Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shoreline Bench, Reflections

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Shoreline Bench, Reflections
A rocky bench above the reflecting surface of an alpine Sierra Nevada lake

Shoreline Bench, Reflections. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A rocky bench above the reflecting surface of an alpine Sierra Nevada lake.

Since roughly August of 2005 I have been posting a daily new photograph at my website (https://gdanmitchell.com) and on social media, almost always accompanied by a couple of paragraphs of background. Yes, that is 14 years of daily photograph posts at this site! That’s more than 5000 photograph posts as of the date of this on. I’ve done this for several reasons. First, it is a form of daily practice — the importance of which I learned about in my other life in the world of music. Second, I hope that revealing my working process and thinking about photographs may be useful to others trying to make sense of this medium.

This does mean that — obviously! — you’ll see more than one way of seeing a particular subject since I share this editing process here. Today’s photograph — from my recent weeklong shoot in the Eastern Sierra backcountry — is an example of this in at least a couple of ways. First of all, I recently shared another photograph of this same subject that interpreted it in a different way. (That photograph took a closer look at it — this one includes more of the surrounding visual context.) Secondly, if you scroll back to that other version, you may discover that I shared two examples of that one with different crops.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

First Light, Lake and Peaks

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First Light, Lake and Peaks
First morning light on Sierra Nevada peaks is reflected in the waters of an alpine lake

First Light, Lake and Peaks. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First morning light on Sierra Nevada peaks is reflected in the waters of an alpine lake.

This view, or something very close to it, was our constant companion during our weeklong stay at a basecamp in this 11,000′ Eastern Sierra valley. We camped very close to this lake — not quite as close as the photo, for those who keep track of such things. It more or less wrapped around us, with a very narrow outlet channel on one side of our camp and a larger bay on the other. The view of the lake and the peaks beyond was generally the first thing we saw in the morning and the last thing we saw at night.

Perhaps ironically, since this camera position was mere steps from my tent, I didn’t think to photograph it with the water in the foreground until several days after we arrived. The dawn light here was a bit tricky. Because surrounding peaks were between these mountains and the sunrise, soon after the first light touched the peaks as seen here the light began to lose it sunrise color. I began photographing before this light arrived, in the soft pre-dawn light, and then composed the scene to include the reflected color in the foreground water.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Peaks and Lake Shore

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Peaks and Lake ShorePeaks and Lake Shore
Sierra Nevada peaks tower about a rock-line alpine lake.

Peaks and Lake Shore. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sierra Nevada peaks tower about a rock-line alpine lake.

True confession time — my “photographic core” is and probably always has been black and white photography. Today the majority of my photographs are in color, and I love working whit color images. But I began with black and white, way back when I was just a kid using a cheapie camera on family vacations. Later my father took me into his home darkroom and I learned to make prints, black and white essentially by necessity in those days. My early photographic heroes were almost all black and white photographers.

All of that is by way of explaining the inclusion of this black and white photograph among all of the other color photographs from this trip, a one-week backcountry visit in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. We looked at this scene daily — it was only steps from my tent — and over the week we got to know its details and its moods well. I made this photograph late in the day, as shadows lengthened across the low, rocky saddle, and the more distant peaks lost most of their sunlight.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Cascade And Peaks, Morning

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Cascade And Peaks, Morning
Peaks lit by early morning light rirse above a Sierra Nevada wilderness cascade near timberline

Cascade And Peaks, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Peaks lit by early morning light rirse above a Sierra Nevada wilderness cascade near timberline.

The daily routine on these backcountry photographic expeditions tends to follow a basic pattern. We’re up very early — in order to be in a good place by the time the light arrives we typically need to arise when it is still dark out and then make our way to our chosen location. There’s often an intense period of photography right around sunrise, but then things taper off as the rate of change in the light slows. We work for a couple of hours until the light becomes less spectacular, then we return to camp for breakfast followed by a midday period of mostly hanging out. We usually eat dinner in the late afternoon time frame, and then we head out once again for a few hours of photography that often end in darkness.

On this morning I had a plan to walk up a nearby route to a higher lake, where I had several potential photographs in mind. I knew that these scenes were very light dependent, so I wanted to arrive early. I set out with plenty of time… and immediately started to find myself distracted by unanticipated subjects. I stopped to photograph the inlet stream of a lake, then a pool below the trail, then this lovely section of a small creek cascading down the slope from the valley above.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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