Panorama, First Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
The very first dawn light touches the tips of peaks in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.
This photograph comes from our weeklong expedition into the John Muir Wilderness back at the end of August and the first few days of September. To recap, “we” are a group of photographers who photograph the Sierra backcountry every year. (The group’s history dates back almost two decades, and I’ve been coming along for about ten years.) This year we were sponsored by Yosemite Renaissance, so we were accompanied by a several other artists connected with that organization. We typically set up a backcountry base camp in a “target-rich” location, and then spend a week getting to know the place and photographing the heck out of it.
I made this photograph mere steps from my tent. I got up before dawn, wandered around looking at subjects in the quiet pre-dawn light, and finally arrived back at this lakeside location as the first light touched the tops of the peaks. An advantage of staying in one location for a period of time is that you can scout a lot, determining best times and angles and finding lots of potential subjects. This one was on that list — I had visited it previously when the light was less conducive to photography, filed the location away along with a mental note about timing, and then returned a few days later at the appointed time.
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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