Forest, Wildfire Smoke. Yosemite National Park, California. October 22, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Smoke from the Empire Fire drifts among forest trees in the early morning
In late October I spent a few days photographing in and around Yosemite National Park. I was in the area for the opening reception for the last hurrah of this year’s Yosemite Renaissance Exhibit, which has been installed at Gallery Five in Oakhurst. I took advantage of the visit to photograph various autumn subjects including the (somewhat early this year) fall colors in Yosemite Valley. But I also photographed another Sierra Nevada fall subject that we often aren’t as easily attracted to, namely wildfire smoke.
Like most Americans brought up with Smokey The Bear, I used to think that wildfires were uniformly evil things. We are more enlightened today, and we now understand that fire is actually a healthy part of the forest ecosystem. (Some fires at not so healthy, such as some during recent years that have completely destroyed large areas of forest.) Periodic fire clears out underbrush and forest litter, doesn’t kill mature trees, and tends to prevent the truly dangerous fires may otherwise occur. While I understand this intellectually, it has been harder for me to begin to see wildfires as attractive photographic subjects. However, on this morning, it was a bit easier! I had decided to get up early and head for Glacier Point at dawn — but I was soon distracted by an opportunity to photograph autumn dogwood trees. By the time I finished that I knew that I wasn’t close to being on schedule for dawn at Glacier Point, but I decided to head that direction anyway. As the road turns toward Glacier Point and overlooks a vast expanse of Sierra to the east, the view of this valley filled with early morning smoke that
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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.