Tag Archives: atmosphere

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Tree, Morning Light

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Aspen Tree, Morning Light - An aspen tree with morning backlight, photographed high above Bishop Creek Canyon
An aspen tree with morning backlight, photographed high above Bishop Creek Canyon

Aspen Tree, Morning Light. Bishop Canyon, California. October 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An aspen tree with morning backlight, photographed high above Bishop Creek Canyon

I’m continuing to indulge in my fascination with back-lit subjects today. This solitary aspen tree was located in an odd, out-of-the-way spot in the North Lake area, high in the Bishop Creek drainage. I had finished shooting at the lake and in the nearby aspen groves when I got the idea of walking the approach road a bit and finding a spot with a view to the canyon far below and to its shadowed walls on the far side of the canyon. For the sort of shot I had in mind, almost any small aspen tree would do as long as it was in the right place with the right background, and you would not think of this one as being anything special if you saw it – it is small, located on a dry and rocky section of hillside, and among a few other scattered small trees. However, it turned out to have what I wanted – a clear shot of the shadowed far hillside for background, separation from other trees, a few remaining leaves, and that backlight.

Photographing a location like North Lake can be an interesting experience. It holds at least a couple of the iconic Sierra autumn scenes with which many are familiar. (You can often find workshop participants lined up along a particular beautiful spot along the shoreline.) As with so many such subjects, most start with those impressive and familiar views – and they are worthy of photographs. But it is equally true that return visits to such a place, especially when they lead to more thorough observation, turn up a lot of interesting subjects that are not those familiar ones that first attracted our attention and lead to a much more complete knowledge of the place.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Beach Walker, Mendocino Coast

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Beach Walker, Mendocino Coast
“Beach Walker, Mendocino Coast” — A person walks across a beach on the rugged Mendocino coast at sunset.

This photograph is from last fall, during a late-October trip to the Mendocino area of the northern California coast. The Mendocino coast is an area I have known about for some time, but which I have not visited that much at all. (It is among a few areas of California that I’ll sometime admit that I have not yet gotten to know. Oddly, there are large swaths of far northern California that are more or less blanks on my map. I need to fix this!) We had about three days in the area, and since it was brand new to use we did a fair amount of more or less aimless exploring.

One one afternoon we decided to head north to and beyond Fort Bragg, which is located just a few miles above Mendocino itself, where we were staying. We continued north a ways until the road turned inland and away from the coastline. After stopping there to make some photographs of a forested area we began to head back towards Mendocino. As we drove the light became more and more interesting. The generally gentler light of late October began to be enhanced to the soft quality of coastal light and by the late hour, and as we descended to this small beach I looked to my right and saw this beautiful bit of light and shadow. We quickly stopped and I pulled out camera and tripod and worked essentially from the back of the car where we had stopped. I had only a few quick moments to photograph this scene before the sun dipped to the horizon and the light was gone.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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

Tuolumne Meadows, Lembert Dome, and Mount Dana

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Tuolumne Meadows, Lembert Dome, and Mount Dana - Lembert Dome and the more distant Mount Dana rise above Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park
Lembert Dome and the more distant Mount Dana rise above Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park

Tuolumne Meadows, Lembert Dome, and Mount Dana. Yosemite National Park, California. September 13, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lembert Dome and the more distant Mount Dana rise above Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park

This photograph is from my mid-September trip to the Sierra – I spent the first couple of days camped at Tuolumne Meadows before heading over to the “east side” to meet friends for a short pack trip up into McGee Canyon. The photograph was made from what might be described as the central meadow, shooting across a bend in the Tuolumne River, over a band of forest trees, with first Lembert Dome and then Mount Dana rising beyond. Lembert is the well-known dome that towers above the east end of the meadow, and there is a popular trail to the panoramic views at its summit. Mount Dana is the second-tallest peak in the park, being less than 100 feet shorter than Mt. Lyell. Dana sits on the eastern boundary of the park, along the Sierra crest right above Tioga Pass.

Although it was not longer early (at least by my standards) morning when I made this photograph, the typical early morning haze was still present. At this time of year it is a combination of the campfires at Tuolumne Meadows (a relatively small contributor on this morning), typical late season wild-fire smoke, and a bit of natural atmospheric haze. When backlit, this haze can almost glow, and while it does mute the contrast and details on more distant subjects, it also can accentuate the sense of distance through atmospheric recession. I chose to go with a black and white rendition of this scene for several reasons. One, frankly, is just because I felt like it! But on top of that, I like the way that monochrome can perhaps abstract the shapes and lines of the scene a bit more. And in this case, I ended up feeling that shades of gray might be more effective than the particular not-very-exciting color combinations in the scene!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Trees and Cliff, Morning

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Trees and Cliff, Morning - Morning light spills over a high ridge to back light trees near Steelhead Lake.
Morning light spills over a high ridge to back light trees near Steelhead Lake.

Trees and Cliff, Morning. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. September 16. 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light spills over a high ridge to back light trees near Steelhead Lake.

This photograph was made from a point perhaps ten feet (or less!) from my bivy sack. We were camped at out-of-the-way Steelhead Lake, up above McGee Canyon and off the main trail to McGee Lakes and McGee Pass. While I had looked up McGee Canyon from the trailhead before – almost every year while photographing aspens, in fact – this was the first time that I had backpacked up this route and had a chance to actually explore the area. We ended up staying at this lake for two nights, providing time to do a bit of exploration and to see certain subjects that I might have missed with a shorter visit.

I had seen and photographed (though in a different way) this little clump of lakeside trees the morning before, but after thinking about them a bit more I felt that I’d like to shoot them again the next morning. The light at this lake is a bit tricky in that there is a very high ridge to the south and east that blocks the light until quite late in the morning. No morning golden hour shots at this lake! The ridge holds two of the four “railroad baron” peaks that surround Pioneer Basin – Crocker and Stanford. (The other two are Hopkins and Huntington.) A few years ago I had investigated Pioneer Basin on a separate trip and had stood on top of this very ridge and looked down towards this year’s camp. In any case, I had an idea to shoot the trees against backlight, and almost as soon as the sun appeared above this ridge I went to work. I had to shoot essentially straight into the sun in order to get the glowing atmosphere in the canyon beyond the first ridge, and even with a long focal length I was barely able to keep my hand out of the frame as I shaded to front of the lens.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.