Wetlands Pond, Reflected Winter Sky. San Joaquin Valley, California. February 14, 4014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A seasonal wetlands pond reflects a foggy winter sky
This is the third in this series of photographs from a beautifully atmospheric winter day in California’s San Joaquin Valley last winter. Although I shot the three scenes nearly a half year ago, it took me that long to return to the original files and understand what I wanted to do with them. All three depict a type of atmosphere than has long intrigued me — fog and mist-filled atmosphere, illuminated by sun, and so bright as to be almost difficult to look at directly.
These are minimal landscapes — there is little in them that is concrete and fixed stuff. Here the only “solid” elements are a few distant birds scattered on the surface of the water, a small island, and a faint line of the horizon further off. The rest of the scene is almost entirely ephemeral, consisting of the fog-obscured sky with its high winter clouds, and the reflection of these elements in the surface of the wetlands pond below. There isn’t a lot in this image when you come right down to it, but for me it evokes a quiet sense of great distances and space.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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