Ferns, Burned Forest

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Ferns, Burned Forest. Yosemite National Park, California. November 3, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Spending a lot of time in the forests of the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere, my point of view regarding wildfires has changed since I was younger. Leaving aside for a moment the possible human cost when a fire overruns homes and other structures, wildfires are a normal part of the forest ecology, and suppressing them has actually caused a number of problems. Once I started to think of wild fires as something part of the natural process and not as disasters I became interested in how I might photograph forests that had been burned.

For the most part I’ve been unsuccessful in creating such images, but I like this one. Many of my previous attempts have focused on the image of forests of burned tree trunks, sometimes with new growth starting below, or on the hillsides laid bare by fire, or on the new growth itself. This is a more intimate view of a fire zone than I’ve tried before – and I feel like it works even more in the larger versions of the image that are not posted here.

Night Photography at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Andy Fraser’s Night Photography Blog has information about an opportunity to photograph the Pigeon Point Lighthouse while the original fresnel lens light is in operation. The event is this Saturday Friday, November 17. I’m hoping to be there.

Here is some information from Andy’s site:

California State Parks, Pigeon Point Hostel, and the United States Coast Guard will commemorate the 135th Anniversary of the first lighting of Pigeon Point Lighthouse. This annual event features an open house in the historic fog signal building from 10am until 7pm. The highlight of the evening is from 6-8pm when the historic lighthouse?s Fresnel Lens lights up the sky. Exhibits in the 1899 Fog Signal Building will feature lighthouse history, videos, marine mammals, and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park is located between San Francisco and Santa Cruz on Highway 1, about 50 miles south of San Francisco, or 25 miles north of Santa Cruz. For more information, please call (650) 879-2120 or click here.

Visit Andy’s blog (click on the link in the first paragraph above) to read more and to see a few photographs.

Oak Grove, Yosemite Valley

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Oak Grove, Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. October 27, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

This probably doesn’t look remotely like a “Yosemite Valley photograph” to those who haven’t spent some time there, but I find that aspects of the Valley beyond the obvious (and truly spectacular) major attractions define the place as much or more for me. These oaks are in one of my favorite places, El Capitan Meadow.