Category Archives: Photographs: Yosemite

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Lower Young Lake Shoreline, Dusk

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Lower Young Lake Shoreline, Dusk
Lower Young Lake Shoreline, Dusk. Yosemite National Park, California. September 10, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

I spent several days in the Young Lakes area of the Yosemite Sierra Nevada back-country on a solo pack trip late last year. Although Young Lakes are very popular during the summer season and can be reached by a one-day roundtrip hike, this I was alone at the lake on a quiet evening following an afternoon of rainy weather.

keywords: black and white, shoreline, lower, young, lake, fall, autumn, evening, dusk, clouds, misty, beach, rocks, reflections, water, surface, trees, forest, silhouette, mountains, peaks, alpine, ridge, camping, hiking, backpacking, travel, scenic, landscape, stock, grass

Commentary, Locations, Photographs: Yosemite

Photographing Yosemite Valley’s Horsetail Fall

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UPDATE: As of 2020 I am no longer posting annual updates concerning this subject — and I am editing older posts on the subject in light of the need to be more responsible about not encouraging the onslaught. I also no longer recommend going to the Valley to see it. Unfortunately, too much exposure (yes, I played a part in it, unfortunately) has led to absurd crowds, traffic jams, littering, destruction of areas in the Valley where too many people go to see it… and the park has increasingly — and appropriately — cracked down. Parking options have been eliminated, at least one viewing location has been closed. Good news! The rest of Yosemite Valley is still there and often exceptionally beautiful at this time of year.

(This is a re-post of something I posted at my dan’s outside web site after returning from Yosemite this past weekend. I am leaving it here for sentimental and perhaps historical reasons, though I now recommend that you do not join the hordes descending on the park to photograph the thing. The experience I had no longer exists and the park has had to Putin place significant controls and rules to deal with the damage from thousands of people showing up for this.)

Although I’ve been going to Yosemite regularly since I was perhaps five years old (and I’m not going to say how long ago that was… ;-) I’ve never managed to see the February marvel of Horsetail Fall at sunset. Horsetail is a seasonal waterfall near the east end of the face of El Capitan. During early to mid February (and, according to some a bit earlier and later in the year as well) the light from the sun hits the waterfall just before sunset, creating an amazing light show for those who are a bit east of El Capitan where they can view the backlit waterfall. Galen Rowell made the sight famous with one of his photographs taken several decades ago, and it has since become of of the “must do” photographs in the Valley. Continue reading Photographing Yosemite Valley’s Horsetail Fall →

Photographs: Yosemite

Horsetail Fall, Sunset

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Horsetail Fall, Sunset
Horsetail Fall, Sunset. Yosemite National Park, California. February 16, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Although I’ve been going to Yosemite Valley for, well let’s just say decades, this was the first time that I viewed the February sunset light on Horsetail Fall, the “original firefall” that catches the last rays of the sun for a few weeks each winter.

keywords: horsetail, fall, waterfall, firefall, el capitan, february, winter, sunset, dusk, rocks, cliff, light, granite, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, landscape, scenic, travel, mountains, stock

Commentary, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Sunset, Mount Dana and Mount Gibb

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Sunset, Mounts Dana and Gibb. Yosemite National Park, California. August 6, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell

I recently rediscovered this photograph taken on a spectacular evening in the Tuolumne Meadows area two years ago. I think it serves as a good example of the value of going back through old photographs from time to time. (I do this every year around the holiday season.) In this case, I had a particular subject in mind when I shot this scene – Mt. Dana, the peak to the left in this image. For that reason I had kept a version of the scene the aimed a bit more to the left and put that peak more clearly into the frame, and I had pretty much passed over this one in which the foreground creek leads the eye (my eye, anyway…) toward the beautiful light on Dana and the peak to the right, Mt. Gibb.