Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

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

Evening Shadows, Sierra Crest

October 7, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mountain shadows on the Sierra Crest at sunset, Yosemite National Park

Earlier I had photographed in the large meadows along the Dana Fork of the Tuolumne, just below Tioga Pass, continuing to work until the sun dropped behind the long and tall ridge to the west. As I walked back toward my vehicle through the soft light of the shadows, the surrounding peaks were still in full sun. I started thinking about putting a very long lens on the camera and photographing the last light when if finally got to these peaks and ridges.

It took a while! This meadow area loses the light early, so even though I lingered there after the direct sun was gone, I still had quite a while to wait before sunset. The intense coloration of the arctic zone peaks comes from two sources. This section of the Sierra is topped by much older rocks — not granite but very reddish-brownish rocks. By the time I made this photograph the sun was very close to the horizon and the color of the light had warmed considerable, adding even more intense color to the rocks. (Inspecting the image file very closely I learned something new — there is a faint trail traversing the upper slopes of the ridge at the left!)

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

Glaciated Terrain

October 6, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees in morning light on a glaciated dome, back by an immense fractured granite face, Yosemite National Park

I’m often out before the first light and then again as the last sunlight turns to dusk. These are not the only times of day worth photographing, but they are times that often produce beautiful light and colors and effects, with warm light and dramatic shadows. Many times — even during the busiest times of the year — I have stood it some of the most impressive locations and witnesses the most astonishing light… almost alone. I don’t know whether to encourage everyone to get up early and stay out late or to perhaps just keep relatively quiet and enjoy the solitude! I sometimes wonder how different our ideas of the Sierra are, depending upon when we are out and about as more or more than where we go.

In a spot like this one, the arrival of morning light is a highly dynamic thing — not at all a static or even slow-moving event. For example, here the light is raking across the foreground granite slab the tilts down from left to right, at the angle of the light is only briefly ideal to light the trees without also lighting the granite. The whole transition from first light on tree tops to a bit too much on the granite might take little more than a minute.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shoreline Aspen Color

October 4, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A variety of colorful autumn aspen trees line the rocky shoreline of an Eastern Sierra subalpine lake

While understatement can often be a good thing, sometimes when making photographs of Sierra Nevada autumn aspen trees one simply has to go with the colors. This was one of those times. I was fortunate to arrive at this spot on close to the ideal color day for this section of the lake. Not only were nearly all the trees showing their fall color, but quite a few trees showed the less common shades of red and orange, along with the more typical golden-yellow. These are not big trees, but what they lack in stature they make up for in color.

This photograph is also an example of one good kind of light for photographing this subject. I began photographing a bit earlier in the soft, shaded light. This sort of light can be very “friendly” to intensely colorful subjects and to subjects that include lots of shadows. But it can also be quite blue — except here I photographed just before the sun reached this spot, and much of the ambient light was acquiring a warmer quality. The soft light doesn’t push the intensity of the colors so far that they may blow out — it tends to make the colors more vibrant, but gives a bit more control.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Evening, Eastern Sierra

October 3, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hazy evening light on golden meadow, aspen trees, and ascending slopes, eastern Sierra Nevada

When I travel to the Eastern Sierra at this time of year, I always begin my trips with aspen color as my object. But once I get there I often — once again! — find a myriad of other subjects I associate just as much with the fall season. I made this photograph in the evening, not long before actual sunset, as the last sunlight was coming across the crest of the range and sweeping down across the dry eastern slopes. Rounded ridges, broken here and there by rocky outcroppings and scattered groves of trees, ascend toward the monumental eastern escarpment, here muted by autumn haze.

This spot is wild but not wilderness. A small cabin sits in the meadow at the base of the hills, gravel roads cut through the landscape, and at this time of year photographers, hunters, anglers, ranchers, and aspen-seekers follow gravel roads far up these slopes. This is a transitional zone, between the high sagebrush desert to the east and the conifer forest far above, and it is not the same Sierra of granite and conifer forests that most of us associate with the range. But if you travel up and down the east side much, you eventually learn that it is as much “Sierra Nevada” as any landscape.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Shadows, Sierra Crest

Glaciated Terrain

Shoreline Aspen Color

Autumn Evening, Eastern Sierra

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