Tag Archives: california

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Quiet Lake, Autumn Reflections

Image November 9, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn aspen trees reflected in the quiet surface of an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake

Although this photograph does not show the “classic” view of this location, there may be enough here to make it look familiar. (If you know… shhhhh.) I stopped here at an “off-hour” that wasn’t the time of day when most people looking for to reproduce that classic photograph show up. That wasn’t my intention, and I now typically only go to this place (and others like it) when I suspect that something truly unusual might happen for the most part.

I arrived and wandered over to the often-crowded spot… to find that I was almost alone here. What an unusual pleasure! The water was extremely still for this time of day, and cloud-filtered light was coming from behind and to the left of the bright grove of aspen trees. They reflected beautifully in the lake, but I decided to interrupt that reflection and its symmetry by finding a way to include the grasses growing along the near shore of the lake, grasses that were themselves starting to take on the colors of autumn.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Snow Field, Reflection

Image November 7, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A late-season snow field at the base of rugged cliffs, reflected in the surface of a High Sierra lake

I can say a few things concerning both the objective facts about this scene and about my subjective reaction to it. The facts: We walked to this lake frequently during our September photographic sojourn in the Eastern Sierra backcountry. It wasn’t far from our base camp at another nearby lake, and if we walked directly there it might take all of 10-15 minutes — though, as photographers, our walks are hardly ever direct, more often devolving into stop-and-go affairs as we are distracted by various subjects. The snow bank and the steep wall above the lake were most often in shadow, and by evening the light could become quite dim.

There are many ways I could (and perhaps did) photograph this subject, but here I wanted to focus on the contrast between the form of the bright snow field and the much darker surroundings of cliffs, talus, and shadowed lake. Late in the day a long shadow began along the talus field and gradually advanced across the lake, darkening the water and the surrounding forest and rocks. After sunset, my impression of the place was of stillness and oncoming darkness, and I wanted this version of the photograph to suggest these things.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Late-Season Color, Lake and Mountains

Image November 6, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late-season color surrounds a subalpine lake beneath talus fields and cliff

This lake was just “up the block” from our campsite in the Sierra backcountry this past September. We were there in roughly the third week of the month, base-camped near a lake from which we could explore large areas of the surrounding territory. These surroundings were filled with an abundance of small lake, forest, and plenty of rocky scenery, from talus fields to high peaks.

On several evenings I wandered up the path from our campsite in order to get to nearby lakes that lay at a somewhat higher elevation. These lakes were still surrounded by trees, albeit increasingly small trees and often with space between them. This lake had a lovely growth of tall grasses along its inlet stream, and here I have photographed it against the background of a huge cliff that was nearby.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shoreline, Early Morning

Image November 4, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fractured rocks and late-season grasses along the shoreline of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake.

Does this scene look cold? It was! I had headed out around the circumference of the lovely subalpine lake next to which we had been camped for several days, with a goal of reaching the outlet stream at the far end of the lake. On the scale of Sierra Nevada backcountry lakes, this one is perhaps a bit larger than the typical size, but not extraordinarily large. However, the hike around the lake took longer than expected — party due to my tendency to stop a lot to look and photograph, and partly due to its complex shoreline. It is lined with small bays that necessitate either an inland loop or an ascent across the intervening land.

This photograph was made near the bottom of one of those bays. Because the tall peaks to the east — seen here at the upper left — blocked the morning sun until several hours after actual sunrise the area was still in shade… and cold and a bit windy. For this photograph I did something that is a bit unusual for me. I put my ultra-wide-angle lens on the camera, got very close to my foreground subject, and took advantage of this setup’s ability to include the near and the far in the frame.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: california

Quiet Lake, Autumn Reflections

Snow Field, Reflection

Late-Season Color, Lake and Mountains

Shoreline, Early Morning

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