Buttermilk Range, Morning. Near Bishop, California. October 15, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Early morning light strikes a ridge in the Buttermilk Range, with the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada in the background.
While in the eastern Sierra last week to photograph aspen color again, I detoured away from the trees at sunrise one morning to photograph the first light striking these hills in the Buttermilk Range above Bishop, California, with a steep section of the Sierra’s east escarpment beyond. The light in this area is often spectacular in the early morning, but it can be especially so when there are some clouds in the sky as was the case on this morning. While it was almost completely clear to the west over the Sierra crest, the sky to the east held some broken clouds which cast alternating patterns of light and shadow across the landscape. Here, while the light on the foreground rocky ridge was very intense and saturated, some haze muted the more distant ridge and the shadow from those clouds slightly obscured the lower slopes.
The Buttermilks are yet another example of the range to subjects to be found in the eastern Sierra. Sometimes I head to these mountains with a plan of shooting a particular subject or even a particular place, but this doesn’t always work out. The weather may change or my schedule may change. Fortunately, if the original subject doesn’t work, there are almost always other choices! This small range tucked up against the Sierra above Bishop – like many other similar places along the “east side” – contains a wealth of photographic subjects to explore.
G Dan Mitchell Photography
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David, I’m honored that the photographs are having that effect!
The “east side” country is quite an astonishingly varied and beautiful area. It is easy to overlook the range of opportunities if you are focused entirely (as I used to be) on the high country among the Sierra peaks or if you don’t have sufficient time to spend there. However, it is hard to think of too many other places with such a range of subjects: the high desert terrain of Owens Valley, the nearby moonscape of the White Mountains (as high as the Sierra, but much drier), the amazing terrain along the base of the eastern escarpment of the range (as in the Buttermilks), the high canyons of the east side that have characteristic of both alpine and high desert worlds, the many types of evidence of human occupation (native American sites, ranches, mines, and more).
Dan
Dan… your photographs and words are making me want to come west again. I had a very brief time spent in and around Bishop, but even then I knew it, along with the rest of the Owens Valley, was a special place. Lovely morning light in this photograph, and I find the contrast between the two layers quite interesting.