Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

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

Reflections, Cathedral Range Granite

September 19, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Still waters of a lake reflect Cathedral Range granite patterns, Yosemite National Park

This is likely to be the first in a somewhat large group of photographs made during a recent weeklong stay at a backcountry Sierra Nevada lake with friends and fellow photographers Charlie Cramer and Scot Miller. The two of them are part of a larger group of photographers who have photographed annually in the high Sierra, most often in Yosemite, for about the past 15 years. I’m a more recent hanger-on, first tagging along on my own perhaps a half-dozen years ago, and then participating more fully for the past three years or so. The typical plan is to pack in to a scenic backcountry location, set up a base camp, and then photograph the heck out of the area for a week or so. This approach has all kinds of advantages — too many to completely describe them here — including the ability to watch for perfection conditions or to return to a location and refine a vision of the subject over a period of days.

Near the start of the trip I saw this little area where vertical rocks meet water near the edge of a lake. My first photographs were OK, but just OK. However, I knew the spot had potential given the right water and light conditions. I watched the area each time I passed it, always watching for those better conditions. I got them on this day, when the water had become almost completely still, producing a more coherent reflection of the lichen-covered rocks.

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

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

Photographer Charlotte Hamilton Gibb

September 18, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Landscape photographer Charlotte Hamilton Gibb works the summer evening light along the Tuolumne River, Yosemite National Park

This photograph was one result of a wonderful set of coincidences in the Yosemite high country. I had gone up to the Tuolumne Meadows area for a few days of photographing mid-July. I arrived midday, managed to get a campsite, set everything up, hung out a bit… and it was time to figure out what to photograph in the late afternoon and evening. As sometimes happens, especially on the first day of such a trip, when I’m still working my way back into “the zone,” I didn’t have a plan. So I decided to simply get in my vehicle and head back to the west along Tioga Pass Road and look for some interesting potentials in the light and the scenery. At one point I caught a glimpse of some interesting light on trees and I quickly pulled over into a clearing at the side of the road. I noticed two other cars already there and a woman getting out of one of them, and I thought “I hope I’m not annoying her.” Then I realized that she was a friend and her husband was parked one car up. Claudia and Michael and I exchanged greetings and quickly decided to join forces and head out across the meadow.

As we crossed to the other side I saw another couple, one with a serious looking tripod, who seemed to be following us. we paused at the far side of the meadow and they caught up — it was Charlotte and her husband. Now the party was becoming larger! We headed slowly downstream, talking and watching for subjects, finally arriving at a spot where the river twisted through a few turns and granite slabs lined the banks. Each of us went to work on our particular views of the spot, and I made this photograph of Charlotte, focused so intently on her photograph that she was unaware that I was photographing her.

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

Forest, Soft Light

September 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft early morning light on dense trees of a Sierra Nevada forest

There are three things — perhaps among quite a few potential other — that come to mind for me when I think of this photograph. First, it could be almost any vignette of a forest scene, at least within the limitations of places where these sorts of trees grow. Second, and in opposition to the first thought, it is a very specific place — not a place that anyone else would likely afford any special attention, but because I have given it that attention for some time it has become a special spot for me. Third, it is the opposite of a sort of photograph that we often try to create — rather than being one that simplifies by minimizing content an leaving things out, it tries to find some order and form in a small scene that is extraordinarily complex, yet which follows familiar patterns.

It is also perhaps “about” (insofar as a photograph can be “about” anything) this light, from the early morning of what will become a sunny day, when the light is still soft and diffused. It is also about the nature of forests I think. I remember one very specific moment on a backpacking trip many years ago when I was heading up Rafferty Creek toward Fletcher Lake, a hike I have done many, many times. For some reason, on that morning, I had one of those occasional and powerful epiphanies that occasionally come when I’m on the trail alone. I saw the forest in ways that are not easy to describe. I felt that I wasn’t just walking past “the forest” — I was among a community of living things, and for a moment I became aware of the deep stillness of trees, the tremendous amount to almost static time through which they live, and that they stood still and rooted through blizzards and wind and rain and sunshine.

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

Unicorn Peak, Grazing Deer, Evening

September 16, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small herd of deer grazes in the evening at Tuolumne Meadows below Unicorn Peak

On the first evening of this July visit to the Yosemite high country I happened to run into several photographer friends, completely by chance, as I pulled over to take a look at some interesting trees. I had set up my camp and was out scouting, as yet with no clear plan, when I found them, and we decided to join forces and head off to photograph a section of the Tuolumne River. As the end of the day approached we headed back to the main meadow to photograph the final evening light, and I ended up at the edge of Tuolumne Meadows at the base of a low dome.

I went to work making photographs of some distant subjects, but became more and more aware of the large herd of deer grazing nearby. Eventually I could not ignore them, as some of the animals were brave enough to pass within feet of my position! It was cloudy, and as a single ray of light passed across the forest on the far side of the meadow I made this photograph that includes the deer, the forest and some peaks of the Cathedral Range.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Reflections, Cathedral Range Granite

Photographer Charlotte Hamilton Gibb

Forest, Soft Light

Unicorn Peak, Grazing Deer, Evening

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