Category Archives: Morning Musings

Locations, Morning Musings

Sierra Fall Color Speculation (Morning Musings 9/14/14)

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Aspen Color, North Lake
Aspen Color, North Lake

For those of us who chase aspen color in the Sierra Nevada every fall, speculating about the potential of the upcoming aspen season is an annual obsession. Will the season start early or late? Will the colors be spectacular or less so? How will the past season’s weather affect it? What are the early signs telling us? When will the peak arrive and when will the show be over?

I’ve been playing this game — with enthusiasm! — for some years now. A few years back I think I finally figured out that I cannot really tell what will happen until it actually happens. As often as not, my “predictions” turn out to be less than perfect and/or immediate conditions (arrival of an early storm, wind, rain, etc.) throw me a curve.  The real game is in being flexible and quick to respond to evolving conditions, and to have enough experience with the subject that you have some intuitions about what to do when you encounter the conditions on the scene.

Early Autumn Snow, Eastern Sierra
Early Autumn Snow, Eastern Sierra

Yet, I still can’t help but look at Sierra conditions here in September and try to extrapolate forward a bit. As I make my guesses — and frankly, guesses is what they are — about the upcoming Sierra aspen season, a few things are on my mind: Continue reading Sierra Fall Color Speculation (Morning Musings 9/14/14) →

Morning Musings, News, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow Fire Smoke Plume – Morning Musings for 9/13/14

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Meadow Fire Smoke Plume
Meadow Fire Smoke Plume

Meadow Fire Smoke Plume. Yosemite National Park, California. September 7, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thick smoke from the September 2014 Yosemite National Park Meadow Fire drifts over the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, blotting out the afternoon sun.

Today’s “Morning Musing” post will take the form of a second “photo of the day,” but with a bit of back-story about what you are seeing.

Last weekend a wildfire suddenly appeared in a popular area of the Yosemite backcountry along the Merced River drainage above Yosemite Valley, roughly between Half Dome, Clouds Rest, and Mount Starr King. I was not in the area of the fire, but further north in a different backcountry area, where our group of photographers had been camped for several days on a high ridge area. On this morning we did see a small “puff” of smoke coming from over the shoulder of Clouds Rest, but it was no larger than other fires that, as is typical this time of year, were burning in various areas of the backcountry.

Our plan was to pack up camp and follow a more-or-less cross-country route into a canyon and on to a new camp that night. We loaded up and set out, and by the time we were half way to our goal the smoke plume has begun to stretch across the sky above our position, thought it was still quite diluted. However, very soon the winds whipped up to a surprising degree and the smoke suddenly became a lot thicker and began to blot out the sun and drop ash on us. By this time we were in a valley and could no longer see the location of the fire, but it was plainly apparent that this fire was roaring and likely to become a very serious matter.

This photograph has not been color corrected at all. This is, in fact, what the atmosphere in and above the canyon looked like! Fortuitously, later that evening as we sat around in camp, we saw a flash in the sky and heard thunder… and before long light rains arrived and continued into the next afternoon.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Morning Musings, Photographers, Tongue in Cheek

Morning Musings: Secret Lives of Landscape Photographers (9/12/14)

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Secret (Banjo) Lives of Landscape Photographers
“Secret (Banjo) Lives of Landscape Photographers” — A group on landscape photographers takes a musical break at the Sierra Nevada backcountry camp.

Landscape photographers relaxing with a little midday banjo music. (L-R: Scot Miller, Charles Cramer, Annette Bottaro-Walklet, Mike Osborne, Karl Kroeber, G Dan Mitchell)

I know the romantic notions about the daily lives of landscape photographers: days full of stunning golden hour light, incalculable beauties everywhere at every moment, the sublime life, rainbows, unicorns, etc. But the truth is more complex. Up before dawn and out into the cold without breakfast, shooting for hours until the light turns “blah,” then a long, boring midday period before the beautiful light returns hours later, then photographing into the frigid darkness.

It is often a struggle to find something useful to do in the backcountry during those midday hours. There are meals to eat, tents to tidy, and naps to take, but the hours are still long. We think we’ve found a solution. There’s nothing like a few hours of backcountry banjo ensemble music to make the time pass more quickly. Here the group nears the conclusion of the Adagietto movement of Mahler’s Symphony #5.

So, the next time you are in the Sierra Nevada backcountry and you pass a group of heavily laden photographers with tripods, folding chairs, and banjo cases on their backs, stop and say “hi.” ;-)

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Morning Musings

(Belated) Morning Musings for 9/11/14

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OK, I am posting this “morning musing” in the afternoon, following last night’s late night return from a ten-day photographic adventure in the back county of Yosemite National Park, where I joined six other photographer friends to photograph some of our favorite subjects: rocks, trees, water, clouds, peaks, and that Sierra light. (All of the blog posts you might have seen from me since about September 1 have been “canned,” queued up in advance for automatic posting. I may not have acknowledged all comments that were left here while I was away… and I now have a thousand or more emails staring menacingly in my direction, demanding attention!)

The trip was wonderful — for the beauties to be photographed, of course, but at least as much for the company. Thank you Charlie, Karl, Mike, Keith, Scot, and Annette for being such great — and humorous — trail and photography friends and partners.

We were in the back county of the northern portion of Yosemite National Park. And, yes, we did encounter the effects of the fire still burning behind Half Dome and Clouds Rest, though from a relatively safe distance in our case. We were nowhere close to being evacuated, unlike those folks who were along the Merced River drainage in and above Little Yosemite Valley, some of whom were airlifted out ahead of the fire.

From our distant location we did see the fire begin on Sunday morning, when we saw a small bit of smoke that looked much like the many other small, seasonal fires that are common at this time of year. By midday the smoke had grown and was blowing our direction as the winds began to pick up. Late in the afternoon we encountered very strong winds and worried more about how they would affect this fire. The magnitude of that effect soon became clear, as within an hour of so a very thick smoke plume crossed over us, muting the sun and turning it a strange yellow-pink color, and soon began to see ash falling from the sky.

But we are all back, safe and sound, and with many images to review and begin to work on. Stay tuned!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.