Monthly Archives: October 2008

Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Cascade in Lee Vining Canyon, Autumn Snow

1 Comment
Cascade in Lee Vining Canyon, Autumn Snow

Cascade in Lee Vining Canyon, Autumn Snow. Sierra Nevada, California. October 12, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cascade on Lee Vining Creek on an autumn afternoon following an early snowfall.

On my second trip to the eastern Sierra this fall – a much less successful trip than the first one a week earlier – I visited Lee Vining Canyon in the late afternoon, after the sun had retreated behind the very high peaks around Tioga Pass, leaving the bottom of the canyon in shadow. My last stop in the canyon was at this well-known cascade near the Bend campground. I did several long exposures of the cascade so that the water would diffuse. As you can see, the fall foliage here was less spectacular than in some other years, but the recent snow on the branches and the creek bank along with the frozen water under the overhang at the upper right created a wintery quality in the scene.

keywords: lee vining, creek, canyon, cascade, water, fall, waterfall, blur, motion, forest, ice, snow, fall, autumn, fall, october, cold, tree, bush, rock, boulder, log, scenic, travel, landscape, stock, california, usa, sierra, nevada, tioga, pass, yosemite, national park

Equipment, Reviews

Canon EF 35mm f/2.0 Lens

Leave a comment

I almost titled this post “In Praise of Cheap Little Lenses” – but that would have been inconsistent with my other lens report posts, so I’ll leave the title as is.

I recently picked up a copy of this lens for several reasons. First, it is very small and light, and there are times when a single slightly-wide prime can be just the thing. It is also fairly inexpensive, especially compared to other Canon alternatives. On top of that it is a fine optical performer, especially if you use it where it is strongest – shooting at relatively small apertures on full frame and/or using it as a essentially a “normal prime” on a crop body.

I have had a few weeks to use mine now. I’ve mostly used it for landscape photographs where I had some flexibility to compose the shot by moving forward/backward or in which the 35mm focal length turned out to be exactly right. (In some cases I first did the shot with my 24-105mm L zoom, and when I noticed that I was at 35mm I switched to the prime.) In general terms the optical performance of this little lens is quite decent, but when stopped down to f/8 or smaller it really shines – it is capable of producing photographs with very good resolution.

Are there any negatives to this lens? Of course, but for my purposes none of them are “deal breakers.” The AF system of the lens is (notoriously) noisy. Users have described it as sounding like “buzzing bees.” I don’t think it is that bad, but it is not as quite as most other Canon lenses. In addition you must move a switch if you want to focus manually rather than rely on autofocus – other more modern lenses will let you do either with out choosing between them. Its performance wide open is nothing all that special. Finally, it is a small and cheap looking lens! But that doesn’t really matter, as far as I’m concerned. I’m far more interested in what it does than in what it looks like.

One interesting note… Canon makes a much more expensive and highly regarded 35mm f/1.4 L lens. Some who think they need the “best” go straight for that excellent lens – but not everyone will benefit from that choice. While the f/1.4 L is reportedly a very fine lens and excellent at the larger apertures, if you don’t need f/1.4 it may provide no real advantages at all. For example if you mainly need a 35mm lens to shoot stopped down there is little or no advantage to the more expensive lens. Tests I’ve reviewed suggest that the f/2 cheapie produces equivalent IQ at the smaller apertures.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Fog, Trees, and Rocks at Sunset – Olmsted Point

Leave a comment
Fog, Trees, and Rocks at Sunset - Olmsted Point

Fog, Trees, and Rocks at Sunset – Olmsted Point. Yosemite National Park, California. October 5, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening fog forms over rocky forest near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

Another unexpected photograph from my trip to the eastern Sierra to photograph aspens during the first weekend of October. Late on Sunday afternoon I made a spontaneous change in plans and instead of heading north to return to the Bay Area over Monitor Pass (and photograph the aspens on the top of the pass at sunset) I decided to instead head home over Tioga Pass and through the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite. To be honest, the fact that the drive would be at least an hour shorter was probably the major factor. As I crossed Tioga Pass nothing really caught my attention as a photographic subject so I kept going. I passed through Tuolumne just a bit too late for any of the photos I had in mind – the light was just a bit too far gone on the meadow itself – so again I kept going.

Soon I noticed some thin fog-like clouds forming around some of the higher peaks. It occurred to me that this was probably from moist air from the previous day’s rain/snow condensing as the temperature dropped, and I began to suspect that something interesting and surprising just might happen to the atmosphere. As I arrived at Tenaya Lake a fog bank lay ahead at Olmsted Point. I chuckled to myself as I drove past this famous viewpoint for admiring Half Dome, now with a view that extended about 100 feet into the thick fog. However, a couple hundred yards further up the road I realized that the fog was very thin above this ridge and that the setting sun was softly illuminating the forest and rocky outcroppings beneath the fog. I quickly pulled over, grabbed my pack and tripod and charged up a nearby hillside into the forest, trying to find a spot where a bit of this light was still shining – and realizing that I had only a moment to catch it.

keywords: fog, tree, rock, meadow, boulder, erratic, glacial, brush, mist, sunset, evening, twilight, october, fall, autumn, yosemite, national park, tioga, road, olmsted, point, landscape, scenic, stock, california, usa, mountains, sierra, nevada

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, South Fork Bishop Creek

3 Comments
Aspen Grove, South Fork Bishop Creek

Aspen Grove, South Fork Bishop Creek. Sierra Nevada, California. October 4, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Slender aspen trunks topped with golden autumn leaves near the South Fork of Bishop Creek.

This beautiful grove of slender-trunk aspens with only a few leaves left in their crowns was a lucky find. In the evening I went out looking for groves that were in the shadow of the high peaks of the valley below South Lake. I ended up on a small one-lane gravel road that didn’t seem to be getting too many visitors besides me. I found this grove near the end of this road just before it rejoined the main paved roadway, and just as the fading light provided saturated colors in the trees’ crowns to provide contrast with the paper white color of their trunks. (There is quite a bit of fine detail in this photograph that isn’t visible in the small jpg image posted here.)

keywords: aspen, tree, grove, trunk, white, leaves, yellow, gold, boulders, rocks, branch, bishop, creek, south, fork, south lake, california, usa, sierra, nevada, range, mountains, fall, autumn, color, scenic, travel, stock, nature