Tag Archives: california

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

Meadow and Young Trees, Morning

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Meadow and Young Trees, Morning
“Meadow and Young Trees, Morning” — A meadow interspersed with young trees ascends toward forest and ridges in morning light.

I have passed this spot on Tioga Pass Road for years and thought about making a photograph. I could only catch a brief glimpse while driving by since it is along a section of the roadway with no obvious pull-out. In mid-September it caught my eye again, especially with I saw haze and light beams in the trees. So I turned around, went back, and finally located a place to pull over a short walk away.

This part of the Yosemite High Sierra is full of little meadows like this one, stretching upwards along streams that descend from higher peaks. This one is full of young trees that are gradually filling in the meadow, and I suppose someday the meadow will be gone and the stream will flow through the forest.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rugged Big Sur Coast

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Rugged Big Sur Coast
“Rugged Big Sur Coast”” — Big Sur Coast’Sea stacks and surf along the rugged Big Sur coastline.

I intentionally framed this view to exclude everything except the rocky coastline and the wild Pacific Ocean surf. The Pacific Coast Highway (US1) runs along the coastal bluffs just above those far formations, but below these bluffs the ocean and the land do constant battle, with the ocean inevitably winning as it erodes and washes away the land.

When I look at sea stacks like these I am reminded that the water’s edge was once further west, and what are now off-shore outcroppings were once part of the mainland. These peninsulas and sea stacks were left standing far out in the water as the land around them disappeared.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Three Trees, Sunrise

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Three Trees, Sunrise
“Three Trees, Sunrise” — Three trees at Tuolumne Meadows in hazy sunrise light.

During the first half of September I spent a few days camping and photographing in the Tuolumne Meadows area. On two of those day I wandered into Tuolumne Meadows before sunrise. There was fog one day — not the one in this photograph — and haze from wildfire smoke on both. Here the trees, being close to the camera, have some intense color from the sunrise light, while the haze mutes the distant landscape and shifts its colors.

Some amount of wildfire smoke seems to come with the terrify in September and October in the Sierra, at least until a first good storm arrives. At its worst, the smoke can be thick enough to be unhealthy and to make photography a challenge. But much of the time it can lend an interesting muted color to everything, as it does here.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Meadow and Mountains

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Meadow and Mountains
“Meadow and Mountains” — Morning haze and wildfire smoke on Mounts Dana and Gibbs above a late-summer Yosemite high country meadow.

In some places the Sierra Nevada crest can present the classic, rugged alpine scene — high, rocky peaks and ridges that almost appear to be inaccessible. But in other places the land rises a bit more gently, and you can look across open meadows and forests towards peaks that look as if you could just walk to their summits. (In fact, you could walk to the summits in this photograph, but you’d be exhausted, as the highest is over 13,000′ tall.

The water in the foreground belongs to the Dana Fork of the Tuolumne River. Early in the season the meadow here can be lushly green — and quite wet — but by the end of summer, like almost all Sierra meadows, it turns golden. On this day the atmosphere was complex — high clouds would lead to thunderstorms later on, and drifting wildfire smoke obscured distant subjects.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.