Tag Archives: boulder

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

Evening Light, Upper Young Lake

September 18, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

Early evening light on a tree-covered rocky peninsula at Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

I’ve visited these lakes almost annually for a number of years, since I first visited one autumn on a long day hike from the Tuolumne Meadows area. Many people visit the lower lake on day hikes, quite a few others backpack to the area and visit all three, and climbers on their way to Mount Conness also pass through the area. My plan was to stay several days so that I could do a lot of photography in the area. The upper lake provides a beautiful sub-alpine scene, surrounded by relatively level meadows with small hills interspersed with rocky rises and groves of trees. Because the area is open to the west there can be stunning evening light here… and that I precisely why I went to the lake on this evening.

I was camped at the lower lake, where I had photographed in the morning. After I finished up my morning photography I spent a good part of the late morning and early afternoon eating a post-shoot late breakfast, more or less hanging out, reading, doing a few camp chores, and finally having a very early dinner at about 3:00 – the plan is to eat the big meal of the day early, go off and do photography as the evening light approaches, and then return to camp after dark and have something to eat before climbing into the sleeping bag.

The route that I prefer to use to get to the upper lake is not really exactly a trail. Anticipating that I’d be returning from the upper lake via this route in near or actual darkness, as I climbed it I made sure to remember a series of landmarks that I could use to find my way back. At various junctures on the route – as I would do on any similar route – I stopped to look backwards and fix in my mind certain obvious route cues that I could follow on the way back: stay above the thicker trees, stay in the middle of the bench, cross the low rise while heading straight toward a certain distant ridge, begin the descent at the two groves of trees next to the lake, and so on. I was so focused on this that when I reached my final landmark at the upper lake I barely looked around – I arrived at the final grove and immediately turned right to walk the short distance to the lakeshore and look for compositions. At about this point I recalled that I also had planned to check out camping possibilities for a future visit, so I looked back up at the grove I had just left.

I saw a tent and two people and tripods – all of which I had completely overlooked at first, so fixated was I on my “route.” I walked back up to say “hi” when I noticed that one of the two photographers looked quite familiar. I approached and said, “You bear a striking resemblance to John Sexton” – which made a lot of sense in that he was John Sexton. (If you don’t know who he is… you should. Follow the link to his web site and perhaps do a bit of searching to find out more.) I have, of course, known of John’s wonderful photography for some time and I had most recently been to a lecture at the opening of a show of his work in Carmel earlier this summer. The other photographer was Anne Larsen.

The wilderness is always full of surprises, but meeting John and Anne in the Yosemite back-country was one of the most pleasant in recent memory. We spoke for a while until the light began to become more interesting, but at various times during the evening we again ran into one another and talked about this and that. The next morning I met them once again as we were heading back to the trail head. (I felt a bit guilty about my “tiny” 15 pound load of photography equipment – they were each carrying close to 30 pounds of film gear!)

The photograph is of a tree-covered rocky rise at the end of a narrow curving peninsula that forms a small lagoon near the outlet of the lake. My initial thought had been to photograph a small tree near the edge of the lake – one that I have photographed in the past – but John correctly pointed out that it would be in shadow at the time of best light, so I decided to focus on this subject instead.

This photograph is 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: Cascades, Photographs: Nature

Roots and Rocks

September 3, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Weathered tree roots stretch across boulders at Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington.

I made this photograph at our first stop after we arrived at the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. (Technically, that isn’t quite true, since we had earlier stopped at the “ranger station” to ask some questions, but this was the first “real” stop for photography.) The road into this area twists and turns as it ascends toward and then past a ski area, and here we couldn’t help but pull over at a hairpin curve that provided a panoramic overlook to the valley below and the ridges to the east (?) of our position. Although the original reason for stopping was this dramatic view, I soon found nearby “intimate landscapes” to also be very interesting. While I often hike and climb long distances to find my photographs… for this one the tripod was on asphalt and the subject right next to the road.

On a technical note, for this photograph I used a lens that I’m increasingly fond of for photographing subjects like this one, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM (link to B&H). I find it useful to be able to put a bit of distance between myself and subjects in which the entire image may include only a few square feet, and the ability to fine tune the composition with the zoom is very useful. Although I didn’t do it in this photography, working with a slightly longer focal length also lets me have the option of isolating the subject against an out of focus background. I have the non-IS version of the lens – because that was the only version available back when I got mine – though I would almost certainly get the IS version if I were to replace it.

This photograph is 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

Evening, Unnamed Lake and the Great Western Divide

August 20, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Evening sky over the Great Western Divide reflected in an unnamed alpine lake, Sequoia National Park, California.

I don’t know quite what to say about this area of the Sierra located just east of the Great Western Divide in the upper reaches of the Kern River drainage – I’ve been very close to here on many previous trips, but I never quite managed to hop the intervening ridge even though I’ve thought vaguely about visiting this area for decades and I once passed through the lower reaches of it, more or less by accident and completely unaware of what was just upstream.

A group of us traveled over Kearsarge Pass (11,700’+) and Forrester Pass (13, 200′) to arrive in the upper Kern at Tyndall Creek along the JMT. (I think the general area is also known as the “bighorn plateau.”) I’ve been here on several previous occasions while heading to or circumnavigating Mt. Whitney. While I’ve gone east (to exit over the very rough Shepherd Pass at 12,000′) I’ve not really explored west and north of this area. Our general plan on this trip was to rectify that, specifically by visiting remote and very high Lake South America. After wandering up a mosquito-infested valley, climbing its headwall, and then dropping to a lake just below the saddle we made it to Lake South America. We had originally planned to stay here overnight, but the very barren and rocky surroundings didn’t attract us in the end, so we decided to head on to the west and south.

After a bit of a walk on a somewhat rough trail (which got much rougher later on) we arrived at a series of timberline lakes overlooking the Great Western Divide, which towered above us to the west. There is much I could say about this area, but I’ll limit myself to a few comments… and not name the specific location we visited. We finally found a sandy camping spot between a few lakes and tarns – it was surrounded by stunning alpine views ranging from the lakes themselves and the surrounding rocky meadows and clumps of trees to the jagged and high peaks to our west. The next morning we followed a very faint trail down the canyon, passing almost continuously through astonishing scenery featuring intimate, granite-surrounded meadows and small lakes.

I must go back. It won’t be easy. I’ll want to carry a bit more photography gear than I carried on this trip, and I’ll want to stay a day or two longer. And the location is two to three days from the nearest trailheads, all of which take you over some very high passes.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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.

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

Natural Arch, Sierra Nevada

August 19, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

One of two known natural arches in this area stands high on a ridge.

Although I have visited this area for decades and know it quite well, this year was the first time I had taken notice of and actually visited this natural arch or bridge, supposedly one of two in this region. (The other is, from what I’ve heard, underwater!) I won’t say too much more about this feature since it seems to be pleasantly unburdened by tremendous waves of tourists at this point… If you know where it is, I urge you to do the same.

(To illustrate how important this is with a fragile feature such as this arch, after I posted this image somewhere else a person followed up with a photograph of some damned fool standing on the arch! This demonstrates a gross disregard for this beautiful feature – there are weaknesses in the rock at the ends of the arch, and taking risks with a feature like this one that took nature thousands of years to construct is the height of irresponsibility.)

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

(Basic EXIF data is available by “mousing over” large images in blog posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: boulder

Evening Light, Upper Young Lake

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Roots and Rocks

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Evening, Unnamed Lake and the Great Western Divide

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Natural Arch, Sierra Nevada

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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.