Tree Above Glen Aulin. Yosemite National Park, California. September 16, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A lone tree above Glen Aulin, with haze-obscured domes and cliffs beyond in late-afternoon light, Yosemite National Park.
I think this is a bit of an unusual perspective on the valley that contains Glen Aulin and on the haze-filled valley of the Tuolumne River beyond. I wasn’t quite sure where I would shoot on this evening, but my friend Karl Kroeber mentioned that he had ascended a nearby hillside by means of a granite “whaleback” to find some interesting vistas above. So I decided to check out this hill and started up the hill beyond our camp. The hike wasn’t very long and I soon found my way to the top of the whaleback, where there was a low, long granite dome topped with a few glacial erratics. The dome provided a 360 degree vista taking in the Tuolumne River canyon, peaks to then north and northeast, the dome-like ridge across the valley below me, and a bit of the valley holding the trail towards McCabe Lakes.
At first the photographic potential of the scene seemed a bit limited. While this panorama was appealing, when I arrived it was still not all that late in the day and frankly the light was a bit blah. But since I didn’t have any other pressing engagements nor any other specific plans about what to shoot, I decided to devote the next hour or so to hanging out on top of this dome and waiting to see what the light would do. At first I thought that the shot might turn out to be something back up towards the start of the drop of the Tuolumne into this canyon. I made a few exposures of that scene but so far don’t think I have anything amazing. Then some broken clouds passed overhead and I made some photographs of the alternating patterns of light and shadow on the trees of a nearby ridge.
Then something much more interesting began to happen as it become later in the afternoon. Looking back past this nearby tree and into the Tuolumne River canyon, the sun began to backlight the trees on the nearest ridge and to increase the visibility of the haze. Some claim to dislike this sort of haze, but when backlit it can create some subtle and glowing effects and enhance the sense of depth and distance in the scene. So I ended up working a variety of different “takes” on the backlight, including this one that places a closer tree almost square in the middle of the frame.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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