Winter Ferns and Log. Yosemite Valley, California. February 14. 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Dormant winter ferns against a decaying log, Yosemite Valley, California.
The story behind finding this little bit of landscape is perhaps best not fully told – but I’ll share little background. I had driven west along Northside Drive in Yosemite Valley in the morning looking for bits of interesting light that can crop up even in the middle of the day during winter in that deep canyon. I had just made some photographs of the Cathedral Rocks area and decided it was time to move on. As I wandered back to the car I decided to, uh, “take a short walk into the woods” on the other side of the road. While there I noticed that some interesting dry ferns were peeking up from under the melting snow, so I decide to look around a bit more in this rather nondescript bit of forest. I finally found one little cluster of ferns that were arranged against the backdrop of an old decaying log and decided to make a few photographs of it before heading back to the car and moving on.
I like several things about this photograph, but among them is the fact that it isn’t an obvious “Yosemite photo” at all. In fact, you could find a similar sort of subject in any number of places if you just look carefully enough – which in Yosemite often means looking away from those iconic and quite obvious subjects from time to time.
(And, yes, it was intentional that I posted this photographic “homage” on February 20, the birthday of Ansel Adams. :-)
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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keywords: yosemite, national, park, valley, california, usa, north america, nature, winter, fern, plant, foliage, leaf, branch, log, wood, decay, texture, black and white, monochrome, forest, stock, curve, pattern
Thanks to both of you for stopping by and commenting! The curve is interesting, especially that little reverse curve very near the top of the large stem. I have made a 12″ x 16″ print already and I’m looking forward to make a larger one soon.
Dan
Beautiful shot Dan. I love the contrast and direction of the leaves. Well Done!
This is an expressive photography, with a beautiful tonal contrast. I suspect a larger print will show the detail in the leaves and enhance appreciation. Another compositionally interesting feature is the curves of the spine of the leaves. I suspect you had latitude here in the positioning of these lines.