Category Archives: Photographs: Yosemite

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow, Forest, and Dome

August 23, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on Lembert Dome and the forest and grasses of Tuolumne Meadow

The prior day was one of thick wildfire smoke, coming mainly from a fire on the far side of the park near Wawona, but also with contributions from various others fires including some small, managed lightening fires. The effect was not good — the smoke here was as thick as I’ve ever seen it before, including during a late summer visit to Cathedral Lakes a few years back during the height of the drought, when at times it seemed like the entire Sierra was on fire. In any case, the evening before I made this photograph it was still very smokey, and I wondered what the next morning would bring.

As usual, I woke up before sunrise. I was tempted to stay in the warm sleeping bag a while longer, but I summoned the focus to look outside. Noting that I could see blue sky, I got up fairly quickly and left the tent, heading down to the meadow. There was still just a bit of residual smoke hanging around, and there was also a shallow layer of light ground fog. All of this produces some very interesting atmosphere and light as I wandered the meadow, walking between grassy areas and encroaching bits of forest. I paused here, positions myself so that the large trees at the right would block the direct sun, and I made a few photographs including all of the elements of this landscape except the river that passed by out of sight.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest Meets Meadow, Morning

August 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Forest trees at the edge of Tuolumne Meadow, morning

We made a very brief mid-August visit to Tuolumne Meadows recently, mainly as a sort of shake-down cruise to test equipment for another upcoming trip — but also, of course, “because Tuolumne!” The equipment testing went just fine, though other aspects of the trip were less perfect. Mostly, there was the wildfire smoke, which was about as thick as I’ve ever experienced up there on our first day. It was so thick that we actually got in the car and headed over the crest and out of the park to try to escape it, not really getting out of the pall until we went all the way to Mammoth Lakes! It was still very smokey when we returned to camp in Tuolumne and when we went to bed that night.

I woke up early the next day and peeked outside. I didn’t see more than a slight bit of leftover smoke, so I got up fairly quickly and wandered down to the meadow to see what I could see, arriving there with my equipment before the first light came over the Sierra crest. As is so often the case there, despite being one of many hundreds of people camping at Tuolumne, I was alone for a full hour just a few hundred feet from the campground as I wandered and photographed in the meadow. This photograph shows the familiar boundary between forest and meadow. In the foreground and to the left the land is lower in areas that flood during the spring runoff and are still marshy even now. To the right are trees, growing on the slightly higher rocky terrain that dries out sooner and which provides a better footing for these trees.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning Above The Meadow

August 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First light comes to ridges and peaks above a subalpine meadow

Nothing was yet open along Tioga Pass Road when I visited in late July. Typically all of the campgrounds would be open by this point, but an exceptionally heavy winter snowfall had delayed the process of clearing the road and opening up the high country. There was still a lot of snow at around 10,000′ and higher, and water was running high and fast everywhere. Early in the morning I drove back into the park from my camp site just east of the crest, heading down to Tuolumne Meadows to make some early morning photographs.

I’m often a bit surprised by how few people who camp at Tuolumne manage to make it out to the meadow for first light, missing what is arguably the most beautiful time of the day. On this day, with the campground closed, there was almost no one else at the meadow — I had the place almost entirely to myself. I stopped at the lower end of the meadow and looked back to the east, across the meadow and then a series of successive ridges, including a couple of well-known domes, and finally to the summit of Mount Dana. The sun had just risen on the east side of the range, and its light was beginning to pour over the ridges of the Sierra crest.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning Reflection

August 16, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The image of a shoreline forest is reflected in the still morning waters of a subalpine lake

Since the Tuolumne Meadows campground (along with everything else along Tioga Pass Road) was still not open during this late-July visit (in the aftermath of a very heavy snow year) I ended up camping at a forest service campground just outside the park. Since this place wasn’t ideally located for photography I ended up doing a fair amount of driving — down 120 towards Mono Lake and nearby areas, or back up 120 into the park. On this morning my pre-dawn drive took me over the pass, into the park, and down through the virtually deserted Tuolumne Meadows area.

I continued on along this road, eventually arriving this popular lake to find it deserted at this early hour. Later in the morning the hordes would arrive here, but in the very early morning I had it to myself. The water was almost still as I set up my camera, with the tiniest bit of mist floating above its surface. I made a couple of exposures, and suddenly the reflections were broken up as breezes began to stir the surface of the lake.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow, Forest, and Dome

Forest Meets Meadow, Morning

Morning Above The Meadow

Morning Reflection

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