Every November there is a Sandhill Crane Festival in Lodi, California, celebrating the return of these marvelous birds. I’ve been meaning to enter some of my crane photographs for the past few years, and this year I finally did. Here are the three photographs appearing in the art exhibit at the festival.
I made the first one, “Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog” on a marvelous February morning a while ago. I had never seen so many birds at once, nor seen them quite this active. On top of that, the tule fog was just beginning to break up, and the atmosphere was luminous.
The second is “Two Sandhill Cranes in Flight,” a juxtaposition of two of the birds against the blue winter sky.
Finally, “Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes” is a photograph of a group of cranes taking off from a shallow pond and heading toward the faint light of the rising sun on a very foggy morning.
If you are curious about these birds and want to know more and you life in Central California, a trip to the Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival this weekend can get you started. In addition to the art exhibit, there are lectures and guided tours to some of the nearby locations where you can find these birds. And the birds are there — I saw thousands of them this morning.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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