Category Archives: Photographs: Nature

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Trunks and Needles

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Trunks and Needles
“Trunks and Needles” — Trunks and needles at the base of a small copse of Sierra Nevada backcountry trees.

It was early evening, and I had been working subjects along the shoreline of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake. There’s lots to see in such places — the shoreline itself, meadows ringing the lake, boulders scattered here and there. As the light over the lake became less interesting my attention turned to the nearby lodgepole pine forest.

While the lake was fairly well-lit, with nothing to block the remaining light, the forest was dark and mysterious. As I poked around the forest’s edge I found several examples of twisting trees growing very closely together and catching the colorful reflected light.

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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.

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning Forest

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Morning Forest
“Morning Forest” — An “imaginary landscape” photograph of a foggy morning forest scene, using in-camera motion bur.

From time to time I experiment with ways to portray the landscape in a more abstract fashion. I often refer to these photographs as “imaginary landscapes.” While the line between “real” and “imaginary” can be pretty fuzzy in photography, these photographs make no pretense of portraying the objective facts of the scene. (To be clear, no photograph is fully objective, but I digress…)

In this case I used intentional (or perhaps unintentional — you decide) techniques to blur the details of the scene, leaving the biggest elements intact but leaving a lot to the imagination. The original scene is the edge of the forest next to a small lake on a foggy morning.

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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.

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

First Light — Tufa, Clouds, Mountains

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First Light — Tufa, Clouds, Mountains
“First Light — Tufa, Clouds, Mountains” — The first dawn light on Mono Lake tufa towers, with desert mountains and morning ing clouds in the distance.

The landscape of Mono Lake and Mono Basin seems reduced to essentials: rocks, mountains, water, sky, light. And all of this is in a place of uncommon quiet and immense space — it is difficult to truly comprehend the scale of the basin. These qualities seem especially strong if you come down from the peaks and intimate landscapes of the nearby Sierra Nevada.

I was out there early on this July morning — having literally “come down” from those peaks near the Sierra crest in predawn darkness. Rather than getting close to the famous tufa formations, my goal was to photograph the lake and its surroundings from a distance, using long lenses to bring together some of the close features and distant elements of the landscape.

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

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(All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.)

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Evening Light

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Trees, Evening Light
“Trees, Evening Light” — A row of pine trees at the edge of a subalpine meadow catches the last evening light.

Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows, in the park’s high country, gets special and quite changeable evening light. The meadow runs roughly east-west, so the setting sun sends its light along the meadow’s length. As the sunset develops, long shadows play across the landscape, interrupted by bits of warm light here and there.

I suspect that most people looking at this photograph may get a sense of calm and stillness. That’s not inaccurate, but photographing this ephemeral light is quite different from photographing more static subjects. In fact, I was working madly to grab this frame before the last bit of warm light on the trees was consumed by the encroaching shadows.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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.