Tag Archives: autumn

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Fog, San Francisco, Dawn

December 20, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Winter fog illuminated by dawn light engulfs the skyline of San Francisco.

The conditions changed radically during the half hour or so during which I stopped on my way to Muir Woods to photograph the San Francisco skyline from above the Golden Gate Bridge. I was initially concerned that the morning would be too clear, since I am usually more interested in scenes with varied atmosphere. When I arrived it was mostly clear, though there was a bit of low fog out over the bay and some low clouds clustered above San Francisco, especially the downtown area where the tops of buildings were in the clouds.

I made a series of photographs of the skyline using my longest lens – others may appear here before long. This was one of the last ones I was able to make as the clouds thickened and eventually blocked my view completely. (What had started as a largely bright and clear early morning eventually evolved into a very foggy scene.)

This photograph is 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: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, Dunderberg Road

December 15, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dense grove of thick and twisy aspens growing along Dunderberg Road in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

This just may be my final new aspen photograph from the 2010 season in the eastern Sierra. (Then again, I do go through all of my raw files during the final couple of weeks of the year, and who knows what might turn up!)

The photograph was made late in the day along the dirt track of Dunderberg Road in a grove of trees that I have visited in the past. Aspen trees can assume a seemingly infinite variety of forms, ranging from the groves of tall and slender trees growing in near perfect symmetry to stunted and twisted specimens that seem more like shrubs than trees. In this grove the trees seem to have endured some real stress – they have thick and strong trunks, but the trees are not tall and the trunks are gnarled and twisted in all sorts of crazy directions. Often when you see a trunk as thick as this one you would expect the tree to be quite tall… but not here.

This photograph is 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: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Fog-Shrouded Curving Ridges, Yosemite Valley

December 14, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees and rocks emerge from fog flowing over curving ridges on the rim of Yosemite Valley during an autumn storm.

This may be the final photograph from the “fog shrouded cliffs” series that came from my late October visit to Yosemite Valley during a fall storm. Since I’ve described this series in some detail previously, I’ll try to keep this comment short. I initially had my eye on the pinnacle at the lower left, and it became a more prominent subject in other photographs in this series. But as I photographed it I was attracted to the angles formed by the foreground ridge rising from left to right and the upper ridge beyond rising the opposite direction. (I think it is the same ridge, with the two sections joined directly above the pinnacle.) The fog/clouds were in constant motion, at one moment almost completely obscuring the scene and a moment later revealing portions of the landscape. For a brief instant the pinnacle stood clear of the clouds and bot sections of the upper ridge were visible.

This photograph is 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: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Mount Tom, Late Afternoon Light in Round Valley

December 8, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Mount Tom rises above Round Valley as afternoon autumn light falls on trees and pastures.

I drive past this spot every time I pass through the Bishop area in the eastern Sierra. Descending toward Bishop, Highway 395 passes through Round Valley, and I am always intrigued by the rangeland in this area, the trees that grow in the pastures, and the steep eastern slopes of the Sierra beyond. I have an image of these trees with fall colors backed by the lower slopes of the mountains… but that is a photograph that so far only exists in my mind! At some point I want to find time to really photograph this spot, but in the meantime I often stop and occasionally explore here a bit as I pass through.

My early October visit was a bit too early for real fall color in Round Valley, though a few trees were starting to turn here and there. As I drove north from the Bishop area I wasn’t expecting really spectacular color, but as I started up the grade that leaves this valley I caught a glimpse of warm light on these trees as the sun was about to drop behind the ridge. I didn’t quite have time to pull over and turn around so I continued up the road a distance and finally located a turn-around, reversed direction, and headed back down to the spot where I had seen this light. It was almost gone when I arrived, even though it had only been a few minutes. Using the lens that was already on the camera I quickly set up my tripod and managed a few exposures as the light left the groves of trees in the foreground.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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