Tag Archives: atmosphere

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Canyon, Haze

October 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Afternoon haze fills the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River

Westward flowing rivers, descending through deep canyons toward California’s Great Central Valley, are a major feature of the Sierra Nevada. Although one major river, the Kern, heads south and many smaller creeks take a short route down the eastern escarpment of the range, the gradual slope from the west means that the west side rivers often drain huge areas of the range and, though a combination of ancient glaciation and continuing river erosion, have cut many impressive canyons. Some are popular and frequently visited, such as Yosemite Valley and to a lesser extent Kings Canyon, but most of the others are not as well known.

On a hazy late afternoon I climbed the spine of some low granite ridges above the lake where we were camped and found myself looking directly down the course of the Tuolumne River as it makes its way through a deep and twisting canyon toward… sadly, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Fortunately, that abomination is not visible from this point, and instead the view is of a series of overlapping and receding ridges dropping to the bottom of the huge and remote canyon.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Glaciated Granite Landscape

October 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking through evening haze into the depths of a deep canyon of glaciated granite, Yosemite National Park

Near a lake in the Yosemite backcountry where we camped for five nights were many examples of the common Yosemite glacial granite slab terrain, with sparse trees and glacial erratic boulders on top of both broken granite and smooth glacial polish. The highest nearby area of this sort attracted us and we visited it many times in both morning and evening hours.

This area, which featured a couple of low domes separated by a saddle of broken granite, sat near the edge of a very large river canyon that leads away to the west. The photographic possibilities here could keep one busy for many days — even more than the 5 or so days we had to work here. In the evening the light of the setting sun shone up the length of the canyon, causing the atmosphere within to glow and lighting all sorts of domes and ridges within the canyon. Sitting at the edge of this huge open area we also had extensive views of further and higher mountains. On this evening I climbed to the top of one of the domes and pointed my camera down into the depths of this canyon, shooting across the top of a nearby ridge on which scattered trees were still in the last light.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Subalpine Lake, Forest, and Ridges

September 30, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on a forested subalpine lake backed by alpine peaks and ridges, Yosemite National Park

When photographing or even when just looking at the world as a photographer, there are certain things that consistently get my attention — and several of them appear in this straightforward Sierra scene. I’m a sucker for layers, and there we have quite a few: the foreground forest trees, the lake with its reflecting water, the forest rising up the slopes on the opposite shore toward a granite dome, and across a deep canyon that is not directly visible there are high, alpine peaks whose features are muted in the atmospheric haze. And, yes, that haze is another thing that I often look for when making photographs.

Like many photographers, I also have an eye for juxtapositions and relationships between shapes and angles and curves and lines. If I recall correctly, the first thing that drew my attention about this scene was not the obvious lake but was instead the relationship between the granite knob just beyond the lake and the shapes of the high ridge in the distance. In fact, I made a series of photographs of those two things at different times of day and from somewhat different locations. All of that aside, the photograph also portrays a more natural sort of light than the warm and saturated light that we often photograph closer to sunrise and sunset.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne

September 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Haze fills the westward view into the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River

Far below the location of this photograph lies one of the greatest travesties in the national park system — the abomination of the Hetch Hetchy dam and reservoir. I now understand the political pressures that led to the damming of this “second Yosemite” — San Francisco’s obsession with water following the 1906 great earthquake and the subsequent fire — but in retrospect this was a monumental offense to the purpose and goals of our great national parks. The Hetch Hetchy Valley had virtually everything that its more southerly neighbor has and which astound people from all over the world — towering cliffs, beautiful domes, forest and meadow along a great river on the valley floor, tall waterfalls. After years of absence from this prostituted place, I returned a year or two ago on an afternoon when I was heading home from the Sierra… and I felt only anger and disgust at the the damned dam.

But here, miles upstream, the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River is still a wilderness, protected from overcrowding by tall and steep walls and a narrow gorge. In the late afternoon I walked a ridge near the edge of the canyon and looked west into the maze of successive ridges that separate creeks that feed the river and made this photograph.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: atmosphere

Canyon, Haze

Glaciated Granite Landscape

Subalpine Lake, Forest, and Ridges

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne

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