Tag Archives: alpine

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Last Light, Stormy Sky

September 13, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dark storm clouds beyond meadows and Sierra Nevada peaks and ridges.

During our late August and early September foray into the John Muir Wilderness of the eastern Sierra Nevada we were fortunate to have “interesting” weather. While we had our share of typical Sierra blue sky days, we also had clouds, ranging from the sort that drift benignly across the sky to those that bring rain, hail, thunder and lightning. While the idea of dealing with rain, occasionally briefly heavy, in the backcountry might not sound all that appealing, from a photography point of view the weather almost always makes for more interesting conditions. It also provides a wonderful topic for camp conversations as we try to guess what will happen and when.

This evening’s conversation almost certainly involved both the beautiful light and the thunderstorm hovering beyond the ridge to our south, a storm that turned the sky dramatically darker beyond the light on the ridge. While our camp was more or less hidden in forest on top of a moraine — we try to minimize the visual intrusion of our camp on the landscape — we were repeatedly drawn to nearby open areas. Right below us was a lake and surrounding meadow, and not far above our location the trees thinned and the landscape opened up. This photograph was made from a meadow in that higher area, a place we visited repeatedly.

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

Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Tree Line

September 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Near tree line in the North Cascades, Washington

I have been in the Seattle area for a few days — heading home later today — and getting out to do a bit of photography, with subjects ranging from downtown Seattle street photography to landscapes in the Cascades range. Yesterday the weather was looking good (sun!) and I had the full day free, so I headed up to the Artist Point area in the North Cascades near Mount Baker.

Familiarity with a particular mountain range, in my case the Sierra Nevada, makes the different characteristics of other ranges stand out. The Cascades and the Sierra are both spectacular mountain ranges, but the similarities largely end there. Several things always impress me about this Pacific Northwest mountain range: the suddenness of their rise above forested valleys, the quality of the atmosphere and light (from clouds and lower angle sunlight), the much wetter climate, the lack of granite, and the proximity of big glaciers — they often appear barely above the level of the highest trees and they cover the upper slopes of the highest peaks. (California glaciers are most vestigial, just large enough that we can happily claim to have a few.) This visit was brief — a matter of a few hours — but I managed to get out and wander a bit and make a few photographs. This small clump of trees was catching late-afternoon sunlight filtered through high clouds, with a backdrop of a large valley between my position and the slopes rising to Mount Baker.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpenglow, Ridge and Valley

September 7, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last alpenglow light of the evening comes to an alpine ridge and valley under a cloudy sky, John Muir Wilderness

These backcountry Sierra Nevada photographic expeditions make for long days, though by the end of the summer the sun sets earlier, and we frequently found ourselves in the tent by 8:30 or even earlier. The days start early — up before dawn, and how much before dawn depends on each person’s objective for the “morning shift.” We photograph for a few hours and then the less interesting midday light brings us to a stop — and we reassemble in camp for coffee and breakfast and conversation. Later in the day, perhaps by around 4:00 in the afternoon, it is time to head out once again, this time looking for subjects in evening light.

I made this photograph on one of these evening outings. We had gone to a beautiful meadow at a slightly higher elevation, in a place where the meadow is overlooked by some rocky benches and where views to the open country to the south were alpine and breathtaking. As the evening light came on and the shadows rose up the peaks, I had my eyes on the sun/shadow line as it ascended this hanging valley. Eventually the light lingered momentarily on the highest ridges before it rose to the top of the peaks and disappeared.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpine Lake, Morning

August 10, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary sunrise angler stands on shoreline rocks at an alpine Sierra Nevada lake reflecting a nearby peak

During the first weekend of August I joined a group of friends for a quick backpacking trip into the eastern Sierra Nevada along the northeastern boundary of Yosemite National Park. This wasn’t primarily a photography trip so I went light, carrying a smaller system with only one lens and packing a very small tripod. The first day of the trip was, as we like to say, “interesting.” We woke up to cloudy skies that virtually guaranteed rain, and that guarantee was fulfilled in the late afternoon: I had just time to set up my tend before three hours of rain commenced! The next morning was clear, and after drying out I headed on up the trail to this beautiful lake along the crest.

After five years of historic drought and the resultant loss of permanent snow fields and damaged to vegetation, it is wonderful this year to see the changes created by last winter’s record snowfall. There are still snow banks everywhere, and even in August there were many snow crossings. On the morning after our night at this lake I got up at dawn and walked to a high place with a panoramic view of the lake and its surroundings. Just as the first sunlight began to stream across the shoulder of the peak across the lake a lone angler came to the shoreline and (thank you!) began to fish from a granite outcropping, framed against the reflection of the peak and morning sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: alpine

Last Light, Stormy Sky

Tree Line

Alpenglow, Ridge and Valley

Alpine Lake, Morning

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