Tag Archives: boulder

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Oak Tree, Morning Light (monochrome)

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Oak Tree, Morning Light

Oak Tree, Morning Light. (Monochrome) Mission Peak. July 16,2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An oak tree along the trail to the top of Mission Peak, Fremont, California.

This photo has been in the queue for longer than I want to admit – all I’ll say is that it is more than a year! This spreading oak is found along a somewhat less-traveled section of trail near Mission Peak in the eastern SF Bay Area, and was photographed in early morning light.

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

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keywords: oak, tree, trunk, branch, leaf, canopy, leaves, grass, morning, light, shade, shadow, summer, trail, mission, peak, east, bay, park, trail, hike, nature, rock, boulder, thick, growth, vegetation, flora, san francisco, area, california, usa, black and white, stock, landscape

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Unnamed Pond Near Blue Lake

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Unnamed Pond Near Blue Lake

Unnamed Pond Near Blue Lake. Sabrina Basin, John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California. August 6, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small pond among rocks and forest on the trail above Blue Lake, John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada.

This scene falls, I think, into the category of “typical Sierra Nevada scene.” Anyone who has backpacked into the higher portions of the range has walked past and perhaps stopped at many little ponds like this one. It is in a glacier-formed granite landscape of shallow soil, exposed smooth rock formations, and many rocks and boulders left behind by the glacier. Lush grasses grow around the pond for a few short weeks every summer and the peaks of the Sierra crest are just visible though the taller trees.

This small pond is along the trail between Blue Lake and Dingleberry Lake, not far from Blue Lake. The trail crosses the outlet stream and the skirts the far shore before heading on to higher terrain.

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography

keywords: blue, lake, pond, rock, boulder, flora, grass, meadow, log, tree, forest, grove, rocky, bush, shrub, shallow, runoff, seasonal, shore, bottom, reflection, morraine, glacial, mountain, ridge, sierra, nevada, crest, mount, haeckel, john, muir, wilderness, area, sabrina, lake, basin, trail, high, california, usa, blue, sky, clouds, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, nature, hike, backpack, camp, lodgepole, tamarack, pine, snow

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Reflection, Topsy Turvy Lake

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Reflection, Topsy Turvy Lake

Reflection, Topsy Turvy Lake. John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California. August 6, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Golden evening light from surrounding peaks reflects from the surface of rock-studded Topsy Turvy Lake.

This is my first photograph from my early August “backpack trip that almost didn’t happen but somehow worked out in the end.” Originally we had planned a week-long excursion into the far reaches of the upper Kern river drainage in the heart of the Sierra Nevada. However, for a variety of reasons those plans began to collapse a couple weeks before the trip – so three of us salvaged a shorter trip into the Sabrina Basin area above Bishop, California. Then, the night before this trip – while I was packing! – I cracked a tooth. At that point I thought that the trip was off for sure, but my dentist agreed to see me the next morning. By noon I had a temporary dental fix in place and I completed last-minute packing and other business and was on the road at 2:30, arriving to meet my hiking partners at Four Jeffrey Campground above Bishop at 9:00 p.m.

On top of all that, the Sierra weather forecast included the possibility of snow, in the form of an autumn-like weather system passing across the northern portion of the range. Undaunted – but equipped with a bit more cold weather gear than we might usually carry in August – we headed up to Blue Lake on the first day and then moved on to Topsy Turvy lake on day two. While it never did snow, it was very windy and quite cold on the first two nights.

This photograph of rock-filled Topsy Turvy Lake was made in the early evening when the light had already left the lake’s surface but was still illuminating the ridge to the east and creating striking and colorful reflections in the lake’s surface.

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography

keywords: topsy, turvy, lake, rock, boulder, morraine, water, ripple, surface, reflection, gold, evening, sunset, island, shore, talus, sierra, nevada, sabrina, basin, california, usa, landscape, scenic, travel, hike, backpack, camp, shadow, stock, john, muir, wilderness, area

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

Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake

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Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake

Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. July 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mount Conness and the shoreline meadow of Lower Young Lake at sunset.

The thin smoke from a wildfire some miles away along the Tuolumne River added some color to the sunset light on the distant ridge whose highest point is Mt. Conness, the tallest peak in along the Yosemite Park border north and west of Tioga Pass. I’ve shot from this spot along the upper shoreline of Lower Young Lake before, in fact the rock along the shoreline was the center point of another photograph I made one misty autumn evening. But this was a different evening; not only because of the somewhat unusual color of the light but also because the small inlet stream was still flowing through the shoreline meadows that still held wildflowers.

On my way back to my tent as darkness fell, I had one of those wonderful serendipitous experiences that happens with surprising frequency in the Sierra. Walking back I happened to take a different route further from the shoreline since that area was quite marshy. As I wandered through a more forested section that I had not been in for a couple years I passed very close to someone’s campsite, and I soon saw two people ahead sitting on a large boulder. I stopped to say “hi” and the older of the two asked, “Are you a photographer?” I offered one of my all-too-frequent wise guy responses, something along the lines of “No, I just like to carry this stuff around so that I look like one.” He looked a bit perplexed, at which point the younger of the two spoke up and said, “Well, he is.”

Turns out that he was photographer Leonard Sussman, and we ended up talking for a good amount of time as the light continued to fade. Leonard is a really interesting fellow, and I was surprised to find out that a “New York photographer” actually came more or less from my stomping grounds in northern California.

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

keywords: mount, conness, mountain, peak, ridge, young, lake, lower, sierra, nevada, range, evening, dusk, sunset, high, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, landscape, nature, rock, tree, stream, reflection, forest, boulder, shoreline