Tag Archives: beams

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

The Valley, Morning Sun And Clouds

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The Valley, Morning Sun And Clouds
Clouds from a passing weather front break up over Yosemite Valley as sun rises above Sentinel Dome

The Valley, Morning Sun And Clouds. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clouds from a passing weather front break up over Yosemite Valley as sun rises above Sentinel Dome

I confess that I’m often tempted to title photographs of this subject, “Yet Another Clearing Storm.” The subject is, to say the least, done a lot! The location is accessible, the view is tremendous (even if you’ve seen it a hundred times), storms clear in dramatic fashion. Sometimes I just have to stop and photograph it. Again. This does, however, bring to mind the famous comment that one photographer offered when asked by a neophyte if he had any advice about photographing from Tunnel View: “Don’t,” he replied. Yet we do. It can be a sort of guilty pleasure, and on a number of beautiful winter evenings I’ve run into friends there.

The light on this morning was something of a surprise — given what I had seen in the first predawn light I expected gray overcast. But as I came down toward the Valley I began to see hopeful signs — a bit of a glow from the east that suggested breaks beyond the edge of the cloud shield. I arrived here just before the clouds began to open up. I almost didn’t photograph — I first walked over without my equipment thinking it might be a quick stop before moving on. But it soon began to look more and more like the light might become even more interesting, so I raced back to my car and grabbed my camera, lenses, and tripod. Soon the morning sun rose over Sentinel Dome, intermittently breaking through the clouds and sending beams of soft light across and into the Valley.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon

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Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon
Morning light on clearing clouds, Merced River Canyon and Lower Yosemite Valley

Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on clearing clouds, Merced River Canyon and Lower Yosemite Valley

Yes, another photograph in the “Bierstadt morning” series, as I’ve come to think of it. (Albert Bierstadt was a renowned 19th-century landscape painter whose work in Yosemite is famous. His paintings, while true to the subjective experience of the place, relied on enhanced effects of color, light, perspective, and atmosphere.) As I have written, this morning started cloudy and gray but quickly transformed into a marvel of clouds, mists, and light that continued well into the mid-morning hours.

I began photographing in a location overlooking the main valley, but then decided to head up to this area, where I was thinking of several possible subjects. As I watched the play of light and atmosphere I decided to forego some of the intimate landscape opportunities and intend go for this large-scale scene looking up the valley of the Merced River. Working from one of the more obvious spots in the park, I set up and spent an hour or so watching the constant transformations of the scene as clouds opened, light appeared and moved across the scene, fog came and went, and more.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon

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Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon
The morning sun breaks through clearing clouds above Merced Canyon

Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The morning sun breaks through clearing clouds above Merced Canyon

If I had to choose my favorite conditions of atmosphere and light, something like this morning would be on my short list. The light was a surprise that emerged after I had almost written off the potential as being bland and gray. Since the clouds were in motion, the light was constantly changing — at moments it actually was not that interesting, but suddenly the clouds would shift and light would emerge, frequently moving across the scene and providing more than one opportunity. There were multiple levels and types of clouds. A thick overcast lay high above, though it was occasionally broken. Other clouds occasionally formed directly on the peaks, and others drifted below me, often low enough to count as fog. This show actually continued for several hours.

The location here is a fairly iconic spot that many who have visited Yosemite will immediately recognize. (However, as I discovered as visitors new to the park stopped and asked questions, to many this is a wholly unfamiliar view, which probably makes in even more spectacular to them.) If you look closely you will likely recognize the famous feature that provides a point of focus. The vantage point gives a view looking up the canyon of the Merced River and into the lower end of Yosemite Valley. This section has more of the v-shape of a river gorge, but the classic glacial u-shape begins under the brightest section of the lower clouds and then tracks to the left. Those light beams are real, and as I photographed they were traversing the scene from right to left.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning Light, Haze, El Capitan

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Morning Light, Haze, El Capitan
Beams of early morning sunlight pass through haze to illuminate El Capitan

Morning Light, Haze, El Capitan. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Beams of early morning sunlight pass through haze to illuminate El Capitan

I’m coming to think of the start of this particular day in lower Yosemite Valley as being “Bierstadt Day.” Albert Bierstadt was a landscape painter who made several notable renderings of Yosemite subjects in the 1800s, paintings that perhaps formed the image for the park for many who saw them. They are not “realistic” in a photographic sense, but tend toward exaggerating features and using dramatic effects of perspective, atmosphere, and light. When I see Bierstadt paintings I often think both of how they evoked the wonder of seeing remarkable places like Yosemite Valley and of how flexibly and subjectively he treated these subjects. I also think about how little they look like the literal place, as least in objective sense.

However, at certain moments, the quality of light and atmosphere came close on this morning. The morning began inauspiciously, and in the pre-dawn light I could tell that it was cloudy and gray. However, as I approached the Valley from Wawona there were breaks in the clouds. Arriving at my first clear viewpoint, the iconic tunnel view (where I usually wouldn’t stop on my way into the Valley), the view included the usual Valley features, layers of drifting clouds and mist, and beams of colorful light playing across this landscape. I put a long lens on my camera and began to follow the changing conditions, picking out small sections of the grand view that seemed most interesting. At the moment of this photograph (and, indeed, the light lasted only a moment) sun beams broke through the clouds and moved in front of the face of El Capitan.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.