Tag Archives: sky

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Five Cranes, Sunrise Light

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Five Cranes, Sunrise Light
Five lesser sandhill cranes fly toward the sunrise

Five Cranes, Sunrise Light. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 26, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Five lesser sandhill cranes fly toward the sunrise

“High horns, low horns, silence, and finally a pandemonium of trumpets, rattles, croaks, and cries that almost shakes the bog with its nearness, but without yet disclosing whence in comes. At last a glint of sun reveals the approach of a great echelon of birds. On motionless wing they emerge from the lifting mists, sweep a final arc of sky, and settle in clangorous descending spirals to their feeding grounds. A new day has begun on the crane marsh.” — Aldo Leopold, “A Sand County Almanac”

When I began photographing California Central Valley migratory (and native) birds a few years back, the initial draw was geese — snow geese, Ross’s geese, and others. But soon I become aware of the sandhill cranes, and I remembered reading Aldo Leopold’s descriptions of these birds all the way back in college. Something in his description was magical and even though I did not know these birds, I remembered his description.

The cranes’ distinctive cry is the first thing I listen for at dawn in the wetlands. They often seem to settle into places a bit more remote than those favored by geese, at least until later in the season. Their flocks are not as large. They often fly in small groups of three, four, or a few more. Their pattern of flight is more level, their wings work more slowly, and they often glide. They also people. Frequently I’ll spot a group heading straight towards me, but with very few exceptions they divert and take a path to one side.

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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Photographs: Mono Lake, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake, Reflected Clouds

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Mono Lake, Reflected Clouds
Clouds reflected on the still surface of Mono Lake

Mono Lake, Reflected Clouds. Mono Lake, California. September 9, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clouds reflected on the still surface of Mono Lake

Mono Lake has many moods. For example, as I post this, it is a quiet and lonely place where snow covers the mountains to the west, fog may fill in for days, and few people visit. In summer it can be very hot and often quite windy, with blowing dust and waves on the lakes surface. At dawn the light can be subtly colorful; at midday it may be intense and flat.

I made this photograph on a day just before the start of autumn, when the lake’s surface was unusually calm, to the point of almost justifying the description “glass-like.” I went to a place that is not visited as frequently as some of the more accessible and iconic locations, and from here I was able to photograph right at the water’s edge, a vantage point from which I was able to include a few isolated clouds floating past plus their reflections in the still surface of the water. At times like this, the strongest impressions of the Mono Lake Basin for me are of great distances, the immense sky, still water, and deep silence.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Red-Tailed Hawk

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Red-Tailed Hawk
A red-tailed hawk perches on the top of a fence post.

Red-Tailed Hawk. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 3, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A red-tailed hawk perches on the top of a fence post.

Birds like this one are everyone in the west once you start looking for them, though they are not often easy to approach. In a place like this, where there are many thousands of other birds, these raptors are always there but in much smaller numbers. I frequently see them perched high in large trees or flying past, sometimes provoking reactions from the other birds.

This one teased me a bit. The first time I saw it, much earlier in the day, it was standing on this same fence post and watching a nearby field. Every so often it would take off and, I presume, hunt for something to eat before returning a few minutes later. I never was able to get close to it, so I stayed at a distance and watched. I returned much later in the day, when warm early sunset light was shining on the bird and starting to turn the sky pink. As I drove past on the gravel road it didn’t budge, so I stopped and rolled down a window and photographed it perching on “its” fence post.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Arrival of Geese, Dusk

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Arrival of Geese, Dusk
Geese land in a wetland pond at dusk

Arrival of Geese, Dusk. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 3, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese land in a wetland pond at dusk

In an earlier post I alluded to my occasional good fortune in being the recipient of unanticipated events while out photographing, in this case the unexpected arrival of a dusk flock of geese right in front of the spot where I was standing and quietly watching the dusk light fade, thinking that I had finished my photography for the day. In that last moment, a flock took to the air a good distance away across wetland ponds, expanded the circle of its flight, and without warning began to land in the pond next to my position.

The relationships between luck and skill and preparation are complex, but there is no denying that luck plays a role in photographing the natural world. While I could tell that the sky was becoming beautiful, and while I am prepared to make technical and esthetic decision about how to photograph things as they happen, the fact that this flock took off in the dusk light and then landed perhaps fifty feet from my position is certainly nothing for which I can take credit. It does pay to be prepared, to have done this enough times to have a good chance of making the right decisions quickly when the opportunity arrives and, perhaps most of all, to be out there in the field as much as possible. One moment like this one makes it worthwhile.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.