Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

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

Meadow, Tarn, and Trees

Image July 29, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Small trees near timberline grow in a meadow surrounding a subalpine tarn

In the Sierra Nevada photographers are nearly always grateful for clouds. There is a reason that these mountains are referred to as the “range of light” — there is a lot of light! In the summer months we often experience many days of perfect blue skies, often without a single cloud in sight, at least if you don’t include jet contrails from the many routes passing above the range. Clouds play a small part in this photograph, but I think they make a difference.

I made the photograph very near Tioga Pass, along the Sierra crest. I rarely photograph in this specific spot since it can be busy place and it is a bit overdone. (I have plenty of work in my archives that I have photographed from right around here.) But on this day the late light, as the sun was just about to pass behind the tall ridge to the west, was both warm and softened by the clearing overcast. So I stopped and wandered briefly into this intimate landscape of trees, meadow, and tarn.

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

Forest, Dome, and Ridge

Image July 27, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Stormy evening view from Tuolumne Meadows, across forest and granite dome, to the Sierra crest

This had been a challenging day for photography for the most part. While there was some good light in the early part of the day, later on the sky was covered by monsoonal clouds and building thunderstorms. It never really rained much where I was, but the potential was there and it did rain not far away. Thunderstorm photography can be exciting, especially if you are in a position where you can see the tops of the clouds… but down below, if the sky is completely overcast, the light can become blah and gray.

But there is always a hope that evening will bring a break-up of the clouds and even allow in some sunset light. By the time I made this photograph that process was already starting. The uniform cloud ceiling had begun to break up, with openings to blue sky here and there, and an occasional beam of light moved over the landscape. Here the light from the west, shining in beneath the clouds, illuminated the foreground meadow and the gigantic forests winding up the slopes toward granite peaks further away.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Wildflowers, Lake, Peak

Image July 26, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Paintbrush flowers in the lakeshore meadow of a subalpine lake below the Sierra Nevada crest

This is pretty much a classic Sierra Nevada high country scene, from the zone this is my favorite — the region just below the tree line, where there the landscape is usually open and filled with rocky meadows and lakes and towering peaks. The intimate shorelines of the small high-country lakes and tarns are special, and more than once I’ve managed to spend a significant amount of time simply lounging by them in the middle of the day.

I reached this spot by way of a longer hike around a large lake, starting my walk close to sunrise. One side of the upper end of this lake features open forests, while the other side is an area of meadows and boulders, though which flows the outlet of the smaller lake in this photograph. I arrived by myself and went to work making photographs, mostly of the lake itself and the surrounding alpine scenery. After a while I finishing that work and commenced the serious business of sitting on a large rock and staring for a while. Finally, it was time to start thinking about my return hike, but before I departed I wandered over to this shoreline where these brilliant red flowers had caught my attention.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Tree, Lake, Reflected Mountains

Image July 25, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary tree, subalpine meadows, lake, and reflection of Sierra Nevada peaks

For this photograph I again travel back almost a full year, to a late summer photographic adventure into the High Sierra with a group of friends. We had much of our bulky and heavy equipment packed into this remote spot, though we carried our photographic equipment in on our backs. We remained here for about a week, with lots of time to explore and photograph the surrounding landscape.

The closest feature of interest was the meadow holding this subalpine lake. (We camped behind my camera position and on a rise that kept us out of the meadow. ) Early and late in the day the light around this lake could be beautiful, and I made this photograph in the morning while the water was still and the light slanted in from the east and left dramatic shadows on the landscape.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Meadow, Tarn, and Trees

Forest, Dome, and Ridge

Wildflowers, Lake, Peak

Tree, Lake, Reflected Mountains

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