Tag Archives: big

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

Big Leaf Maple, Forest Trail

November 5, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A forest trail winds past big leaf maple trees with fall colors in Yosemite Valley

This was a busy day! I described it in an earlier post, but here is a brief recap. I started in Oakhurst before dawn, heading out to photograph sunrise at Glacier Point — but I didn’t make it after I became distracted by a lovely forest scene along the way. Then I photographed wildfire smoke east of Glacier Point, returned to The Valley to shoot fall color, lost patience with the crowds and smoke, headed to Tioga Pass, and ended the day photographing sunset light on snow-dusted granite slabs. Whew!

In the middle of the day I spent a brief time in The Valley before heading back to the high country. The crowds were shocking, especially for this late October date. I left my car and headed out on foot, going into an area with lots of big leaf maple trees. This is also a location where I know I can find not only a bit of solitude but also some very special light. Here the forest sometimes opens toward a very large expanse of vertical granite, and this rock acts as a gigantic reflector, casting soft light back into shaded areas along the opposite canyon wall. It was here that I stopped to photograph this quiet little autumn scene, with a deserted trail passing through the open forest.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Mules Ears Flower

April 30, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A spring mules ears flower in the early stages of decay.

Someone suggested that this might simply be called “The World’s Saddest Flower.” It also occurred to me that it might be a fine metaphor for certain political events currently transpiring, or possibly for a number of other things. I find a kind of poignant beauty in this flower, still brilliantly colorful but also clearly falling into decay.

I found this flower on a short hike at a place not far from where I live, a spot that I have gone to for perhaps twenty years in spring to find local wildflowers. It is not a place that most would find remarkable — in fact, I was able to hear urban sounds including heavy equipment in the distance — but it is a place that I know well. I knew that I would find certain flowers — blue dicks, larkspur, Chinese lanterns, California poppies, and a few others — but this one was a surprise. I had never seen it or anything similar in this place, and I wasn’t sure of what it might be. Friends who know more about flowers than I do suggested that it is probably mules ears — a very sad specimen at this point!

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Big Sur, Winter

January 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sediment from flowing streams and landslides colors the water along the Big Sur Coast near Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Some viewers who know this coast very, very well might understand why this photograph could have been titled, “Not McWay Fall.” In an example of looking the “wrong” direction, this photograph looks north along the Big Sur coast in the afternoon, when the light comes in from the west and perhaps begins to warm a bit, and on a beautiful winter day, on the heels of a big storm, when the air is very, very clear and the water is intensely blue.

Looking closely you probably also notice some other colors in the water. Various things can color the coastal waters — seasonal or time of day variations, the quality of the light, reflections, algae, and much more. There are a few spots along this coast where the water is always a surprising color, for example where sandy shoals in shallow, protected water lighten it. Several things were at work here on this day. Coastal creeks were in full flow, carrying their sediment loads down to the coast and emptying into the ocean. In this particular location there was a very large and probably still active landslide that had delivered a lot of earth to the beach, where the surf was gradually pulling it into the water and staining the ocean brown.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

River Bank and Forest

November 26, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hillside forest along the Big River, Northern California

For Californians who have experienced the recent 4-5 years of drought and the awful effects on many of the state’s forests — particularly the Sierra Nevada, where millions of trees have reportedly been lost — a visit to the relatively lush temperate rain forest country of coastal Northern California is a treat. Here, at least to my eyes, there is now little sign of the drought, and we can wander these forests and it almost feels like nothing has changed. (The truth, unfortunately, is that profound changes are taking place in the climate and the natural world of this state and beyond — and wishful thinking will not counter that reality.)

We ended up in this spot almost by accident. I had the idea of heading down to a beach near the outlet of a river where we had watched kayaks being launched a year or so ago. I thought it was near this spot — turns out I was wrong — so we took a turn-off and ended up on the “wrong” side of the highway, upstream and away from the coastal beach. Instead we were at a small estuary just above the meeting of the Big River and the ocean, where marine mammals came upstream to lounge on small islands, where we heard but did not see geese, and where the thick forest grows right down to the water’s edge.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: big

Big Leaf Maple, Forest Trail

Mules Ears Flower

Big Sur, Winter

River Bank and Forest

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