Tag Archives: atmosphere

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

Meadow’s Edge, Lembert Dome, and Mount Dana

September 26, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees grow at the edges of Tuolumne Meadows as Lembert Dome and Mount Dana rise beyond, Yosemite National Park.

This photograph includes a bunch of Tuolumne Meadows icons familiar to most anyone who has spent time there – and I’ve spent a lot of time in and around this area over the years! The first obvious icon is the meadow itself, here near the “lower” section before it turns away from the highway and the Tuolumne River heads off towards Glen Aulin and eventually to the abomination of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The two prominences rising beyond the meadow are both icon. The closer of the two is Lembert Dome, well known to almost all visitors, especially the many who have hiked to its summit to experience the panoramic view of the area. Beyond Lembert Dome is Mount Dana, the second-highest peak in Yosemite. It is located on the eastern boundary of the park right above the entrance at Tioga Pass. For me, there are other icons in this scene as well, though they may be more personal. The lodgepole pine trees silhouetted along the right edge of the frame are found all over the region. The backlit haze, formed as the morning sun just clears the Sierra crest, is a condition that I strongly identify with Tuolumne – and it is a frequent photographic subject.

This simple shot posed some real technical challenges. Perhaps most obviously, the scene includes an extremely large dynamic range between the very bright areas of sunlit haze along the right shoulder of Mount Dana and the dark silhouettes of the backlit trees. In some situations I might make two exposures and blend them in post, but that does not work so well when thing tree trunks and branches stand against the sky. This is a single exposure that just barely contained the brightest tones, and from which I was able to recover just enough detail in the shadows. The composition might seem a bit odd to some, with the dark mass of the silhouetted trees very close to the right edge of the frame. The idea was to create a sense that the trees, or at least an observer among the trees, is looking out from them into the light-filled open space of the meadow.

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

Trees and Meadow, Morning

September 19, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late season golden morning light on trees at the edge of Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

It is probably no secret that there are certain kinds of light that especially appeal to me. Among my favorite is early morning sunlight, shining through a bit of atmospheric haze, and illuminating trees. On top of that, I’m a big fan of the warm golden-brown tones of September and autumn in the Sierra. With all of that in mind, how could I resist this subject?

I was in Tuolumne Meadows for a couple of nights in mid-September, with two main goals in mind. First, I wanted to spend a few days at altitude before heading over to the east side to meet friends for a short pack trip up into McGee Canyon. Second – or perhaps this should be first – I wanted to do some photography in the area along Tioga Pass Road between roughly Olmsted Point and the pass itself. I arrived late the first day, with just enough time to set up camp, grab something to eat, and head out to shoot the evening light. I was up reasonably early the next morning and out and about looking for subjects before the sun came up. I decided to stick fairly close to the meadows this time, and after heading to the west end and looking back I saw this beautiful warm light coming across the meadow as the sun topped the crest near Mount Dana, and silhouetting a small group of tall trees at the meadow’s edge.

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Textures

Cloud Forms #3 – September 16, 2012

September 18, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening sky above Olmsted Point in the Yosemite Sierra.

On my return from a mid-September eastern Sierra backpack trip, I again passed through Yosemite National Park on the Tioga Pass Road. By a bit of luck combined with some planning, I managed to time of my passage so that I could be there during the last hour or so of the day, figuring I might try to grab a few last opportunistic photographs before driving back to the Bay Area after dark. With that long, dark drive ahead of me, I decided to aim for a stopping point a bit further west along the route, and I stopped about a half hour before sunset at Olmsted Point.

Although I have a number of photographs of the iconic image of the “backside” of Half Dome from this location, the lighting here can be interesting enough that I’ll stop and try “one more time” if I happen to be there. As is often the case, the lighting did not initially appear too promising. The typical autumn wildfire haze was in the air, lending a bit of a yellow/brown color to the hazy lower atmosphere, and the higher clouds seems thin. But if there is one thing that I (and just about any other landscape photographer!) have learned by now, it is that the last minutes of daylight {and the first moments after the sun sets} can be full of surprises. I began with the practical step of scoping out a composition of the iconic dome, but then I turned my attention to lots of other subjects that surround Olmsted Point: the sparse trees ascending the granite slabs across the roadway, higher ridges across Tenaya Canyon and in the opposite direction, the Sierra crest around Mount Conness, and the sky. For a brief moment after the sunlight had left Olmsted Point, the final rays passed through atmosphere near the western horizon and lit up the patterned layers of clouds and drifting wildfire smoke.

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

Morning, Near Olmsted Point

August 22, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning light on granite and sparse trees near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park

This is another photograph from 2011 on a late-July trip to the Yosemite high country along Tioga Pass Road. The photo was made in morning light in the general area of Olmsted Point, where a series of granite domes and ridges lines up roughly parallel to Tenaya Canyon and in the morning the brightly back-lit haze can create a sense of spatial depth and mute the details of the formations further away.

I suppose that backlit trees like this one are a bit of a theme for me – yet another Sierra subject I cannot resist photographing! The central tree is, obviously, just one of many thousands of trees right here but since it was the closest one it served as my subject. The tree is set in granite slabs topped with glacial erratics left behind when the last glaciation ended, and the slabs are mostly very solid, making the it all the more amazing that such a large and upright tree can grow here. Another ridge rises in the middle distance, and beyond it yet another ridge whose details are nearly invisible in the morning light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: atmosphere

Meadow’s Edge, Lembert Dome, and Mount Dana

Trees and Meadow, Morning

Cloud Forms #3 – September 16, 2012

Morning, Near Olmsted Point

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