A High Sierra waterfall, brought back to life by torrential rains surges over rocky ledges.
I love watching for, observing, and experiencing the typical seasonal transitions. For example, right about now I have my eyes on the first signs of the approach of autumn. In spring I watch water levels in creeks and streams. In winter I track the appearance of birds. However, I’m also fascinated when conditions are abnormal, when something unusual happens that conflicts with our seasonal expectations. The cascade in this photograph, and the “deluge” the caused it, fit into that latter category.
This has been a very dry period in California. Winter precipitation has been far below normal levels, and warmer temperatures have decreased the amount of water released from the snowpack during the warm months. Consequently, the high country has been stressed. Yet… on the first couple of days of our August high country visit we experienced the heaviest and most prolonged heavy summer rain that I have ever experienced in the backcountry. It was heavy enough that we really could not leave our tents for hours, and when we emerged the landscape was drenched and a nearby creek was coming out of its banks. Later on this trip we followed a branch of the stream up into the alpine zone, and along that route we passed this surprisingly powerful waterfall.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
Alpine stream, meadows, boulder fieldsEast of Peaks, End of Day— and one tiny photographer — beneath high peaks in shadow as the day ends.
Those of you who see my photography online may have noticed the “continued:” links accompanying my short social media posts. They take you to a bit more information about each image that I post with the original at my website. The story that I’ll share with this photograph is longer than usual, so you may want to click through and take a look! It goes into the background behind this trip, a bit about who participated, and a little surprise in the image that you would probably not otherwise notice. Tempted? Click that link!
This photograph comes from a weeklong trip into the Sierra backcountry with a group of fellow photographers and friends. Almost 15 years ago I was privileged to link up with another such group (informally known as the “First Light” group, after the title of their book) that did trips like this since 2001. There is an even longer history of similar trips going all the way back to Ansel Adams and the Sierra Club. The concept of such trips was to establish a basecamp at a suitable backcountry location for a week or more of exploration and photography. Because no effort was spared to use high end equipment, pack train support was used to bring camp gear in and out as the photographers carried additional gear in backpacks.
This year’s trip included a different set of photographers, though with links to the First Light crew. (Three of us had been on at least one of the previous trips and I’ve been on several.) In fact, we we loosely emulated the predecessor trips in many ways. (“First Light II?” “First Light, TNG?” “Second Light?”) We walked to our destination, packers brought in the bulk of our gear, we established a base camp, and we spent a week exploring and photographing all around our camp in a wide range of conditions. Perhaps best of all, we got to become a little community of backcountry photographers for the week — surviving the Great Torrential Rain of 2022 together, fixing and eating group meals, sharing stories and tips in the evenings and slow midday hours, heading out to photograph in constantly evolving sub-groups, and more.
The group included Michael Frye, Claudia Welsh, Franka Gabler, David Hoffman, Jerry Bosworth, Patricia Mitchell, and myself. Jerry was the initial inspiration for this trip when he responded to a post of mine about a particular Sierra feature and mentioning that it was perhaps a place that he might not get to again. My reply, which was basically “what about a pack train?,” and his enthusiastic response got the ball rolling… and a few months later we were in the Sierra again. It turned out to be an absolutely wonderful combination of personalities.
There’s a lot more I could (and eventually will) write about the group itself and our adventures, but I’ll use this photograph to share one little vignette. I’ve written about the horrible weather we had on the first couple of days of the trip. Finally, on this afternoon and evening, things cleared up and we all gradually headed up into the same area of the high country, following a stream swollen by the heavy rain. Eventually we emerged from forest and into the open alpine country, were we could see the peaks towering above to our west. I made this photograph just before I turned around — the light was starting to fade as the sun had long dropped below the peaks. If you look very closely, you might be able to spot a very tiny Michael Frye among the rocks and meadows.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
Three conifer trees, illuminated by morning backlight, against a background of rocky terrain slopes.
Our August backcountry sojourn with a group of fellow photographers began with the absolute heaviest downpour I have experienced during decades the Sierras. It began within seconds after we got our tent (mostly) up and continued for hours, on into the evening. We all crawled inside our tents and tried to stay dry and warm as hail and rain poured down, lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and the roar of the rising waters on the nearby creek started to get our attention. The weather remained “interesting” on into the second day, only beginning to finally clear a bit on the second evening. But the next morning came with a beautiful sunrise and plentiful sun — and that is when I made this photograph.
This group of three trees stood on rocky ground, and because of that they were not blocked by other trees. As the morning sun rose it finally topped a ridge to the east and the light began to strike the trees. This kind of backlight, especially when it falls on trees, is one of my favorite things in the Sierra. So it should be no surprise that I made a series of photographs of this group, some in landscape orientation and some in portrait orientation. In this one I chose to let the glowing trees fill as much of the frame as possible.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
The first morning breeze stirs the waters of a Sierra Nevada backcountry lake.
For at least one more day I will hold off on sharing the New York street photography.. Given the absurd heat here in California I think we might all benefit from something that at least evokes cooler weather! Almost precisely a month ago we spent a week base-camped near this spot. The weather was nothing like it is now — our visit started with 24 hours of rainfall, portions of it torrential, followed by a week when rain always threatened and occasionally made good on the threat. What I’d give for that weather now!
On the day I made this photograph most of the rain was behind us, and before sunrise I strolled from camp to a nearby rocky prominence with a 360 degree view of the alpine surroundings. This lake was below my position, and I photographed along the shoreline after sunrise to capture the first breeze disturbing the perfect stillness of its surface as haze glowed in the distance beyond the lake’s outlet.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
