Tag Archives: alpine

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Late Season Wildflowers

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Late Season Wildflowers
A patch of late-August lupine flowers in the John Muir Wilderness

Late Season Wildflowers. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A patch of late-August lupine flowers in the John Muir Wilderness.

Over the years I’ve seen some outlier seasons in the Sierra Nevada. A few years ago we experienced a serious five-year drought that left the range dry very early in the season, producing summers that were mostly brown up high and autumns that featured stressed aspens. I’ve also experienced summers that followed extremely wet precipitation seasons, including several during which the high country really did not open until July. In those years there was snow around all summer, and even at the end of the season there were still flowing water, green meadows, and even wildflowers.

This summer fell into the latter category. Although last winter’s season started out looking dry, a series of strong storms arrived a bit later and produced a much larger than average snowpack. Once again, the opening of the high country was delayed, and when it did open up there was water everywhere. My recent visit was during the final few days of August and the first couple of days of September. Despite the late date, many areas were still green — especially in the well-watered valley we visited — and wildflowers were still blooming. Not far from our camp I found extensive patches of lupine in full bloom.

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

Ridge, Last Light

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Ridge, Last Light
The last evening light strikes the top of a Sierra crest ridge

Ridge, Last Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last evening light strikes the top of a Sierra crest ridge.

As a photographer of landscapes I like to think of myself as being something of a connoisseur of sunsets. Hey, I’ve seen a few of them! There is not denying that it is a special time of the day, just like dawn, when the landscape undergoes a rapid and often striking transformation, made more notable against the backdrop of daytime light that changes very slowly. As the day comes to an end the changes accelerate — shadows lengthen, the sun approaches the horizon or other blockage, the color of the light warms, and distant clouds and other features begin to affect the local scene. Quickly the light disappears, leaving some alpenglow if you are lucky, and then the transition slows again as darkness falls.

Over several evenings it became obvious that this ridge above our camp was the last one to get the sunlight. Since we were camped to the east of the Sierra Nevada crest, there was little full-on sunset light here. However, given the curved shape of the upper canyon and the high peaks on the crest, there were a few spots like this one that were open to the light coming from far to the west. On this evening some clouds assembled above the ridge, creating a more dramatic backdrop.

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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Locations, Sierra Nevada Fall Color

Sierra Nevada Fall Color – Coming Soon!

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This is an We’re just weeks away from Aspen Time as I write this eclectic and incomplete account of how I photograph Eastern Sierra Nevada fall aspen color. (Originally posted in September, 2009, and updated and slightly revised in varying degrees during successive aspen seasons — current update for fall 2019. Check the comments for other updates and notes. )

California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra
California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra

My fall color guidebook: “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra“ is available from Heyday Books. Order from Heyday Books and from Amazon. The book greatly expands and updates information in this article and elsewhere on my website. (Contact me directly, too — I may have some autographed copies to sell.)

Fading Autumn Color
Fading Autumn Color

During the latter part of August every year there always seems to be a day in the Sierra when I become aware that summer is coming to an end and fall is just around the corner. I’ve never quite identified the source of the feeling, but it is unmistakable when it happens. Perhaps a change in the light? Possibly something about the patterns of the wind? Maybe just that more and more places dry out and shift from green to brown and golden?

Of course, sometimes it is more obvious. I was in the Sierra during the final week of August in 2009, backpacking into Yosemite’s Ten Lakes Basin for a few days. It wasn’t hard to notice that the corn lily plants were dying and that many had taken on wild yellow/gold colors, or that some of the small meadow plants were beginning to turn red and yellow, or that some of the chaparral plants were losing a few leaves. By early September 2014 I was already seeing some aspens starting to pick up autumn color in a few places. When I revised the article in 2015 this day arrived early — we felt it during the first week of the August, perhaps due to the strange California weather that year. As I update this once again in 2019… it arrived later, following a very wet winter, spring, and summer, with wildflowers still blooming in early September!

So even when it is still summer by the calendar – and will be through most of September – my thoughts turn to fall once again. And that means I’m looking forward to the opportunity to photograph the incredible displays of aspen color in the eastern Sierra. (There are some aspens west of the crest as well – for example in the Carson Pass area – but the stands east of the crest are larger and more accessible.)

Since I’ve been visiting and photographing the aspens for some time, here are a few ideas and recommendations and locations for photographing them in the eastern Sierra. In no particular order:

Continue reading Sierra Nevada Fall Color – Coming Soon! →
Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Glaciated Terrain

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Glaciated Terrain
A Sierra Nevada scene including glaciated slabs, a shallow lake, and old moraines

Glaciated Terrain. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Sierra Nevada scene including glaciated slabs, a shallow lake, and old moraines.

There are quite a few “terrains” in the Sierra Nevada, ranging from foothills oak grasslands through the mid-elevation forest, and on up to the rocky alpine heights. Off all of them, I think my favorite is that found just below the treelike, where granite slabs are frequently interspersed with small trees and meadows, where you are rarely very far from water, and where evidence of the glacial heritage of the range are everywhere. There is virtually no element of this scene that doesn’t owe something to those glaciers — the smoothly rounded slabs of foreground granite, the lake lying in a scooped-out hollow where glaciers converged, the moraines (at least two of which appear in the photograph), and even the line between the tops of the glaciers and the more jagged formations that remained above their reach.

This photograph is also about light, and a more subtle form of it. I composed the scene to exclude as much of the direct morning sun as possible, but yet to take advantage of its presence nearby. One of the favorite forms of light among photographers is that which is reflected into the scene from nearby objects in bright light. Here much of the warmer colored light is of that sort, reflected into the scene from nearby slopes that were already in the direct morning sun. This light fills shadows and can add soft color to the cold tones in the shadows.

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.