On this late-August evening I headed to a spot along the Tuolumne River that I had scouted earlier that afternoon. I’ve previously photographed from this location at sunset, so I had a general idea of what I would be working with. The photograph I had in mind was not this one — it fact, the planned photograph had me pointing the camera in exactly the opposite direction, toward the Sierra Nevada crest.
Because this meadow is long and oriented more or less along an east-west axis, the sunset light that develops far to the west affects what we photograph to the east of the camera position. On this evening, there were some clouds in the west, and as the sunset developed they lit up in bright colors, illuminating that landscape to the east. As I worked that subject, I did not pay a lot of direct attention to these sunset clouds behind me since I was busy working with the light they sent to the subject in front of me. But eventually twilight came to the meadow and the light on the Sierra crest began to fade. I had time now to really look to the west and this beautiful sky, and I decided to make a few quick exposures before the colors faded.
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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
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