Early evening light on boulders, trees, and cliffs along the edge of Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.
Seeing that this feels like about the 100th photograph in this series from Upper Young Lake, I’m half tempted to title it “Yet Another Upper Young Lake Photograph.” I won’t, but I will keep the commentary short on this one. Shot on the same mid-September evening along the shore near the lower end of the lake, I used a longer focal length for this one and composed it to include a slightly darker and steeper section of the cliffs that rise from one side of the lake.
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.
Evening light on granite slopes and the shoreline of Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.
In a way this is sort of a “test shot,” since I haven’t really focused on this portion of Upper Young on previous visits. I want to return and “work” this section of the lake, along with the area between it and the middle lake, and also the upper end of this lake, which I’ve barely visited. I made this photograph during that wonderful late time in the day when the light changes from moment to moment, the colors gradually become more and more interesting, and the slight backlight partially obscures the details of the background slopes.
This particular terrain is perhaps as close as any to what I regard as “my ideal Sierra” – that magical zone just below or at timberline where there are meadows, either open or intimate and separated by rocks and trees, and the light is everywhere, uninterrupted by trees. There are enough plants to give this sort of area an almost lush appearance, especially early in the season and when the light is right. And while I like the higher and truly alpine regions of the passes and peaks, I’d rather hang out in areas like this one where there is a certain amount of greenery and the high elevation harshness is moderated a bit.
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.
Sunset light illuminates trees on a rocky peninsula, reflected in the surface of alpine Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.
This is one more and perhaps the last in the sequence of photographs made on a mid-September evening at Upper Young Lake. I mentioned in a previous post that I had walked up here from my campsite to photograph in the beautiful evening light, and after wandering about and making a few other photographs I finally decided to focus my efforts on this scene featuring tree-covered rocks at the end of a small, curving peninsula. I began shooting just as the “golden hour” time began, and continued until the light was quite dim… and I had to start heading back down what passes for a trail to my camp at a lower lake. This photograph was made at a point at which the light had really begun to warm up as the sun dropped toward the horizon, but before the very last (and very red) light.
A comment on why I have posted several photographs (four by now?) of more or less this same scene rather than selecting “the best” one… I’ve previously written about my reasons for posting daily photographs at the blog, which include practice and encouraging me to regularly take photographs all the way through at least an initial post-processing workflow. The latter gives me a better opportunity to get to know the different images, both as I work on them and I I consider them after posting. So, frankly, I don’t necessarily have a clear favorite at this point.
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.
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.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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