Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dusk, Clouds, Full Moon

June 12, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The full moon behind dusk clouds above and eastern Sierra Nevada meadow

This will be another short post — things are quite busy right now! The photograph is from almost a decade ago, when I accompanied my brother, his wife, and three sons on a backpack trip into a favorite area of the eastern Sierra Nevada. Our trip began with a hike to a picturesque lake between two high ridges, where we spent several days exploring… and surviving “interesting” weather. We found a beautiful campsite on a bench above a meadow and lake. In the evening I set up on this high spot and photographed the near-night darkness with the moon shining from behind the broken layer of clouds overhead.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sierra Crest, Reflections, Morning

May 30, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on peaks reflecting in an eastern Sierra lake.

Almost a decade ago I met my brother Richard and his family for a backpacking trip into the eastern Sierra in the area between about the Minarets and Thousand Island Lake. It is almost hard to recall a time when the Sierra was this wet and this green at this point in the season — let’s hope for a turn-around in the weather and a season or two like this one.

The weather during this trip was in the wet phase of a common Sierra summer pattern, where days of “perfect” (perfectly boring!) blue sky weather eventually lead to a build-up of clouds and a few days of thunderstorms. We had some precipitation on most days, including at least one when we were caught by surprise on a day hike to a nearby lake — we began in sun, we arrived at the lake in sun… and then all of a sudden we could see that rain was about to arrive. We high-tailed it back to camp, but got caught by rain before we arrived. This photograph was made the next morning, as the first light was just touching the peaks of Mounts Ritter and Banner above Ediza Lake, and already to moisture was visible in the clouds that were forming even at dawn.

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

Photograph Exposed, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

A Photograph Exposed: “Shoreline Reflections, Trees and Rocks”

May 29, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

(“A Photograph Exposed” is a series exploring some of my photographs in greater detail.)

“Shoreline Reflections, Trees and Rocks” — Silhouetted trees and boulders and their reflections lining a flooded section of the shoreline of Tenaya Lake.

This photograph is a personal favorite for a bunch of reasons related to how the photograph came about, the experience of making the photograph, associations with the place, and a print that pleases me a great deal.

I maintain the no photographer’s work is wholly original. What comes closest to being truly original is the personal vision of the artist — that particular way of seeing that the photographer develops. That vision is actually unique, but it is built from experiences and exposure to a visual world that includes the ways of seeing of other photographers and painters and more. I acknowledge and am grateful to a wide range of photographers whose work informs my way of seeing the world.

Among them is Charlie Cramer, who I’m fortunate to count not only as a photographic influence, but also as a friend. Charlie’s way of seeing light appeals to me a great deal, and among the photographs of his that stick in my mind is one of some very similar trees at this exact lake. When I’m in a place where another photographer’s photograph immediately comes to mind I often feel cautious about making a photograph that might look too much like their work — and this one may be an example of “influenced by” but “not like.”

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dawn, Eastern Sierra, Mono Lake

May 29, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light comes to the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada and Mono Lake.

Some years back I visited Mono Lake very early one morning with my brother, Richard, who is also a dedicated landscape photographer. My recollection is that we had arrived separately in the eastern Sierra and somehow ended up meeting here near the town of Lee Vining and heading out to this familiar spot before dawn to make photographs.

I never know exactly what will turn up here. Yes, I can always photograph those tufa towers, but I’m usually often interested in special atmospheric effects: haze, clouds, broken dawn light, the glow on the peaks of the eastern Sierra, reflections in the morning-smooth water. We began by photographing fairly conventional photographs of the tufa towers before the light arrived. It was a cloudy morning, though the deck of clouds was broken, allowing some light to make it through the gaps and a momentary band of light to strike the mountains as the sun came up beneath the far edge of the clouds in the east. I must have made this photograph fairly close to that moment. Most of the scene is in shadow, but bands of light appear on the peaks, and a bit of softer light illuminates the foreground tufa.