All posts by G Dan Mitchell

G Dan Mitchell, photographer and visual opportunist focusing on the Pacific coast, the Sierra Nevada, redwood forests, California oak/grasslands, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography and more. Posting daily photographs since 2005, along with articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Forest and Peaks, Morning Light

Image September 6, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on high peaks and forest trees, Ansel Adams Wilderness.

My original plan was to post a photograph today from Manhattan — one of my street photography images from a recent visit to New York and surrounding areas. But on a morning when temperatures here are projected to reach 108 degrees (and much higher in other nearby California areas) it seems appropriate to instead share another photograph of a cool mountain scene. Right now I would make some pretty big sacrifices to be back in this place on a day like the one when I made the photograph!

I had left our base camp before sunrise to head up the higher country via an improvised route that crossed a few small streams before following lovely meadows up toward an impressive mountain ridge. (This may look like the crest of the Sierra, but here there are extremely high peaks west of the actual crest.) It was truly a lovely morning. Before long the first sunlight lit the highest peaks, and I stopped to make this photograph as the light arrived on section of forest between the meadows. I continued on up to a small lake in the alpine basin below the peaks.

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.

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake, Ridges, Morning LIght

Image September 5, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ridges recede in hazy monring light beyond the outlet of a subalpine lake.

A short morning walk up a hill from our campsite took us to this view every day during our August Sierra backcountry sojourn, at least if we decided to start out walking in that direction. (The evening view wasn’t bad either!) The scene had quite a variable personality. One night it featured blood red skies as a storm cleared, on another morning a fog cloud briefly nestled in the valley just beyond the outlet, and on this morning the general haziness produced by California wildfires glowed in the early light.

The outlets of most Sierra lakes are a bit less dramatic than this one, but here the bowl containing the lake pinches off to a very narrow canyon through which the stream exits, flowing down a lengthy valley toward a larger river far below. Various formations rise along that valley, and their silhouettes emphasize the distances looking east and down the canyon.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Forest And Meadow, First Light

Image September 4, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on high peaks and forest trees, Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Today I swing back from the East Coast to the West Coast and my familiar Sierra Nevada. Back in August a group of us spent a week in the Sierra backcountry exploring the area around our base camp and photographing the heck out of the place. In the middle of a very dry year in California, we were surprised by with some rather wet weather — in fact, a bit too wet during the first 24 hours. On the bright side, mountain streams came back to life, and we had days of interesting and picturesque skies rather than the more common string of Sierra blue sky days.

There’s a pattern to the days on these backcountry base camp trips. We’re usually up early, and folks head out individually or in small groups to investigate whatever potential subjects attract their attention. Rather than going to the highest alpine zones on this trip, I often visited a beautiful subalpine basin filled with meadows and small trees. On several mornings I headed up there, crossing small streams and following the meadows up to the alpine zone. I made this photograph right after one of the crossings, as the first direct light fell on the meadow and forest beneath a pair of brooding peaks.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New England

New England Woods #3

Image September 3, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tall trees and lush undergrowth in Southwestern Vermont.

This photograph continues the recent series (which isn’t finished just yet) of photographs documenting my “discovery” of New England woods. As I wrote earlier, I somehow managed to go this many years without visiting this lovely area. On our recent visit I mostly photographed in southwest Vermont, though I was briefly in Massachusetts with a camera, too. (We passed though portions of upstate New York… but we were too focused on getting from point A to point B to stop and make photographs.)

For a person brought up on California woods (which range from the widely-spaced oak trees at low elevation areas to the even more open forests of large trees in the mountains) the New England forests are a revelation. In some ways their moist greenness reminds me of parts of the Pacific Northwest, though the prevalence of deciduous trees sets them apart. Inside the woods, at least from what I saw, things are dense and quiet and overgrown with lush vegetation. I’m not yet quite sure how to photograph within these forests — though I think I can figure it out — and most of the recent photographs I’ll share are looking into the forest from its edge.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

All posts by G Dan Mitchell

Forest and Peaks, Morning Light

Lake, Ridges, Morning LIght

Forest And Meadow, First Light

New England Woods #3

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.