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

Black Oak, Meadow, Autumn

November 8, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A backlit black oak tree with autumn foliage stands in a meadow below Sentinel Rocks, Yosemite Valley

This black oak, like so many in Yosemite Valley, stands in a large grassy meadow. Although the autumn foliage of these trees may seem less spectacularly colorful than that of the big leaf maples and the cottonwoods, the black oak has a more subtle beauty in the fall. But when lit from behind, early or late in the day when the sun is low, the color of black oak leaves can be surprisingly intense. Off all the fall colors in the Valley, in some ways the combination of that of these oaks and the grasses of the meadows where they are found seems to most strongly speak of fall to me.

This single tree is in a meadow filled with black oaks. I would not be surprised to find that there are 100 of them here. On this afternoon I had gone to the meadow to photograph something different, a group of small cottonwood trees growing near the bank of the Merced River. Finishing that project, I was about to start back toward my car when I noticed that a short-lived beam of direct sun was coming down from an opening in the upper cliff walls and spotlighting this tree. Naturally, I changed my plans, took a little detour, and spent a few minutes with this tree.

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

Autumn Afternoon, Merced River Cottonwood Trees

November 7, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hazy autumn afternoon light on golden cottonwood trees growing along the banks of the Merced River, Yosemite Valley

As I try to do every fall, I visited Yosemite Valley for a few days right at the end of October so that I could photograph fall color and other seasonal subjects. I typically target my visits for near the end of the last week of the month, since at about this time the cottonwood, big leaf maple, black oak, and dogwood trees can produce beautiful colors and the meadows turn wonderful shades of tan and brown and gold. There are other benefits to visiting at this time of year, too – far fewer people, cooler temperatures, availability of campsites, and I often run into friends and other interesting people in the Valley.

I’m a big fan of backlit trees, and I have shot in this area of meadows and cottonwood trees and river bank many times before. In the afternoon the light begins to come into the valley from the low sun in the west and while trees can be backlit, some of the granite cliffs are already in shadow. If there is a bit of atmospheric haze, I like it even more! On this afternoon I decided to poke around along the banks of the Merced in this area where it flows through a series of bends among meadows and forest – and there were backlit cottonwood trees galore to work with!

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Sagebrush and Aspens

November 6, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sparse, colorful aspen trees in the high sagebrush country east of the Sierra Nevada.

Back in October I made my annual trek to the east side of the Sierra Nevada to photograph autumn subjects, including but not limited to aspen trees in their fall colors. As often happens at this time of the year, we encountered a wide range of conditions ranging from beautiful sunny days to one day on which it snowed the entire time as we drove over the crest and down highway 395. Overall, this turned out to be a fine year for aspen color, though it was not exactly a typical year. The color came a bit early and seemed to change quickly in a number of areas. Even though many of us were concerned that the past two years of California drought – perhaps combined with the effects of global climate changes – might have reduced the colors, in the end the effect was simply to change the timing a bit. (And long time aspen photographers know that, in a sense, there really is no such thing as a “typical season” for aspen color.)

The final day of our five-day visit was a diverse one, and it took us to a range of quite different locations. It started in Mammoth Lakes, where we were surprised to find that it was snowing lightly when we left our motel in the pre-dawn darkness and headed out into Long Valley. After stopping there to photograph the morning snow flurries along the eastern Sierra, we continued to the east and drove all the way to Benton before turning around and heading back toward Mono Lake, investigating the interesting fall color in this less-visited area. As we reached highway 395 again we found that the snow was continuing to fall along the eastern escarpment here, too. We stopped in Lee Vining for a (very) late breakfast and decided to continue on to the north. After a stop to photograph the vast stands of aspens on the summit north of Lee Vining, it looked like the weather might be photographically interesting out toward Bodie, so we headed that direction. I photographed this little high desert valley with its small stands of autumn aspens momentarily illuminated as cloud shadows raced across the landscape. Mono Lake and the surrounding mountains are visible in the distance.

Deals and Sales, Equipment

Nikon’s New Df DSLR

November 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Today Nikon announced a new Nikon Df DSLR camera that is revolutionary because it is retro! ;-)

Today there are many who find some features of older SLR cameras to be appealing and perhaps, in some ways, preferable to some of the interface elements on modern DSLRs. (Among these people are an older generation that started out with those classic camera and a newer generation that has rediscovered the older cameras at thrift shops and garage sales.) The older SLR film cameras were often tightly constructed, mostly of metal, with clean lines, and they came with lenses that were often much smaller than the big lenses that seem to be in vogue today. Perhaps most important, they featured external manual controls for essentially all features of the camera. Using them was, in many ways, a very different experience from using todays digital cameras, where single dials and buttons perform multiple functions and you must look at LCD displays to see what you are adjusting.

It seems to me that what Nikon may have done here is take some of the best features of the older cameras (physical control knobs, smaller and tighter design, liberal use of metal parts, etc) and fuse them with a thoroughly modern digital camera. Make no mistake, this is not an “old school” camera – it is a modern camera that carries forward some proven design elements from an earlier era. This may not be for everyone, but lots of photographers are going to like this.

You can pre-order the camera and a new 50mm lens that was designed to complement it at B&H now.

Nikon Df DSLR Camera (black) – $2, 746.95 preorder
Nikon Df DSLR Camera (silver) – $2,746.95 preorder
Nikon Df DSLR Camera (black) with 50mm f/1.8 Lens – $2,996.95 preorder
Nikon Df DSLR Camera (silver) with 50mm f/1.8 Lens – $2, 996.95 preorder
Nikon Special Edition AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G AF-S Lens – $279 preorder

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Black Oak, Meadow, Autumn

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Autumn Afternoon, Merced River Cottonwood Trees

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Sagebrush and Aspens

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Nikon’s New Df DSLR

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

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