Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpine Lake and Sierra Crest Peaks

Image August 5, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The peaks of the Sierra Nevada crest tower above a reflecting alpine lake

This photograph is another from the northeast boundary country around Yosemite National Park — the park starts on the far side of the high ridge. I’ve always thought that his area deserves inclusion in the park since the scenery is as spectacular as inside the park, and today most of it is wilderness. I haven’t researched this, but I suspect that the explanation may have two parts. First, the crest of the Sierra was an obvious place to draw a boundary. Second, mining took place in this area, something that always makes the establishment of a park more complicated. That mining ended a long time ago, but you can still find traces.

This is the same lovely subalpine lake I wrote about earlier. I hiked here early in the morning, hitting the trail at dawn, and spent more than an hour slowly exploring this spot and making photographs. The air was still at times, so the reflections of the rugged and rocky ridge was often rather clear, and the symmetry of the reflected image was remarkable.

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

River and Forest, Evening

Image August 4, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light along the shores of the Tuolumne River

There are many little rituals that I have developed around making photographs. A few may be mine alone, but I have learned that others also engage in some similar processes. One has to do with the first photographs of any adventure. While sometimes a photograph simply leaps out at me, on other occasions it may take a while to get “warmed up” and start seeing. You have a choice — you can wait for inspiration to strike (sometimes for quite a while), or you can “prime the pump” and start making photographs. I generally prefer the latter.

On this trip I had arrived at my Tuolumne Meadows campsite in the afternoon. I set up camp, did a bunch of the usual camp stuff, then took a nap in order to compensate for getting up hours before dawn for the drive. Then I took a camera-free hike up to Elizabeth Lake. And, yes, once I got there I did regret leaving my camera gear behind! Returning from the hike, it was time to make a quick dinner and go start making photographs. I wandered out into the meadow and made a few quiet images of meadow, river, and forest… and the trip was officially underway.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dawn, Mono Lake and Sierra Crest

Image August 3, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Dawn light on the Sierra crest at South Tufa, Mono Lake

There is a bit of a story behind the choice to post this photograph today. And that story may help explain the posting of more than a few older photographs this month. Every December, like so many other photographers, I prepare a set of “favorite photographs” from the year that is about to conclude. (Something happened this past December and I was delayed in this process. One thing led to another and I never did post my annual set of favorites for 2017!) Part of my process for preparing the list of favorites is to go through ALL of my raw files from the year, and I often discover interesting work that I missed as I engage in this process. I didn’t do that either… so I’m now digging back into the older files to see what I missed. So expect a mixture of current and older work through August and possibly into early September.

To make things a bit more confusing, this photograph is even older! It comes from 2007. Once I get into this process of looking at old files, I never know where it will lead! I made the photograph on a lovely, quiet morning at Mono Lake, when the water was still and the first light was shining on the eastern Sierra Nevada.

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

From Meadow to Ridge

Image August 2, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sierra Nevada forest blankets slopes leading from Tuolumne Meadows toward cloud-backed alpine ridge

This scene is along the edge of Tuolumne Meadows, where a very large subalpine meadow system filled with boulders and domes is surrounded by forest interspersed with more granite intrusions and eventually rising to some very high peaks. I tend to be more aware of the non-forest elements here, but when I stop to pay attention to the trees I am always impressed by their extent as they rise toward the higher slopes.

But this photograph is, I think, really about the light. It was late in the day, and thunderstorm clouds had been building since the morning. They had peaked, and by this time there was a bit of clearing and light began to come into the scene through the openings in the clouds. Here the foreground forest is in the open light, while the distant ridge, being closer to the crest, was still receiving broken light.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Alpine Lake and Sierra Crest Peaks

River and Forest, Evening

Dawn, Mono Lake and Sierra Crest

From Meadow to Ridge

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