Morning Light, Alpine Lake. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
The last evening light and reflections along the shoreline of an alpine lake, Yosemite National Park.
Continuing my look back at backcountry trips that illustrate my connection with the First Light photographers group, here is another from the 2008 visit where I first met up with them (rather briefly!) in the mountains. My interaction with the group (who had been doing these trips together for something like seven years already at that time) consisted of two meetings. Although I knew they were in the area I had not seen them until my chance encounter with Keith at the inlet to an alpine lake. On the final day of my (solo) visit I took a short detour to pass by their camp as I started my hike out to the trailhead. I save the details of that story for another time, but let’s just say that I was impressed.
This photograph comes from the nearby lake where I camped for three nights on my parallel solo photography trip into this area. It is one of those Sierra backcountry spots that I have returned to many times over the years, so I’ve gotten to know it intimately and I have pushed out the boundaries of my experience here to include much of the surrounding landscape. On this morning I was focusing on the first early morning light on granite and brush along the shoreline, and on juxtaposing those features with the patterns submerged beneath the lake’s surface.
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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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Time definitely can ripen our perspective quite nicely! Glad you are going through these almost-forgotten treasures!
I remember when it used to surprise me that I had missed an image from a year ago in my archive. And now I’m finding them from nearly 15 years ago!
Incredible!!! Thanks for sharing. I could stare at this for a long time just to take in all the detail and wonder!
Thanks!
Oddly, that photo sat quietly in my raw file archives for over a decade before I recovered it this past week. I think I had a different notion of what I was trying to do when I clicked the shutter on that early morning… and it took new eyes to see how the photograph actually worked.
Daan