Tag Archives: america

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake, Sky and Mountains

July 23, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mono Lake, shoreline, and mountains to the east.

The landscape of the Mono Lake Basin offers tremendous diversity — everything from intimate scenes of tufas and other features, to grand landscapes stretching off far into the distance. It is even a place to photograph wildlife in the context of landscape. In the right conditions the water becomes a subtle and varied element of the landscape, too.

I recently visited here early on a summer morning. I was staying back up in the Yosemite Sierra, but I decided to drive down for one morning of “east side” photography, including the lake and then some areas further south and east. At first I wasn’t too excited by the “empty” blue sky, but when I saw it as a counterpoint to the textured blue of the lake’s water I thought it deserved a photograph.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Barren Slopes

July 22, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Boulders scattered across the slopes of a rocky desert landscape

This bit of landscape is a familiar one for me. An odd hill stands in the middle of mostly level playa and near drifting sand — the hill is composed of a different and darker material and is in other ways not like the surroundings. A number of years ago I discovered that place provides some panoramic views of surrounding terrain that stretch off into the distance, and I often go there early in the morning or in the evening to photograph when conditions seem right.

On this evening I did go there, but decided to wander along its flank rather than go to the top. At the base of the western slopes the rugged and rocky terrain faced the sunset sky, muted by high clouds, and presented a series of shallow valleys leading off into the distance, punctuated by boulders.

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

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Tufa, Sky, Passing Birds

July 21, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small flock of birds flies above tufa towers and the vast expanse of Mono Lake beneath summer morning sky

It is easy to think of the tufa towers and being the iconic features of Mono Lake, and arguably they perhaps are. They are certainly the destination for many visitors to the lake, and I have often been to them before dawn to photograph the first light striking their forms. A small group of the towers are included in this photograph, too, though I don’t feel that they are necessarily the predominant feature here.

When I think of Mono Lake, other things come to mind before the tufas. One of the first associations is the immense space encompassed by the lake itself, the larger basin that contains it, and the huge expanse of sky overhead. Very close to that are two related non-visual associations — a great stillness (interrupted only perhaps by a few birds) and a profound silence. For me, this is a place to approach quietly and without hurry.

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

Twilight Clouds, Sierra Crest

July 20, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sierra Wave cloud above the Sierra Crest at dusk, Yosemite National Park

On an evening of suddenly stunning clouds, this was just about my final photograph. The event was the sort that I have learned to sometimes anticipate when the conditions are just right in the Sierra. Much earlier in the day I had noticed the edge of a high deck of clouds to the northeast, lined up very close to the crest. Such clouds can be examples of the Sierra Wave, a kind of line of clouds that forms above and along the crest, often producing amazing skies.

As I started out photographing in the meadow and worked my way toward its far end, I watched the double-deck wave cloud for developing form and color. Eventually it started to look like there was going to be the potential for a special show, so I headed back to the camera position of this photograph, where I expected to have a view that including the peaks of the Sierra crest, the foreground meadow, and the clouds themselves. Before long the sunset light lit the clouds in extremely intense colors. I continued photographing as the sun dropped below the horizon and the colors gradually became more subtle, as seen in this post-sunset photograph.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: america

Mono Lake, Sky and Mountains

Barren Slopes

Tufa, Sky, Passing Birds

Twilight Clouds, Sierra Crest

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