Tag Archives: backpack

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

John Muir Trail, Yosemite

September 25, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The John Muir Trail crosses Cathedral Pass near Cathedral Peak on a late-summer morning

Late in the season in the Sierra backcountry the population begins to change. During the high season of July through Labor Day, when passes are usually clear of snow and when people are in the middle of their summer vacations, the backcountry is filled with backpackers of all sorts, though quite a few are weekend visitors out of a few days. The through-hikers are there, but they are outnumbered by the other folks. After Labor Day things begin to change, and I have a sense that a greater percentage of the backpackers are of the “serious” sort — the people who are out for longer trips, who are covering greater mileage, and who may visit some of the more out-of-the-way locations. Our photography trip into the Yosemite backcountry was during this period, and out camp was on a section of the John Muir Trail, so quite a few of these “hard-core” hikers passed through. (I enjoy talking to them, since I’ve been across almost all of the trails they were traversing.)

One morning I got up, as we always do on these trips, before dawn. I gradually worked my way up through a rocky forest/meadow behind our camp, climbing toward a saddle not far above our location and photographing along the way. Shortly before the saddle I caught sight of an actual trail heading up there, and I quickly figured out that it was the portion of the JMT that ran past our lake. I arrived at the saddle before the sun had risen far enough to light the beautiful meadow that extended beyond it, but knowing that the light would soon slant across the pass I set up and picked some possible compositions. Here I made a conscious choice to “document” this bit of the JMT as it crossed the pass and headed off toward the distant peak, and right as the first light bit the trail I made a series of photographs.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Family, Sierra Meadow

September 2, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A mother and sons in a High Sierra meadow near the Minarets

For some reason that I cannot quite recall, not too long ago I took an excursion through some old photographs from about a decade ago, from a time just after I had made most of the transition from film to digital photography. (This past week a friend asked if i had photographs from a 2005 trip, so I’ve been digging into this old work even more.) Back in these days I was slightly past my “wonder if digital is all that?” stage, and I was moving resolutely away from film and toward digital technologies. The results were becoming quite usable, though I was still shooting landscapes with a cropped sensor camera!

On this trip I joined up with my brother, his wife, and their three young sons. Although I had taken all of my children into the backcountry when they were young, those days were largely behind my by this point and I had almost forgotten what it is like to backpack with children. And my many solo trips back in these days had made me perhaps hyper self-reliant, to the point that I tended to let everyone fend for himself or herself. I recall being reminded of this by my brother who was bit less than pleased when I crossed a creek flooding portions of the meadow in this photograph and then kept going! Look closely and you may be able to see some of the rest of my party down in that meadow as twilight falls.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Three Backpackers, Alpine Terrain

December 6, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three backpackers hiking above timberline in the Southern Sierra Nevada wilderness, approach an alpine lake

This photograph is a bit unusual for me to share in that it isn’t particularly about the image as a photograph but more about the photograph as a record of a place and a time. It comes from a backpacking trip with friends into a remote section of my favorite part of the Sierra Nevada, the high and wild areas of the Southern Sierra within and around the Kern River’s upper drainage. This is an area that is not easily accessible — certainly not a lightweight weekend trip! — and where the terrain is unlike that elsewhere in the range. There is a huge and very high elevation plateau here, at or above timberline, with expansive views to multiple surrounding ranges, all of which feature peaks reaching to and above the 13,000′ to 14,000′ range. Any access route requires a long walk or passage over very difficult terrain, and sometimes involves both.

We entered the area by way of two high passes, one of which is over 13,000′ high, dropped onto the plateau, and walked to a favorite timberline camping location by a stream. (We would follow this stream up to the crest to exit via another high and difficult pass a few days later.) From here we left the main route and headed off into an area that none of us has visited before, an area with few trails and few visitors. This photograph evokes, for me at least, a number of sensations and recollections: what it is like to pass over difficult and nearly trail-less country with a group of like-minded friends, the sense of vast space in these open and rugged places, and the freeing feeling of passing over this country into places that I have not previously visited. Such high, open, rugged terrain is not for everyone — but I love it!

Our group has been into this area several times, and over a period of decades I had passed though many times.

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.

Morning Musings

Backcountry Photography, Two Ways (Morning Musings 9/24/14)

September 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The subject of selecting (and carrying!) photographic equipment for backpacking trips came up in a recent conversation. There’s a lot I could say about this, since I’ve backpacked for decades and often prefer to do certain kinds of landscape photography while traveling on foot, mostly in the Sierra. Actually, I not only could say a lot about this — I have! An extensive article at this website goes over a lot of important things related to combining backpacking and serious landscape photography: My Backpacking Photography Kit. Take a look at the article if you want a lot of details.

The main issues involve how to incorporate the weight/bulk of serious camera equipment into a load that also includes your food and shelter and much more, how to best make use of the photography equipment in the backcountry, how to approach the process of photographing “out there,” which equipment to use, and a few other things. Basically, unless you are young and very fit and willing to accept a great deal of pain from a huge load… you are likely to have to make some compromises and adjustments in both the backpacking equipment and the photographic equipment you carry. The good news is that the compromises are quite doable, and that you can still make fine photographs in areas that you probably can’t get to in any other way.

A related question had to do with a different way to get into the back county that I’ve used during the past two seasons, namely support by pack animals. Left to my own devices, I probably would not have tried this — at least not for a few more years! However, I’ve recently had the wonderful opportunity to join some other photographers who have been traveling into (mostly) the Yosemite backcountry for nearly 15 years every summer to make beautiful photographs. (See a video about them here and take a look at their beautiful book: “First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness.”) When they started, large format and medium format film cameras were the norm for this sort of serious work, more or less necessitating pack train support if they were to stay out for any length of time — and they often went out for a week or two at a time.

Last year was my first time being part of a pack train supported backcountry trip, and I initially felt almost a bit guilty about it — as a person who has enjoyed walking all over the Sierra backcountry for decades. Continue reading Backcountry Photography, Two Ways (Morning Musings 9/24/14) →

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: backpack

John Muir Trail, Yosemite

Family, Sierra Meadow

Three Backpackers, Alpine Terrain

Backcountry Photography, Two Ways (Morning Musings 9/24/14)

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