Precipice, Clouds. Yosemite Valley, California. October 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Autumn storm clouds hover around a granite precipice
It was a late in the afternoon — almost evening, actually — when I made this photograph near the end of October. I had been in the Yosemite area for a few days, photographing fall color and the moody conditions of an early season rain storm, and late in the day as the storm cleared out the remnant clouds hugged the granite cliffs of the Valley.
Conditions like these are highly variable and continuously change from moment to moment. This is not the sort of landscape that you photograph by carefully composing a subject and then making a single exposure! The clouds are in motion, and with the intense backlight from the west the visibility of elements of the landscape changes continuously. Here the light in the clouds was so bright that the exposure rendered the shaded cliff face in very dark tones.
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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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