Tag Archives: base

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

Granite Face, New Snow

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Granite Face, New Snow
Granite Face, New Snow

Granite Face, New Snow. Yosemite Valley, California. March 1, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

New snow on ledges and trees at the base of the face of Half Dome

This photograph was made the morning after a Sierra winter storm had coated the high country of the Yosemite Sierra with a fresh coat of snow. The snow did not quite make it all the way down to the bottom of Yosemite Valley, but it covered most of the slopes, fissures, and trees of the walls and peaks around the Valley.

I don’t often photograph Half Dome—I can go days in the Valley without doing so at times—but I did photograph it a few times on this trip. At one point I photographed it wreathed in moving clouds and fog, barely visible. Here I photographed the famous face of the mountain, though I wanted to focus on the combination of new snow and small trees dwarfed by the giant and nearly smooth granite face, and to capture something of the cold, hard feeling of this winter view.

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.

Events, Gallery, News, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

A Reprise: “Fractured Granite, Reflections”

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Rock Wall, Reflections
Fractured Granite, Reflections

Today I am reprising a photograph that I shared previously since it is part of the Yosemite Renaissance XXIX exhibit opening this weekend in the Yosemite Museum Gallery in The Valley. 

An exhibition of contemporary art of Yosemite and the Sierra
Saturday, March 1 to Sunday, May 11, 2014
Yosemite Museum Gallery, Yosemite National Park

The first event of the show is tonight…

The public is invited to the
Awards Reception, Friday, February 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM

Perhaps I’ll see you there!

Now, to the text of the original post, plus a more recent addition…

Fractured Granite, Reflections. Kings Canyon National Park, California. September 15, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The base of a rugged granite wall reflected in the still surface of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake

A few days ago I returned from a 9-day trip into the back-country of Kings Canyon National Park. I was one of a group of four photographers who traveled to a remote location at about 11,000′, where we remained for more than five days, photographing the surrounding terrain morning and evening. We followed the common routine of such work – up before dawn and off to investigate and photograph some valley or lake, back by mid or late morning for breakfast, generally hanging out and doing camp chores during the midday period when the light is often less exciting, then back out in the late afternoon for a few more hours of exploration and photography before returning to camp for a post-sunset dinner. Unlike a typical backpack trip, where one rarely stays in the same place for long, we remained in the same camp for six nights, allowing us to really get to know the surrounding area very well.

With so much time, we were frequently able to return to places that we had already visited – perhaps coming back in the evening after a morning visit, returning to try again to catch a subject that didn’t have the right light the first time, or shooting the subject in various conditions ranging from clear skies to rain. This bit of interesting rock was next to a lake that I walked to on a number of occasions, and on this morning I arrived when the lake was still in shadow but illuminated by light reflected from nearby rock faces. Because it was so early the air was very still, allowing me to photograph this very sharp reflection of the fractured granite cliff where it entered the water. A bit of vegetation just above the waterline has taken on early fall colors.

Addendum: It occurred to me last week that there is a (perhaps tenuous?) connection between this photograph – with its theme of a vertical rock face above placid water – and this one by Ansel Adams that I had an early connection to: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/photographs/ansel-adams-lake-precipice-frozen-lake-and-5056399-details.aspx – I have a personal connection to the place, which I wrote about here: https://gdanmitchell.com/2010/01/14/a-photograph-exposed-submerged-boulders-precipice-lake

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.
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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fractured Granite, Reflections

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Rock Wall, Reflections
Fractured Granite, Reflections

Fractured Granite, Reflections. Kings Canyon National Park, California. September 15, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The base of a rugged granite wall reflected in the still surface of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake

A few days ago I returned from a 9-day trip into the back-country of Kings Canyon National Park. I was one of a group of four photographers who traveled to a remote location at about 11,000′, where we remained for more than five days, photographing the surrounding terrain morning and evening. We followed the common routine of such work – up before dawn and off to investigate and photograph some valley or lake, back by mid or late morning for breakfast, generally hanging out and doing camp chores during the midday period when the light is often less exciting, then back out in the late afternoon for a few more hours of exploration and photography before returning to camp for a post-sunset dinner. Unlike a typical backpack trip, where one rarely stays in the same place for long, we remained in the same camp for six nights, allowing us to really get to know the surrounding area very well.

With so much time, we were frequently able to return to places that we had already visited – perhaps coming back in the evening after a morning visit, returning to try again to catch a subject that didn’t have the right light the first time, or shooting the subject in various conditions ranging from clear skies to rain. This bit of interesting rock was next to a lake that I walked to on a number of occasions, and on this morning I arrived when the lake was still in shadow but illuminated by light reflected from nearby rock faces. Because it was so early the air was very still, allowing me to photograph this very sharp reflection of the fractured granite cliff where it entered the water. A bit of vegetation just above the waterline has taken on early fall colors.

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.
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.

Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Nature

Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle

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Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle
Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle

Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle. Near Königssee, Germany. July 14, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Momentary sunshine illuminates a grass-covered hill and small trees in front of Die Eiskapelle at the base of Der Watzmann, near Königssee, Germany

We hiked to this spot on one of the first days of our stay in the Schönau am Königssee area of Bavaria in Germany, where we stayed in an old, rambling farm-house for a week. Aside from the general charm of the area – conforming to many of the expectations of American visitors – there are a lot of special features around here: Berchtesgaden National Park and the Königssee itself, along with the views of the Bavarian Alps, including the classic peak of Der Watzmann, the second highest peak in Germany. We took the tourist boats up the length of the beautiful Königssee lake – which I think of as what Yosemite Valley might look like if it were filled with water – and disembarked at the start of the trail to Die Eiskapelle. This trail begins at the very civilized landing, with its outdoor cafe, beach, and lawns, and starts up the hill very gently. It soon enters the hardwood forest, narrows, steepens, and begins to feel more like the sorts of trails I’m familiar with from the American mountain west.

Die Eiskapelle is in a small, rocky valley at the base of a huge cliff dropping down from the eastern face of Der Watzmann. As I understand it, the permanent ice field seen at its base in this photograph is formed by repeated avalanches that come down this face. The July time frame of our visit usually is when I spend a lot of my time in the Sierra, and as wonderful as our trip to the UK and Europe was, at times I longed a bit for “my Sierra.” In the upper reaches of this trail, as the path disappeared and I was left to find my own route across bits of grassy meadow and rocky terrain to the base of the snow field, I felt as close to the Sierra as at any time on this trip – the feeling reminded me a bit of early season in my favorite terrain among the granite peaks right at timberline. And, momentarily returning to landscape photographer mode (despite using a small, handheld camera!), I paused here for some minutes, looking for a composition that would combine these small foreground trees with the ice field and then waiting for a bit of light from the broken clouds to move across this small grassy rise.

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.
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.