Category Archives: Photographs: Owens Valley

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

McGee Creek Pack Station, Autumn Snow Storm

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McGee Creek Pack Station, Autumn Snow Storm

McGee Creek Pack Station, Autumn Snow Storm. Sierra Nevada, California. October 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Snow flurries from an early autumn storm mask the high peaks above the McGee Creek Pack Station in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California.

When I’m driving back from the Bishop area I often make a few odd stops at special little places along highway 395 at which I think I might find something special, and the McGee Creek Canyon is one of these places. The canyon is just a short drive above the north-south highway, and in the right conditions it can provide really wonderful scenes – the aspens that grow along the road to the canyon, the views back into and across the valley to peaks beyond, intimate scenes of high desert rocks and vegetation, and from the road end up the steep-sided canyon toward the alpine headwalls of the canyon.

On this early October 2009 day I was returning from shooting near Bishop Creek in light snow and thought I might get some interesting views of aspen color (which didn’t really happen) and the view up McGee Canyon, so I turned off of 395 and headed on up. From previous visits I knew of this specific view from along the gravel road right above the pack station, so I already had it in mind as I arrived. When I saw the cloud-shrouded peaks at the end of the canyon and the foreground light I quickly stopped and set up. The cloud shadows were moving quickly and, unfortunately, heading my direction so I had to work very quickly – and I had just enough time to make this one exposure with the light on the area around the pack station before the light was gone.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Snow and Morning Light on Wheeler Ridge

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Autumn Snow and Morning Light on Wheeler Ridge

Autumn Snow and Morning Light on Wheeler Ridge. Sierra Nevada near Bishop, California. October 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light on the Buttermilks and the face of the eastern Sierra’s Wheeler Ridge as an early autumn storm brings snow flurries.

On both mornings during my early October trip to the Bishop Creek area to photograph aspens, I instead ended up spending at least some time shooting the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada in the area of the “Buttermilks,” an area of very interesting rock formations (and lots of rock climbers!) off of highway 168 above Bishop. On the first morning I drove a good distance up into the region and spent an hour or more shooting a particular scene. On the second morning, when this photograph was made, I only stopped briefly on my up to higher elevation areas, aspen groves, and snow flurries.

An early season storm was coming in – it had been tremendously windy the night before and I’d picked up a dusting of snow at my campsite the night before. While the sun streamed over the White Mountains to the east and managed to light up the high desert hills in this area it was snowing lightly but steadily up in the mountains. Here the light is sweeping across the low, rocky hills in the foreground and hitting the steep lower slopes of Wheeler ridge, while above the peaks are shrouded in mist and clouds and receiving a light but steady snow fall.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Clearing Autumn Snow Storm – Eastern Sierra Near Mount Tom

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Clearing Autumn Snow Storm - Eastern Sierra Near Mount Tom

Clearing Autumn Snow Storm – Eastern Sierra Near Mount Tom. Sierra Nevada, California. October 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn snow flurries surround the peaks of the eastern Sierra near Mount Tom and Round Valley as an early fall storm clears.

As I began my return drive from my early-October “aspen hunting” expedition into the area above Bishop, California in the eastern Sierra Nevada a windy storm that had dropped several inches of snow earlier that day was beginning to clear. Rather than taking highway 395 north toward Sherwin Summit I decided to follow the older road up from Round Valley. As I neared the top of this road and looked back I saw this view of lingering snow flurries over nearby peaks and, in the distance, Mount Tom.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Storm Clouds at Dawn – Basin Mountain and Mount Humphreys

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Autumn Storm Clouds at Dawn - Basin Mountain and Mount Humphreys

Autumn Storm Clouds at Dawn – Basin Mountain and Mount Humphreys. Sierra Nevada, California. October 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light above the Buttermilks illumunates Basin Mountain and Mount Humphreys under the clouds of an early autumn storm over the Sierra Nevada crest.

This is another of several exposures I made on this beautiful early October morning when I decided to abandon my plans to be at North Lake for dawn after spotting these astonishing clouds over the eastern Sierra as I drove through the Buttermilks on my way up into the Bishop Creek drainage. I drove out on gravel roads into the high desert until I found what looked like an interesting juxtaposition of near hills, mountains beyond, the peaks of the Sierra in the distance, and the clouds that were dropping light snow up higher in the range above.

Needless to say, the light and the cloud forms were constantly changing as I watched this scene. I waited until the closer rocky hills began to pick up a bit of a glow from the sun low in the eastern sky, and then I made a number of exposures as the sun struck lower on the mountains and as the patterns of light and shadow from racing clouds moved across the peaks.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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