valley marsh.

One more photograph from my late-November “wild goose chase” to California’s Central Valley. My main goal was probably to photograph migratory birds, including geese, but that never keeps me from also photographing the landscape. Although the skies were completely clear when I left home well before dark for the two-hour drive to this place, when I arrived there a thick fog was developing in this seasonal marshland… which is just what I had hoped for! The final 15 minutes of my drive were in mostly thick fog, and when I actually arrived the early morning light was almost completely muted by fog.

A bit later this morning, after my first circuit of the place, as I began a second lap around the ponds and marshes, the thick fog had given way to a soft atmospheric haze that allowed some sun to penetrate but which also muted the intensity of the autumn colors of grasses and cottonwood trees and other plants. For a few minutes I took off my wildlife photographer hat and put on my well-worn landscape photographer hat (you didn’t know I carried multiple hats, did you?!) and photographed the isolated trees along the levees between the marshes.

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

Riverbank, Cottonwood Trees

December 1, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees with fall foliage reflected in the calm surface of the Merced River in late afternoon light

It is barely a month after I made this photograph, and the feeling is now more that of winter than of autumn. (Though where I live some autumn leaves are still falling for a few more days.) But back at the end of October I spent two days photographing fall color in Yosemite Valley. Sierra weather can be almost anything at this time of year, but aside from some leftover snow high up along the Valley’s walls, down below it was sunny and bright with the warm autumn light that can characterize the season in these mountains.

The main leaf color in the Valley comes from black oak, big leaf maple, cottonwoods, and dogwood, each providing its own variations of color and timing. When I was there the maples were a bit past their peak, and at least some of the dogwoods were still becoming more colorful. It seemed like cottonwoods were very close to their most colorful and the black oaks were also quite good. On the first afternoon I spent some time wandering along a section of the Merced River, photographing the cottonwood trees with the Valley’s cliffs as a backdrop and occasionally with the autumn-smooth waters of the Merced reflecting their colors.

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

Cottonwood Trees, Reflection

November 25, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees with fall foliage reflected in the Merced River

Believe it or not, this is the mighty Merced River, draining a vast section of the Yosemite High Sierra that extends all the way to the highest peaks of this section of the Sierra crest. On this late October afternoon, on a dry day during a dry month at the end of the second of two drought years in the Sierra, the river felt in many ways more like a creek. The water moved slowly, gently rippling over rocks in the shallow sections and pooling in the deeper areas where the movement of the water was almost invisible. The contrast between this scene and what the river can do is apparent when your realize that these trees could be standing in very deep water during the peak runoff floods of a wet year.

I had wandered out to this relatively accessible location in the afternoon, drawn by the golden cottonwood trees that were approaching their peak autumn color, the brilliant fall backlight from the low afternoon sun down the Valley to the west, the shadowed granite face beyond, and the possibility of using the river as an element in photographs. I was apparently not the only person with this idea, and when I arrived I found perhaps a half-dozen painters occupying strategic spots on gravel bars, the beach, and along the banks. I made some photographs that included these artists, but I also contrived to exclude them from some of the compositions, including this one that brought together all of those elements that I came here to find.

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

Hiker, Black Oaks, and Meadow

November 23, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A hiker crosses a Yosemite Valley meadow beyond black oak trees with autumn foliage

Yes, yet another photograph of autumn oak trees and Yosemite Valley meadows! It is (or was) the season in late October and I’m still sorting through the photographs. When I first arrived here my plan was to photograph the black oaks as a “natural” landscape without people. So I found a composition that I thought would work and settled in to wait for the folks who were (as is inevitable in the Valley) wandering around in the meadow to finish and move out of the frame. It seemed that every time the view was about to be clear yet another person would arrive and walk into the frame. I finally decided that I might have to make two or more photographs and blend the “person-less” sections to create one image without hikers, so I made a few exposures as two or three people walked across. (I also timed some of the shots so that the people would be hidden behind the oak trees.)

As luck would have it, after I decided on this approach there was a point at which no human figures appeared in the scene, so I do have my natural landscape version of this scene. However, after thinking about it a bit more, I actually like the version with a person in it better! While most of my landscapes are “people-free,” every so often I do one that includes the figures in the frame. I’ve learned a few things about this. First, having a person in the frame isn’t always a bad thing. (Yes, file that in the “duh!” file.) The presence of a human figure can both crystallize the composition and it causes us to relate to the scene very differently – perhaps imaging ourselves being there or perhaps considering what the person in the photograph might be thinking and experiencing. Second, the figure can often be quite small and still change the effect of the image in ways that are much bigger than the small figure might suggest. As an exercise, try to just barely cover the person with your finger. Notice how the greatly the effect of this scene changes?

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: yellow

Marsh Pond and Trees

Riverbank, Cottonwood Trees

Cottonwood Trees, Reflection

Hiker, Black Oaks, and Meadow

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