Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

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

Big Leaf Maple, Forest Trail

November 5, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A forest trail winds past big leaf maple trees with fall colors in Yosemite Valley

This was a busy day! I described it in an earlier post, but here is a brief recap. I started in Oakhurst before dawn, heading out to photograph sunrise at Glacier Point — but I didn’t make it after I became distracted by a lovely forest scene along the way. Then I photographed wildfire smoke east of Glacier Point, returned to The Valley to shoot fall color, lost patience with the crowds and smoke, headed to Tioga Pass, and ended the day photographing sunset light on snow-dusted granite slabs. Whew!

In the middle of the day I spent a brief time in The Valley before heading back to the high country. The crowds were shocking, especially for this late October date. I left my car and headed out on foot, going into an area with lots of big leaf maple trees. This is also a location where I know I can find not only a bit of solitude but also some very special light. Here the forest sometimes opens toward a very large expanse of vertical granite, and this rock acts as a gigantic reflector, casting soft light back into shaded areas along the opposite canyon wall. It was here that I stopped to photograph this quiet little autumn scene, with a deserted trail passing through the open forest.

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

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

Morning Wildfire Smoke

November 4, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning wildfire smoke settles into a Sierra Nevada valley

I arrived at this point in the early morning while the sun was still very low in the sky and before the day’s breezes had begun to pick up. A wildfire had burned across this section of the Yosemite high country starting quite a few weeks ago, and by now it had transformed from a raging inferno that was rapidly chewing up the landscape into a slow-burning fire that continued to do the beneficial work of eliminating years of build-up of undergrowth. The latter, while smoky and disruptive, is a natural part of the normal forest ecology.

From this overlook I could take in the few back toward the valley where the fire was burning. At this early hour the smoke was mostly settled in from the previous night, layered in among the trees at the bottom of valleys. Like a river only much slower and less tangible, the smoke drifted down the bottom of the valley and followed the natural contours of the land. As I photographed and the sun rose higher, the air began to move a bit more. The smoke started to diffuse and rise, and before long it had come up to my position and it was time to go.

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

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

Autumn Snow, Last Light On Granite

November 3, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Last evening light on glaciated granite dusted by autumn snow.

The path to this photograph was a long and convoluted one, and it was certainly not what I was planning on when my day began. I had arrived in the Yosemite area the prior morning, planning to photograph autumn subjects in The Valley before heading over to Oakhurst for the opening reception for the final run of last year’s Yosemite Renaissance Exhibit. I arrived in Yosemite Valley to find it filled with smoke (and a surprising number of October visitors), but I found subjects that could work in this conditions and set about photographing. This is the time for fall color in The Valley, with lots of beautiful leaves on big leaf maple, dogwood, oak and other trees. In the evening I went over to Oakhurst in time to enjoy the reception, where I had an opportunity to see the 2017 version of the show one last time with friends and fellow artists.

I was up well before dawn the next morning with a general plan of heading to Glacier Point for sunrise. However, a beautiful, forested valley full of dogwood and other fall color intervened, and by the time I finished there it was clear that I wasn’t going to make my goal by dawn or even close to it. I did go on up to near Glacier Point, where I photographed wildfire smoke before deciding to go back to The Valley and photograph more trees. I did so, and I had some successes, but by mid-afternoon the crowds and smoke were becoming oppressive, to I decided to make what might be my final trip of the season up to Tioga Pass. Without stopping to photograph, I made it to the pass in the late afternoon. I soon started back down to begin my long drive back to the Bay Area. As I passed the closed-for-the-winter Tuolumne store I saw a familiar van and some tripods standing nearby, so I quickly stopped to see that a couple of friends were there. We talked for a long time — longer than I expected — but I finally tore myself away with little more than a half hour of daylight left. I started west, not sure if I would stop to photograph, but I soon saw that it was going to be a beautiful evening. The smoke was gone up here, the air was clear, and the warm colors of evening were on the peaks. I quickly stopped at a familiar place, but pointed my lens at a less-familiar subject — a series of retreating granite ridges marked by new snow and lit by the final light of the evening.

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

Morning Light On Wildfire Smoke

November 2, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

For a day that I began with only a vague plan (photograph Glacier Point at dawn) that I managed to miss (distracted by dogwood trees), I ended up with quite a photographic haul before it was over. I have a very early morning photograph of a lovely forest scene with autumn colors, a series of photographs of beautiful and mysterious drifting smoke along Glacier Point Road, several photographs of the autumn scene in Yosemite Valley, and finally a small set of photographs of sunset light on snow-dusted granite along Tioga Pass Road. All told, it turned out to be a rather remarkable day!

The least expected subject also turned out to be the one that produced the largest number of photographs — the early morning wildfire smoke that had settled down in valleys and among the trees overnight. If I had arrived at Glacier Point when I originally planned I might have missed this in darkness. Yet again, I got lucky, and after a delay brought about by my inability to resist stopping to photograph another forest scene I arrived here at just the right moment. The air was still and the smoke was barely moving among the trees in this large valley below my location. I had a good long time to stand and take it in and then work the scene carefully, with photographs ranging from those including the full scene to others, like this one, that zeroed in on small elements of it. Several things attracted me about this particular scene: the beams of lighting the smoke drifting through the trees at the bottom of the frame, the zigzag pattern produced by forest and smoke, the tall and thin trees on the far ridge, and the bits of Yosemite granite domes barely visible in the distance through the smoke.

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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

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Big Leaf Maple, Forest Trail

Morning Wildfire Smoke

Autumn Snow, Last Light On Granite

Morning Light On Wildfire Smoke

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