Tag Archives: bench

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

Monolith, Trees, and New Snow

August 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Trees on a snowy bench in front of the granite face of Half Dome

With this photograph I continue on the theme of Yosemite Valley winter photographs I made back in the late winter, while there for the opening of an exhibit in the Valley. The opening was just one evening, but that meant that we had most of three days to photograph. It had been anything but a snowy winter in the Sierra, but we were fortunate to arrive not long after one of the few snowstorms, and the Valley walls and pinnacles had a thin coating of new snow.

While out in a meadow photographing other subjects I looked up and saw that some of that snow was still plastered to the vertical face of Half Dome and to the row of trees standing precariously on the ledge running down from right to left at the base of the main cliff. Such places in the Valley are very interesting to me — spots that everyone can see but which remain virtually inaccessible to all but some climbers… and to photographers with long lenses who look closely. And, yes, I’m aware of the obvious precedent when I use the term “monolith” in the title of the photograph.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects

The Cloisters

March 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Large stone room at the Cloisters museum, Tryon Park, New York City

The Cloisters is a facility that is a (remote) part of New York’s Metropolitan Museum, located way uptown at Fort Tryon along the Hudson River not too far from the George Washington Bridge. It was constructed as a sort of showplace for various elements from early European architecture and art, and it feels far removed from much of the rest of the New York experience, at least to this Californian. We had visited, or tried to visit, on a previous trip to New York, going all the way up there only to find that we had picked the one day each week when it was closed! So getting back there and going inside was on our agenda during our late 2013 visit.

The weather and light affect my response to such places, and this was a gray winter day. We took the subway up from lower Manhattan, and when we got off at Fort Tryon it was very cold, very gray, and quite windy as we walked to the Cloisters. Once inside, the light coming in from courtyards and windows was soft and diffused, and I thought the light in this room was especially beautiful. Some light was coming in from outside through the small window at the right, but out of the frame to the left there is a large open courtyard that was also spilling light in from that direction.

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

Autumn Snow, Parker Canyon

November 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An October storm brings snow to the Parker Canyon area of the eastern Sierra Nevada

This is yet another photograph from our early October “aspen chasing” trip to photograph fall color in the eastern Sierra. We were on the “east side” for five days, in conditions that began with a full day of snow, then turned mostly sunny for a few more days, and returned to more winter-like weather on our final day. On that last day of the visit we tracked far to the east of the Sierra, out into high desert ranges where we saw many interesting things including a number of stands of aspens in surprising and less-visited places.

We looped back from the east and passed by the south shore of Mono Lake, and coming over the rise between there and highway 395 we were not surprised to see a substantial chunk of the Sierra crest laid out before us… but we were a bit surprised to see that it appeared to still be snowing along the crest. We had awakened to light snow in Mammoth Lakes that morning, but assumed that it was just a passing squall. This seemed to be the case, as we did not see much more in the way of precipitation as we headed east. But these were apparently the sort of conditions in which storm clouds form right over the crest, and the result was this very dramatic scene. Low in the frame, the foreground hills pick up a bit of sunlight, and as they ascend toward higher peaks, aspen trees in full autumn color are visible. A forest filled valley, lined by an old lateral glacial moraine, ascends across the frame from right to left, leading to the entrance to steep Parker Canyon. High above, light snow falls and the peaks around Parker Pass slip in and out of the clouds.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Emerald Lake and Granite Benches

October 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A series of granite benches with back-lit trees rises above the emerald waters of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake, Kings Canyon National Park

This photograph includes several features that say “Sierra Nevada high country” to me, and which immediately evoke a whole range of associations that have evolved over decades of backpacking, hiking, skiing and otherwise being in that world. The rounded granite slabs and benches rising toward more distant talus slopes are a common feature of these mountains. The small, widely spaced trees growing in the rocky terrain not far below timberline are another. The late-season brown grasses and yellow willows are a part of the annual cycle announcing that winter will soon be arriving. And everywhere, small but deep lakes scooped out by glacial action can both reveal the patterns of shoreline rocks and descend into deep emerald blue.

This is – no surprise by now, perhaps! – one more photograph from our mid-September time photographing in the back-country of Kings Canyon National Park, camped for the better part of a week in an area of many beautiful lakes near the 11,000′ level. This was an incredibly rich field for making photographs, and we were able to “work” it for the full-time and rarely walk more than perhaps 15-20 minutes from our camp. This small lake was simply one of many small lakes in this area, and I passed by it several times as I wandered up the meadows and granite of the valley above our camp.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: bench

Monolith, Trees, and New Snow

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The Cloisters

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Autumn Snow, Parker Canyon

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Emerald Lake and Granite Benches

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

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