Tag Archives: branches

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Branches, Morning

March 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Coast redwood branches in morning light, Muir Woods National Monument

In the middle of March it seemed like a typical California end-of-winter day… sunny, warm, and wildflowers beginning to bloom. (Those of you in colder climates perhaps are envious, but some of us here miss winter and feel a slight be of regret when the warm season begins to arrive. ) We ended up at Muir Woods very early in the morning—so early that the official entry kiosk was not yet open and that we got a parking space in the first parking lot! We wandered into the park and walked up through the redwood forest that borders the creek that runs down the valley through which the main, popular trails run. A few hours later, when tour buses arrive from San Francisco, this place would become noisy and crowded, but at this early morning hour it was still quiet.

We moved on toward a trail where trillium flowers are easy to find, a trail that parallels the creek some distance up the side slope. Although my attention was mostly on the ground on the uphill side of the trail, where the trillium were blooming, I also kept an eye on the valley on the downslope side. From this vantage point it is possible to get a rare straight-on view of the trunks of the redwoods, and occasionally the morning sun would make it all the way down into this valley and back-light redwood and other trees. Here I was taken by the three primary layers in this little scene. The foreground redwood branch are curved and bright green in the morning sun. Beyond are moss-covered branches that almost glow in the back-light. And beyond all of this are the dark and shadowed forest trees on the far side of the canyon, not yet in the sunlight.

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.

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

Burned Forest, Twisting Branches

March 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Bare, twisted branches in burned forest, Yosemite National Park

For a number of years, Yosemite National Park has allowed naturally set fires to more or less burn themselves out under supervision, and management fires are set regularly in areas including Yosemite Valley. For many of us there is a natural negative response to this, at least initially, since we were brought up on a stead Smoky Bear diet of “fire is bad!” It turns out that not all fires are bad. In fact, the healthy forests depend on fire – to clear out underbrush and reduce the fuel load and even to prompt the renewal of plant life. Ironically, there is some thought that one reason for the very big and very destructive fires that have occurred more recently is that fires have been suppressed for so long that too much fuel has built up in the forest, allowing fires that might otherwise be “healthy” to become firestorms that destroy even mature trees.

The evidence of fire is found in many areas of the park, including Yosemite Valley. If you visit late in the season you might find a managed fire underway, closing off sections of the forest and spreading smoke. (While I worry about the health effects of the smoke, I have learned to use it photographically but finding ways to use the haze in my images.) For some time I have worked to find ways to photograph the burned areas. They can have a kind of stark beauty in the right light and when looked at in just the right ways. I had stopped in a more traditional meadow, full of dormant winter grasses and leafless winter trees, when I looked behind myself to see on of the managed burn areas, and these curving and twisting bare limbs against a background of scorched trunks.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fallen Snag, Dry Tarn

November 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This year was the second of two very dry years in the Sierra Nevada and much of the west. The snowfall this past winter (2012-13) was far below normal and set records in some places. Last October and November it seemed like we might be starting a very wet season, which would have been welcome after the previous winter’s low levels of precipitation, but then the tap was shut off near the end of the year and there was hardly any more precipitation at all during the rest of the season, the portion when the majority of the Sierra’s precipitation falls. Consequently, this has been a strange summer in the Sierra. Although there may have been more monsoonal rain the usual, the effects of the depleted snow pack are obvious. The spring run-off occurred early and was anemic. By July much of the Sierra looked more like August, and I was already seeing signs of fall by early August.

With all of this in mind, it was no surprise to use to find some unusually dry conditions in the Kings Canyon back-country when we visited for more than a week in mid-September. (Though, in some ways, things were less horrendous than I might have expected. Perhaps this was a combination of going at a time when things tend to be dry anyway and, as a local pointed out to me, some recent summer rains.) On our first day at the location where we stayed to photograph for nearly a week I wandered up some nearby meadows towards a lake that I though I might want to photograph. Very close to my campsite I found several completely dry tarns. (A “tarn” is a seasonal pond fed by snowmelt, and many of them dry up each season.) This very old, sun bleached snag lay across the exposed rocks of this one, creating a stark images.

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” from Heyday Books, is available directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Sandhill Cranes, Fog and Trees

June 28, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A group of sandhill cranes takes flight in foggy dawn light as others stand in a marsh with blackbird-filled trees beyond.

I almost feel like I know this group of sandhill cranes, as we have found them on several occasions in the same San Joaquin Valley location – and by this I mean in precisely the same spot along a levee and at the same time of day… and often in fog. The first time I “saw” them here I actually heard them more than saw them. It had been an extremely foggy morning, so thick that it was difficult to see any distance into the murk. We could hear lots of birds and certainly recognize the distinct call of the sandhill cranes. Occasionally a small group of them would momentarily emerge from the fog to pass overhead and just as quickly disappear.

On this January morning it was again foggy, but not quite that thick. When we arrived before dawn we were able to make out the large flock of the birds on the ground near the levee, though it was a bit too murky and they were too far away to get clear photographs. But as sunrise arrived, the cranes began to take to the sky in small group, sometimes passing over or near our position before departing. As this group flew across the scene, above other birds still on the ground, the faint light of sunrise managed to pierce the fog and case a bit of warm light on the flock.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: branches

Redwood Branches, Morning

Burned Forest, Twisting Branches

Fallen Snag, Dry Tarn

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