Tag Archives: alpine

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Timberline Lake And Reflections

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Timberline Lake And Reflections
A timberline lake in 20 Lakes Basin reflects the face of a tall granite ridge

Timberline Lake And Reflections. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A timberline lake in 20 Lakes Basin reflects the face of a tall granite ridge

This scene gets up close and personal with the crest of the Sierra Nevada, along the boundary country just northeast of Yosemite National Park. The lake is just below the tree line, so the forest here is very sparse and the trees small. Just beyond the lake the terrain becomes so rocky that the trees basically end.

I hiked here early on mid-July morning, starting at dawn and having the trail and this lake almost entirely to myself — at the height of Sierra summer tourist season! (One group did pass by on a nearby trail, but otherwise no one else was there.) The reflections in this lake of the steep and rocky terrain beyond are marvelous, and I considered a square format crop that eliminates the “distracting” sky and peak — and I still may do that!

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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

Lake, Forest, Alpine Ridge

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Lake, Forest, Alpine Ridge
A rugged alpine ridge rises across the valley from a subalpine lake and surrounding forest

Lake, Forest, Alpine Ridge. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A rugged alpine ridge rises across the valley from a subalpine lake and surrounding forest

I have backpacked the Sierra Nevada for decades, and for much of that time I regarded the activity as primarily one about moving through the landscape. Days were spent walking through and past glorious scenery, often getting to camp in time to embark on the activities of finding a campsite, setting up a tent, figuring out food storage, filtering water, fixing and eating dinner, cleaning up… and sleeping. There was time to sit and look, but only when the other tasks were finished. Sometime later in my backpacking career I began to understand the value of sitting in one place and soaking it in, and eventually I even managed to convince myself to camp in one spot for more than one night, allowing me to slow down to match the natural rhythms of the place.

On some of the backcountry photography expeditions I’ve done more recently we have tended to set up a base camp and stay in one place for as long as a week. The experience has been surprising and remarkable. On early trips of this sort I would worry at first about how I could possibly find enough to do in one spot for a week. Invariably, by the final day of the visit I discovered that it had not been enough time! This photograph comes from one of these trips, where we camped in one location for a week, spending each day exploring near and far, and getting to know the landscape and light intimately. This photograph was made less than five minutes from camp, at a time of day when a Serious Backpacker would already by on the trail… and perhaps missing such quiet morning moments.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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: Fall, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Groves, Sierra Crest

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Aspen Groves, Sierra Crest
Aspen groves follow the contours of foothills rising toward the Sierra Nevada crest.

Aspen Groves, Sierra Crest. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 4, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Aspen groves follow the contours of foothills rising toward the Sierra Nevada crest.

Just for fun… a fall color photography in black and white! I have the greatest respect for our photographer predecessors who set about photographing the beauty of fall color with only monochromatic shades to work with. It can be done, but it isn’t quite as straightforward as photographing fall color with today’s capable digital cameras. It is all too easy to let those colorful leaves end up having monochromatic tones that aren’t that much different from the same trees in the green season! Light helps, as does some selective use of filters — glass filters in the old days and post-processing analogs applied to digital files today.

I made this photograph close to a rather popular fall color photography location, though the exact location isn’t quite in the usual spot. It presented a challenge or two that I won’t describe here. The light was, to use the old euphemism, “interesting” at this point. The late afternoon light was coming in at a low angle and lighting up the trees nicely, but the sky was a bit tricky. Some high clouds were floating over the Sierra crest peaks, and their brightness posed a dynamic range challenge while their shadows fell across the peaks. There are many things I like about this scene — the way the curving forms of the groves lead away and up toward the Sierra crest peak, the long shadows, the alternation of sunlit ridge and darker valleys, and those distant peaks with a bit of autumn snow dusting their summits.

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

Trees, Tarn, Mountains

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Trees, Tarn, Mountains
Late afternoon skies darken above alpine peaks and a meadow holding a small reflecting tarn

Trees, Tarn, Mountains. John Muir Wilderness, California. August 28, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late afternoon skies darken above alpine peaks and a meadow holding a small reflecting tarn

No, I’m still not finished with the photographs from our nine-day photographic sojourn into the John Muir Wilderness, on which a group of us base camped in a stunning backcountry location and wandered off daily to photograph the area. Today, on a morning that is the first one of the season to feel winter-like here, it seems both odd and pleasant to think back on these summer days of photography, friends, sun, thunder showers, green meadows and flowers, cross-country hikes into high places, and more.

This meadow and its tarn were located perhaps 10-15 minutes above the location of our camp, and once we “discovered” the place we visited almost daily. It was a stunning place, filled with green meadow plants and wildflowers and surrounded by alpine scenery. The mountains to our south were a daily presence as they rose on the other side of a deep river canyon, and I had wanted to photograph this small tarn since I first saw it. That became my focus on this visit, and this photograph is one of several in which I tried to combine the meadow, tarn, small trees, and the distant view.

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.