Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

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

Merced River, Branches, El Capitan

December 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Branches in the still water of the Merced River with floating autumn leaves and the reflection of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley.

This photograph is almost a bit of an optical trick. I’ll let you look for a second and figure it out…

… Does it make sense now? The foreground is composed of some intertwining dead branches just above the surface of a very still section of the quiet, late autumn Merced River in Yosemite Valley. The leaves floating on and just beneath the surface of the water give it away. Because there are so many branches, their dark reflections seem, to me at least, to almost merge with the shapes of the actual branches, creating a complex pattern. And, reflected in the surface of the water and appearing as a backdrop to these elements, is the sunlit face of El Capitan.

I would love to tell a great story about making this photograph… but I don’t remember making it! I discovered it only recently while reviewing all of my old raw files, and all I can say for sure is that I made it on one of my annual late October trips to The Valley to photograph the fall colors. For those who follow the technical stuff, I made this photograph with some pretty low-level gear back at a time when I was experimenting with my first DSLR. The camera was the very humble (but better than some think, at least for this sort of thing!) Canon Digital Rebel XT, an early 8 MP body. Even more humble was the lens, the not so swell EFS 17-85mm Canon lens.

(Note: This was originally posted on September 21, 2011. I’m moving this photograph back up on the home page today as this is a new revision of the original photograph — the date of the revision is December 26, 2014)

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

The Last Leaves

December 20, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last autumn aspen leaves hang from the branches of nearly bare trees against a granite cliff

So many aspen photographs focus on the wild autumn colors — for good reason! But this is not the only interesting phase of the autumn transition, and I also like the reappearance of the bare, white trunks of the trees as the leaves drop away.

I made this photograph late in the day and in a canyon area where little light penetrates after mid-afternoon, and where trees grow right up against a jumbled granite cliff that is fractured and full of blocks and angles. Late in the day, when the only light comes from the blue sky overhead, the quality of the light becomes quite cold. (At this time of year the air also becomes cold quickly late in the day!) I stuck around after most others had left and photographed these nearly bare trunks into the blue hour period.

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

Lake and Pinnacles, Evening

December 18, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Evening light reflects surrounding pinnacles in the surface of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

This photograph takes me back to a long southern Sierra backpacking trip I took with friends back in 2010 — a trip from which I have recently shared a few other photographs. We entered the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park from the east over one of the high Sierra crest passes, a few days later crossed another even higher pass to enter the upper Kern River drainage, spent a few days in a very remote portion of this area, and then exited back to the east over the crest by way of one of the more notorious east side passes — not the most notorious one, but definitely on the short list of awful passes… in a wonderful way. ;-)

The lake in this photograph was the site of our first night camp, after we came over that first pass and dropped to this beautiful sub-alpine valley with its lakes, meadows, rocks, and small trees. We settled in to this first camp… and into the familiar and welcome patterns of a long trip into the backcountry. These include camaraderie among friends who have shared many backpacking experiences, purposefully purposeless wandering around the wilderness neighborhood, sitting on rocks and staring, and watching the day transition to evening and then night.

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

Granite Slabs, Forest, and Lake

December 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Granite slabs and forest trees reflected in the still surface of a subalpine lake, Yosemite National Park

This is the sort of beautiful and peaceful scene that greeted us each morning as we worked to photograph the area surrounding this subalpine lake in the Yosemite backcountry. Every morning the routine was: up before sunrise, grab the photography equipment and walk down to the lake, wander around looking carefully and critically for photographs… and enjoy the still quiet of the Sierra morning.

In visual terms the shoreline of such a lake is a very interesting and complex subject. On one hand, there are potential subjects everywhere. On the other, the complexity of the scene can be a challenge when it comes to finding compositions. The options include “thinking small” and isolating small elements within the overall scene, looking for juxtapositions and relationships that help bring some form to the details, or simply embracing the complexity. (Adding to the challenge, the dynamic range between the deep forest shade and the sunlit granite can be huge.) I think that this photograph perhaps combines a bit of the second option and a lot of the third. Every portion of the frame is filled with details, yet I think that in the end not all of them are equally important.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Merced River, Branches, El Capitan

The Last Leaves

Lake and Pinnacles, Evening

Granite Slabs, Forest, and Lake

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