Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

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

Spillway Lake

January 4, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Afternoon light on Spillway Lake in the Yosemite backcountry

Although it was a bit more than nine years ago, I remember this hike very well. I had a free afternoon, so I decided to hike out to a familiar Sierra Crest pass that I had visited before, but along the way I chose to take a detour up past the lake see in the photograph. This route followed a trail along a small, singing creek that topped out in a fairly level subalpine meadow that surrounded the lake, and the last bit of the hike was on open, smooth ground. I paused at the lake, stopping at some rocks on near the small peninsula visible near the lower part of the image to eat a snack, drink some water, and quietly take in the scene.

The trail to the lake ends here, but the route up across open terrain to a nearby pass was fairly obvious in this country, so I simply passed along the edge of the lake and then headed up toward the wide saddle. It wasn’t long before I arrived there, and after my visit to the pass I started back down along the trial that came to the pass from another nearby drainage. I traversed a high ridge and had a good clear view back down to “my” lake, now far below and luminous in the afternoon light and backed by the tall dark hill with talus slope above leading to a higher ridge.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Basin Mountain, Mount Humphreys, Dawn

January 1, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light on a stormy morning above Basin Mountain, Mount Humphreys and the Sierra Nevada crest

Let’s welcome the New Year with a sunrise photograph! Happy New Year 2015! I made the photograph a bit more than five years ago, during a fall trip to the Eastern Sierra to photograph autumn colors. I made a series of similar photographs on this morning, at least one of which I have shared in the past. However, as I worked my way though a decade’s worth of old raw files during the past few weeks, I came on this one and felt that it could work will in the panoramic presentation seen here.

As I recall, on that morning I had awakened at my camp higher up in the mountains, planning to head further up the canyon before daybreak to photograph high elevation aspen trees. However, the light did not look promising, as it was quite overcast. I realized that it was one of those mornings when there was a chance for a special lighting condition that occurs when it is clear far to the east, and right at sunrise a narrow band of light breaks under the clouds and sends a line of light across the eastern face of the Sierra, light that works its way down from top to bottom as the sun comes up. So I quickly changed plans and headed the opposite direction and out into the “Buttermilk Country” below the Sierra, arriving just in time to find this beautiful light.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Eastern Sierra Autumn Sunset

December 31, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An autumn sunset high in a canyon of the eastern Sierra Nevada

Let’s end 2014 with a sunset — one of the wildest sunsets I’ve seen in the eastern Sierra. This is another of the “rediscovered” older photographs that I turned up during my recent review of a decade or more of older raw files that were left behind in the past. I was going through them while working on a particular project, but as I did so I couldn’t help but get distracted and follow paths through photographs that are largely unrelated to that project.

This photograph was made at the very end of the day, as what had been somewhat gray clouds were lit from beneath by evening sun breaking under the clouds to the west, and brilliantly (gaudily?) coloring the sky out over Owens Valley and above the White Mountains. Frankly, I think that at the time I wasn’t quite sure how to handle this range of colors in post, so I put the file aside and mostly forgot about it until this week’s rediscovery rekindled the memory of that evening.

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

Timberline Creek and Mesa, Evening

December 31, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on high ridges and timberline creek in the upper reaches of the Kern River drainage, Sierra Nevada

This is a favorite location in the southern Sierra, where the John Muir Trail finally arrives at a creek and small trees after crossing over a very high pass perhaps four miles to the north — and thus at the end of what is typically an entire day spent near or above timberline. I love that very high country, but after working my way over a very high pass and doing a long walk, there is almost nothing as pleasing as coming to a camp with green meadows and trees and a gently flowing stream.

Because this spot is on the JMT, it isn’t surprising that I’ve been there a few times, on various trips that have taken me across this section of the Sierra backcountry. In fact, I’ve been there enough times to now remember specific camp sites and to even know where to wander off to find a good view in the evening. The massive peak in this photograph is an iconic sight in this area. High above plateaus that are at or above 11,000′, it is topped by a huge plateau at an even higher elevation, an unusual feature at an elevation where things are more typically rugged, rocky, and perhaps nearly inaccessible.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Spillway Lake

Basin Mountain, Mount Humphreys, Dawn

Eastern Sierra Autumn Sunset

Timberline Creek and Mesa, Evening

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