This photograph was a sort of accident in a way. I had a bit of extra time in the mid to late afternoon since I had finished my morning photography, eaten lunch, and planned a particular shot for the evening. I decided to wander over toward the Ahwahnee to see if I could photograph some foliage in that area of the Valley and on the way I saw this view, with dappled sunlight in the foreground on the grass and the small grove of trees with yellow foliage standing out against the backdrop of the darker forest.
Branches and clouds reflected in the surface of the Merced River
This photograph was taken along the shore of the Merced River near the “housekeeping” camp along the south side of the Valley. I had wandered over here to photograph a tree on the opposite bank that had dropped an interesting bunch of colorful leaves. (That photograph turned out to be, I’ll be honest, boring… ;-) As I got ready to take down the tripod and leave I noticed this interesting bunch of partially submerged branches along the waterline.
I recently (May 2015) reworked this photograph, and I like the newer interpretation quite a bit more than the original. Here there are “three worlds” in the photograph — the solid material of the branches and their crisp reflections in the water, the barely visible branches beneath the water’s surface, and the very light reflections of sky and thing clouds.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Yeah, it has been done before – but it is sure hard to resist photographing a scene like this one. While I would usually try to get to a spot like this in early or late light – late would be better here, I think – this photograph was made close to the middle of the day. (As a matter of fact, a late-in-the-day photograph of this scene is in the queue and should show up here soon.)
One of a pair of photographs I made of this mid-day scene at one of the more popular photographic sites in the Valley. (The other is in landscape orientation.)
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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