Trees in Morning Sun. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Silhouetted trees in brilliant morning sunlight along the shore of a Yosemite Wilderness lake.
This is another photograph from the Sierra Nevada that seems place-specific only in the most general sense. You can find similar scenes of trees and boulders along the edge of countless lakes and ponds in the range. If you explore them in the early morning or late in the day you are bound to end up looking into this brilliant light and perhaps shielding your eyes in the shadows of one of the trees.
This particular scene is in the Yosemite backcountry at just such a lake — a moderate-sized body of water nestled among trees interspersed with the ubiquitous granite boulders left behind by glacial action. It can produce a complex and detailed scene, but one with a definite sense of order once you see it. Beyond the physical reality of such places, I always thing of the sensations that accompany a walk through this terrain — the careful steps over and around boulders, climbing over the fallen snags, the contrast between cool air and intense sunlight, and perhaps the sound of water along the shore.
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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