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

Trees, Snow-Covered Ledge

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Trees, Snow-Covered Ledge
A group of trees growing on a snowy ledge below Glacier Point

Trees, Snow-Covered Ledge. Yosemite Valley, California. February 26, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of trees growing on a snowy ledge below Glacier Point

Near the end of February I made a more-or-less annual winter visit to Yosemite Valley. (Not my only time to visit in winter, but I’m often there around the final weekend of this month, during the last few years to attend the opening of the annual Yosemite Renaissance exhibit.) This gave me a few days to photograph in the Valley during winter, which may be my favorite season there — when clouds can ring the Valley and, if I’m lucky, I might catch some snow.

I made this photograph on a very cold morning, photographing from an open meadow location below the face of Glacier Point, where granite ascends abruptly from behind what I’ll always think of as Camp Curry. I went to the meadow before dawn, with a plan to photograph this wall in shadow and then as the first light began to slant across it from the east. This cliff is a cold place this time of year — most of the time in shadow, dusted with snow, and with frozen water everywhere. The blue-tinged shadow light only increases the effect in this scene of a small group of trees managing to eke out an existence on an angled rock ledge.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Birds, Fog, Dawn

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Birds, Fog, Dawn
Birds fly over foggy Central Valley wetlands at dawn on a winter day

Birds, Fog, Dawn. Central Valley, California. January 28, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Birds fly over foggy Central Valley wetlands at dawn on a winter day

It is only the last day of March… and I’m already missing these winter wetlands with fog and the sound of birds. These places are found up and down California’s Great Central Valley, and each has its own personality. I know I can find eagles at one, night herons at another, cranes at several of them, and huge flocks of Ross’s and snow geese and yet another.

In my view, the best days at these refuges begin before dawn. The air should be cold — at or just below freezing is about right — and there must be at least some fog in the air. I favor thick fog that gradually clears as the morning develops, though on this morning it was thinning even as the sunrise began. The raucous sounds of the birds — mostly geese and cranes — are everywhere, and here and there small groups take off and fly past. If a faint view of the High Sierra emerges, as in this photograph, it is even better.

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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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

Dormant Trees, Granite

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Dormant Trees, Granite
A granite cliff towers above dormant trees along the Merced River, Yosemite Valley

Dormant Trees, Granite. Yosemite Valley, California. February 25, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A granite cliff towers above dormant trees along the Merced River, Yosemite Valley

Winter can produce a softer and subtler Yosemite Valley, one that can sometimes be just a bit tricky to photograph. Perhaps the most obvious subjects in the winter are found on days when there is snow, or when storm clouds and mists shroud the cliffs and ridges. As a matter of fact, those are the things I’m usually hoping to find when I visit the Valley at this time of year.

But the true nature of the Valley in winter includes some subtler subjects, sometimes nearly devoid of the greens of spring and summer or the colors of fall. Truth be told, the meadows are brown and trees lose their leaves, the clouds can block or filter the light, and many sections of the surrounding cliffs can be in shadow. This photograph is such a scene — winter dormant trees along the banks of the Merced River, brown meadows underneath and stretching beyond, and the steel-gray colors of shadowed granite 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.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

21 Choices

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21 Choices
A Pasadena street corner on a winter afternoon

21 Choices. Pasadena, California. January 6, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Pasadena street corner on a winter afternoon

To some extent, although I’ll write a bit about it, this is one of those photographs that you’ll need to sort out for yourself. It may seem like a snapshot, or it may seem like something else, or it might seem like both.

Just after New Years Day we went to Southern California for a few days, driving down the Coast Highway (before the winter storms closed it) and then visiting areas at the northern and southern ends of the Los Angeles Basin. We stayed in Pasadena, a place I hadn’t visited for a while and one that I don’t know all that well, aside from the typical Californian’s knowledge of a place that comes from driving past on freeways. Because we had some unscheduled time we ended up wandering in downtown Pasadena a bit, and I had time to begin to get a bit of a feeling for the place, at least as it is in mid-winter light of the sort in this photograph.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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.