Reflections on a Rice Field

Photographically, I love the fall and winter in the Sacramento Valley for a number of reasons; the abundant wildlife, the tule fog that shrouds the valley in mystery, the beautiful clear skies (when the fog burns off). But there's one thing I love to photograph above all others: flooded rice fields.

There is nothing like standing on a levee surrounded on all sides by flooded rice fields. On a calm day the perfect reflections of the sky make you feel like you are floating in space, surrounded by light and color.

Sunset clouds are reflected in a rice field near Willows.

There is really nothing quite so breathtaking as an amazing sunset reflected all around you in every direction. And when you are out there you feel like the only person in the immense and open universe.

From late November to mid-February, hundreds of thousands of acres of rice fields are flooded in the Sacramento Valley. I plan to get out there every chance I get.

Reflections as the sun sets over the Coast Range mountains.

I love the symmetry of the cloud reflections in the rice fields.

The deep colors of sunset reflected in the rice fields.

God beams appear after the sun sets behind the Coast Range.

Rice Harvest in Full Swing

I took a rather long hiatus from publishing anything to this blog, primarily due to family issues, but the rice harvest is here, and the blog is back.

A full rice combine unloads its cargo into a bankout wagon as the sun sets.
(click to view full size)

The rice fields, which are a rich green all summer, turn an intense yellow when the rice is ready for harvest in the fall. Then, when the moisture level in the grain reaches the right point, huge rice combines converge on the fields, strip the rice grain from the stalks and offload it into bankout wagons for transportation to storage, where the rice will dry before it is milled.

Rice ready for harvest.

Rice combine makes its way through a rice field.

The sun nears the horizon as the harvest continues.