I made this photograph on the final morning of my late-August visit to the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite. Since I had until noon to vacate my campsite, I figured I would do some early morning photography before breaking camp. I had a particular sunrise photograph in mind, and after completing that I looked around with no particular plan in mind and decided to head up to the meadows around Tioga Pass.
There are large subalpine meadows on both sides of the pass, but this time I stuck to the park side of the boundary, where great, open meadows descend to the west under the slopes of Mt. Dana, the second-highest peak in the park. Because the upper section of the is meadow runs roughly north-south, the sun doesn’t manage to rise above Mt. Dana for quite a while after sunrise. As it does, shadows retreat back across the meadow and the light gradually lands on some trees, while the main forest is still in the shadows.
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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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