Tag Archives: backpack

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

Thunderstorm Over Barney Lake

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Thunderstorm Over Barney Lake
Thunderstorm Over Barney Lake

Thunderstorm Over Barney Lake. Near Mammoth Lakes, California. August 5, 2005. © Copyright 2005 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rain from an afternoon thunderstorm begins to fall above Barney Lake, in the eastern Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes, California.

This is yet another older photograph that I found again while reviewing nearly a decade of raw files recently. I actually have previously posted another similar photograph of this scene in the past, but I think this one is also effective and is somewhat different.

I came to this lake when I had to leave a group of friends with whom I was about four days into a 14-day backpacking trip in the central Sierra back in 2005. On day four I woke up feeling less that great and thought I might be coming down with some sort of “bug” that I didn’t want to deal with in the back-country, partly because we were about to enter a section of trail with no quick and easy way out, and also because I didn’t want to take a chance on slowing down or halting the rest of my party. So I bailed out on the morning of day five. The rest of the gang went south on the John Muir Trail while I backtracked to the north and exited over Duck Pass.

I recall the day fairly well – perhaps because I travelled the trail twice in two days! It was easy hiking back along the JMT to the turnoff to the pass, where I paused to enjoy the view of Duck Lake. As I began the ascent to the pass above the lake, thunderstorms quickly developed, and I recall being surprised when the rain started much more quickly and much sooner than I had predicted. I believe I had to duck (no pun intended) beneath a nearby tree and quickly take out rain gear and pack cover before moving on in the rain. After I crossed the pass and started the descent towards Mammoth Lakes, the storm moved elsewhere and rays of light broke over Barney Lake below the pass where I paused to make a few photographs of this light against the backdrop of more distant peaks and falling rain.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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

Boulders and Trees, Lower Young Lake

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Boulders and Trees, Lower Young Lake
Boulders and Trees, Lower Young Lake

Boulders and Trees, Lower Young Lake. Yosemite National Park. September 14, 2010. © Copyright 2010 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Subalpine forest strewn with granite boulders in morning light, Lower Young Lake.

This photograph comes from late in last year’s backpacking season, on a mid-September trip to the Young Lakes Basin. As I have previously written, this area is a beautiful one to explore and is doubly beautiful for photographers since it is open to the western evening light. I made this photograph in the morning and not far from my campsite at the lower of the three Young Lakes. This sort of scene is no doubt familiar to anyone who has spent much time in the Sierra Nevada high country and has come to know these areas of mixed trees and meadows among fields of large granite boulders. I found this particular scene by leaving the trail behind and exploring more widely around the shoreline of the lake.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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

Rocky Shoreline, Lower Young Lake

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Rocky Shoreline, Lower Young Lake
Rocky Shoreline, Lower Young Lake

Rocky Shoreline, Lower Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 14, 2010. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light shines through the forest on the rocky shoreline of Lower Young Lake, Yosemite National Park.

The three Young Lakes are among my favorite places in the Yosemite back-country, and I visit them pretty much every summer. As I did when I made this photograph, I most often to in the last season – I like to visit after Labor Day weekend, when the crowds begin to diminish, the weather is a bit cooler, fall colors begin, and everything in the Sierra seems to slow down in anticipation of the coming winter.

On this visit I camped for something like three nights at the lower lake, and thus had time to photograph throughout the basin at different times of day. On this morning I got up early as I usually do, and spent a good part of the morning photographing along the shoreline of this lake, starting in the area near where most people camp and where the trail passes along the shoreline. A bit later I crossed the outlet stream and followed the rocky shoreline around to the far shore where the forest opens into rocky meadows near the main inlet stream.

In the photograph, the early light is coming from behind the trees in the shoreline forest and glancing off the tops of the boulders on the shore and in the shallow water. There were two photographic challenges in making this photograph. First, the dynamic range between the brightest sunlit spots on the rocks and the darker areas in the forest is extreme. In some cases I might resort to blending multiple exposures as a way to deal with this issue, but here I was able to recover enough detail from a single frame. The second issue relates to the color of the light. Specifically, while the sunlit areas have a fairly warm quality, the light in the shadows on the rocks and in the shaded areas of the forest turns out to be distinctly blue in a photograph. In fact, these areas end up looking much more blue than you would think if you were there – this has to do with the way our minds process what we see to make it more like what we think it should be… if that makes any sense. In any case, the decisions here ended up being about how much blue would be the right amount.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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

Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake, Sunset

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Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake, Sunset
Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake, Sunset

Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake, Sunset. Yosemite National Park, California. September 11, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Alpenglow lights Mount Conness above Lower Young Lake in the Yosemite National Park back-country.

I was recently going through a large portion of my archive in search of a variety of photographs of Mount Conness, a well-known peak along the northeast edge of Yosemite National Park on the crest of the Sierra. This is perhaps not the best known peak in Yosemite for most people – they are obviously going to be far more familiar with the cliffs and domes around Yosemite Valley or with Mount Lyell (the tallest peak in the park) or perhaps Mount Dana (second highest peak, and towering above the Tioga Pass entrance.) Mount Conness is found a bit further “north” along the crest, and while it may be less known, it is certainly no less visible once you know where to look. You can see it in the distance towering above Tenaya Lake if you stop at the iconic Olmsted Point overlook. It is visible from many places along the road to Tuolumne Meadows. Once you get away from roads and into the high country it can be seen from almost any high point with an open view in the direction of the peak, including places like Vogelsang High Sierra Camp.

This photograph was made on a quiet late-season evening at Lower Young Lake, a place that I return to frequently, most of the time in the off-season when fewer people are there and the fall colors of the high country are starting to appear. The peak (and many other features in this area) are beautifully illuminated late in the day as this high ridge is open without obstruction to the west. The light on the peak was magical on this evening, being colorful and contrasting with the higher and more drab clouds, but not being as gaudily bright as it can be on other evenings.

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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.