Trees and Stone. Pinnacles National Park, California. March 17, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Trees, a boulder, cliffs and towers — Pinnacles National Park
Visiting Pinnacles National Monument last week presented me with an unusual experience. Typically I photograph in two kinds of places. To simplify a bit, one sort is the places that I have photographed repeatedly over long periods of time, and which I have gotten to know intimately. The other type would be places that I don’t know at all, and which I come to with an almost “blank slate,” discovering their character directly as I encounter them. “The Pinnacles,” as I’ve referred to the place for years, doesn’t quite fit into either category. When I was much younger I frequently visited the place, starting with my parents when I was quite young and continuing into my twenties when I was a rock climber. So some memories and sensations from the place a deeply embedded in my memory and experience. But they I stopped going there and has been decades since I was last there.
With that in mind, it is no surprise that my first visit included quite a few “I remember this!” moments, combined with about as many “This is new!” moments. We mostly visited the east side when I was young, but this time I arrived from the west. I had hiked the high peaks trail, and even climbed some of its pinnacles, but I was surprised to (re)discover just how narrow, steep and exposed it is. So my approach to the place was a combination of working with what I know and discovering what was new. In the end it felt like I was sort of “feeling my way” back into familiarity with the place. I could not yet quite see how to photograph some seemingly obvious subjects, such as the high peaks area, so I focused on many non-iconic subjects, such as the scene of gray and red rocks and trees in this photograph.
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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