Category Archives: Photographs: Northern California

Photographs from Northern California

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow, Trees, and Cascade

Image Leave a comment
Meadow, Trees, and Cascade
The view across a Yosemite Valley meadow toward a spring cascade below Glacier Point.

Meadow, Trees, and Cascade. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

The view across a Yosemite Valley meadow toward a spring cascade below Glacier Point.

To some extent, this is arguably a “record shot” that documents this year’s extraordinary spring runoff in Yosemite Valley. This winter set records for total snowfall (and snow water content) thought the Sierra, and once spring warmth arrived it began to melt, sending torrents of water downstream. When I visited the Valley in late May, there was water everywhere: meadows had become lakes, trails were flooded, and water was cascading down cliff faces in locations that are usually dry.

This view looks across the Valley to a particularly interesting section of its walls. The main mass of rock is just to the west of the Glacier Point Apron, in an area of fractured rock that drains the watershed above. Typically you might see a small trickle of water here, but at this point there was a full-on stream winding back and forth down this face toward the Valley.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Spring Fern

Image Leave a comment
Spring Fern
A spring fern grows in the shade among boulders along the base of Yosemite Valley cliffs.

Spring Fern. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A spring fern grows in the shade among boulders along the base of Yosemite Valley cliffs.

You might think that the toughest challenges on my one-day up-and-back trips to the Sierra — on one of which I made this photograph — would be getting up hours before sunrise and driving for hours, or perhaps it would be the long return drive with a midnight or later arrival. The truth? It is the midday hours. Photographically, this can be tough time of day. There are opportunities, but you have to look for them. And by late morning and early afternoon I’m simply tired from that early wake-up call… and ready for a good, long nap!

On this trip to Yosemite Valley, the pattern held. I arrived very early, photographed through the morning, following light and shadow around the Valley. At noon I grabbed a bite to eat and then… took a very long nap in my car. But the beautiful evening light was hours away on this long, late-spring day, so when I woke up I loaded my pack and set out to see what I could find in the midday light. I headed to an area along the base of the cliffs where I thought I might find some interesting rocks, trees, and soft shade light. And that’s where I photographed this sprouting fern, aglow in reflected light against a backdrop of forest litter and a boulder.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Merced River, Bridal Veil Fall

Image Leave a comment
Trees, Merced River, Bridal Veil Fall
Bridal Veil Fall, beyond the Merced River and silhouetted trees.

Trees, Merced River, Bridal Veil Fall. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Bridal Veil Fall, beyond the Merced River and silhouetted trees.

Something tells me that I am not the first person to photograph this waterfall between these trees — but it was there and I was there, so I made a photograph. I like the fact that the waterfall is almost an afterthought, a minor element in a scene that is mostly about other things — especially the silhouettes of these trees and the reflections on the high water in the Merced River.

Speaking of that water… near the end of spring the water levels in Yosemite Valley were nothing short of amazing. There have been past floods when the water levels were a bit higher, but I’m not aware of a recent season when sustained water flow was this powerful or high. Everywhere meadows are flooded, rivers are nearly out of their banks, and waterfalls are roaring.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Globe Lily and Ithuriel’s Spear

Image Leave a comment
Globe Lily and Blue Dicks
Juxtaposed flowers of Ithuriel’s spear and globe lily plants.

Globe Lily and Ithuriel’s Spear. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Juxtaposed flowers of Ithuriel’s spear and globe lily plants.

There’s a small valley in a local park that I have hike though for decades. Every spring I make a point of going there early in the morning when the light is still soft and looking for the wildflowers that grow there — Larkspur, globe lilies, and Ithuriel’s spear for the most part. There are specific bends in the trail where I know to look each season for the emerging flowers. (In fact there is exactly one spot where I know I can find the deep purple Larkspur flowers.)

On this visit I got lucky and found two of these favorites growling so close together — intertwined, really — that they made a sort of accidental bouquet. To my eye, the subtle colors of the globe lily (white with faint suggestions of pink, greens and yellow) complement the more intense blue/purple of the blue dicks flowers.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.