Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lakes Below Duck Pass, Afternoon Showers

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DuckPassLakes2005|08|05: Lakes below Duck Pass. Mammoth Lakes area. August 5, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell


Lakes Below Duck Pass, Afternoon Showers. August 5, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

These lakes are perhaps a mile below Duck Pass in the Sierra near Mammoth Lakes. Duck Pass and, further on, Duck Lake is up the trail from Lake Mary. I was descending from Duck Pass after abandoning a 14-day pack trip on day 5 due to illness. (Of course, once I got out I felt fine and realized I could have continued. the longer story is posted here.)

It had rained on me at the pass a few minutes earlier and there were heavy showers to the north. Meanwhile, the sun was peeking through breaks in the clouds around the edge of the storm, and it was that light which was passing across the lakes in the foreground.

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Yosemite

Merced River and El Capitan

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MercedElCap2005|05|21: Merced River and El Capitan. Yosemite National Park. May 21, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Merced River and El Capitan. Yosemite National Park. May 21, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

This photograph was made during the spring of 2005 when the Merced River was flooding during a very high spring runoff. Here the water is almost spilling over the banks near where it passes by El Capitan.

keywords: el capitan, cap, merced, river, flow, high, water, reflection, cliff, face, morning, tree, forest, meadow, grass, nose, light, spring, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, landscape, travel, scenic, sierra, nevada, mountains, stock

News

Forensic astronomers date famous photograph

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From Yahoo News:

“Autumn Moon, the High Sierra from Glacier Point,” taken by Ansel Adams in Yosemite National Park, is a thrilling view of the American West, featuring a waxing Moon rising over dark, ice-tinged peaks.

But precisely when Adams took the iconic black-and-white picture has never been clear, and dates for it range from the mid to the late 1940s.

A team led by Donald Olson, a professor of physics and astronomy at Southwest Texas State University, claim that the mystery can be resolved.

The linked article includes the details and a copy of the photograph. One interesting fact is that the identification of time, date, and location resulted from the discovery of an original color exposure of the image.

Photographs: People

Getty People

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GettyPeople2004|06|20: People. Getty Museum. June 20, 2004. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
People and Sky. Getty Museum. June 20, 2004. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

I post some of my photos at http://www.photo.net/, where members “rate” and, better yet, comment on photos submitted by other members. (See my photo.net gallery here.)

I posted this shot there earlier this week and it turned out to be one of those where my assessment of the image differs from that of those who rated it. While it did get a few good ratings the image also was rated poorly by a few viewers.

While the ratings are interesting to see, I don’t get too upset about it. (Though I do love it when I get high ratings… go figure!)

In any case, I like this image. Several things about it appeal to me:

  • Formal aspects, including the large lower space with the converging lines and reflecting the sky.
  • The slightly off kilter quality of the ceiling compared to the rigidly horizontal/vertical quality of the floor and the columns on the right and left sides.
  • The positions of the people, both as a group and individually. They are arriving from the stairs and fanning out into the open space in the image. Their poses are, to me, interesting. The right- and leftmost figures mirror one another, especially in the way their arms are raised. The leg positions of the two right figures are the same. All of them pick up a bit of glow from the reflections off of the stone.
  • The clouds in the blue sky seem somewhat mystical and otherworldly – and, no, they were not photoshopped into the image!

So, whatever the photo.net reviewers may think about it, I like this image.

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