G Dan Mitchell Photograph: Fennel, Distant Birds, Morning

Fennel, Distant Birds, Morning

Posted on 16 February 2012

Early morning light on a row of fennel plants with migratory birds passing in the distance, Central Valley, California.

If you don’t look closely, fennel is a pretty nondescript plant, especially during the dry season when it more or less goes dormant and consists mostly of dry twigs and branches and a few dry seeds. I never paid much attention to it at all when I was younger, despite spending a lot of time in the California outdoors, where the plant is very common. I think the first time that I actually noticed it was some years ago when I was surprised to smell the familiar fragrance of anise (as in licorice) while hiking or running along a local trail. I stopped and noticed the familiar seeds that I had used in cooking, picked a few, crushed them, and noticed that powerful smell. (There is a group of plants found in outdoor California that often cause me to stop and engage in this ritual of picking a leaf or seed, crushing it, and enjoying the scent: fennel, bay/laurel, sage…)

True to form, I wasn’t really paying much attention to these plants growing along the boundary between a Central Valley road and a flooded field where I had stopped to make photographs of migratory birds in late January. It may actually be the case that I only really “saw” them when my camera’s AF system “incorrectly” locked focus on the plants instead of more distant subjects! But this shot was not an accident. At this point I had noticed the plants and they became the subject, with relief from cross light from the rising sun and against the background of hazy early morning sky.

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.

Category: Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California
Tags: america, bird, blur, branch, california, central, cosumnes, fennel, flight, flock, golden, joaquin, landscape, license, light, migratory, morning, nature, north, photo, plant, pond, print, refuge, river, road, san, seeds, silhouette, sky, stem, stock, usa, valley, wildlife, winter, woodbridge, yellow

2 comments to Fennel, Distant Birds, Morning

Jeremy Richter

says:

February 16, 2012 at 5:14 am

I really like the focus on the plantlife in the foreground with the migratory birds in the background. As always, thanks for sharing your splendid work. JR