Glacier Point and Ground Fog in Ahwahnee Meadow, Autumn. Yosemite Valley, California. October 31, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Thin morning ground fog floats above the dry autumn grasses of Ahwahnee Meadow below the granite cliffs of Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley.
During the cooler and wetter months of the year, ground fog often forms in the meadows of Yosemite Valley. Ahwahnee Meadow is one of the places I like to photograph these conditions, and since this was the morning after a damp and rainy day, I arrived here very early in anticipation of conditions that might produce the fog. It was very cold when I arrived, certainly below freezing by at least a few degrees. At first the fog was much denser and a bit deeper. I have photographs from this earlier pre-dawn period when a herd of deer passed through the meadow. Eventually, as the sun rose high enough that the light beams began to clear the mountains to the east of the Valley, the first light began to strike the upper slopes and walls of Glacier Point. As this happened and the air began to move and the temperature stopped dropping, the fog began to thin. This photograph was made shortly before the fog actually dissipated completely, and thin streamers of mist are broken up by clearer areas.
I have to admit that I do not know what the foreground plant is. (Hint: I won’t mind even a tiny bit if someone wants to write and tell me! :-) Cottony tufts are found at the top of long stems, growing out of odd shaped pods. I shot this with a very wide angle lens so that I could include some of this foreground foliage and the fill width of Glacier Point.
On a technical note, this image incorporates a blend of two exposures. Portions of the sky at the left side of the frame were very bright, while much of the rest of the scene was in shade and a lot darker. Almost the entire frame is from the 1/15 second exposure, but I have manually blended in a bit of the 1/40 second exposure in the area of cloudy sky at upper left in order to retain a bit of detail there. Also, though it should be obvious, this was shot with an ultra-wide angle lens – a 17mm focal length on a full frame DSLR. If you are at all familiar with this location in the Valley you will recognize that this is a bit of an unusual view.
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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That’s such an unusual view of Glacier Point – I had no idea you could ever frame it like that (I’ve somehow never even made it to Awhawnee Meadow), but I like it! Apart from Glacier Point itself, the next thing that caught my eye was what must be the route of the old Ledge Trail (I think that’s what it was called). Not that you can see the trail, per se, but I can tell where it must run, and I’ve never really seen it before. I also noted the one stand of trees in the middle of the meadow, that I’ve seen photographed many times before. The light and color in those trees looks gorgeous here too, particularly with the fog – i don’t suppose you took a ~400mm zoom to complement the wide shot too? ;-)
Thanks for writing and for you comments on this photograph and the scene. I was also looking at that ledge system just last night and wondering about what sort of route might follow it.
Those trees area a favorite subject, especially in the early morning light. I photographed in this area of an hour or more, starting before dawn and continuing until just after I made this photograph. I do have some others that focus more tightly on the trees, including one that I posted here earlier.
Dan
Rosemary, I’ve been called considerably worse things than “Don!” ;-)
Oops…Dan not Don. OY…early.
Gorgeous muted colors.
Now that I think of it I’ll bet you are both right about this! In any case, I’m going with milkweed!
Thanks!
Dan
I believe these are Milkweed Plants. When the pods break open you will see tiny seeds in the puffs. As the wind blows these puffs the seeds are dispersed to the surrounding area.
Don, I’m pretty sure that is Milkweed.