Tag Archives: california

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

Forest And Cliffs, Evening

September 24, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Forest trees, lit by evening light, ascend granite cliffs in the Yosemite National Park back-country.

From September 14 through September 21 I spent eight days on the trail in the back-country of Yosemite National Park, starting and ending at Tuolumne Meadows, taking time to photograph some of the areas I passed through. I was fortunate to be able to join up with a group of five outstanding Yosemite photographers on all but the last day – they were to remain in the high country for several more days after I left.

On the second evening of the trip I walked to a nearby rocky area to photograph, well, rocks – granite slabs, actually, that are marked by reddish deposits and broken up by trees struggling to grow in cracks and small pockets of soil in the rock. I also wanted to photograph a nearby section of the Tuolumne River as it descended through some steep areas of granite as it entered a narrower section of canyon. I started working perhaps an hour and a half or so before sunset, and as actual sunset approached I looked up from these subjects to see the light from the lowering sun beginning to backlight trees high on a cliff above my position and to angle across the edges of the cliffs themselves. I switched gears – and lenses – and began to work on finding compositions in this rocky terrain, seen through a bit of haze and lit by increasingly warm light.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: San Francisco

Departing Freighter

September 16, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Freighter approaching the Golden Gate as it departs from San Francisco Bay.

On this hazy but fog-less August morning I had stopped above the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge on my way north towards Point Reyes, where I planned a day of photography. I cross the bridge frequently, but I almost always schedule my crossings for times when the light might be interesting, at least if I have any control over my schedule. A summer day like this can bring any of a wide range of conditions: the bridge and bay could be totally socked in my fog, a finger of fog might extend inland while everything else is for-free, the sky could be crystal clear. On this morning the morning haze obscured a lot fo the long views… but it also increased the sense of distance and hid some distracting background elements that might have been visible in clearer conditions.

Some minutes earlier, while photographing a very different landscape from this spot, I had seen this ship beginning its outbound voyage all the way back under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Having watched these ships before I knew that it would eventually make its way past Treasure Island, around Alcatraz, make a wide loop, and then turn back to cross in front of me as it approached the passage through the Golden Gate. With this in mind, I kept an eye on it, and once it cleared Alcatraz I kept a close eye on it, making this exposure just as it made its final turn toward the Bridge with only the surface of the bay, the faint and distant hills, and the sky creating a blue background.

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Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Mono Lake, Thunderstorm

September 14, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Eastern Sierra Nevada thunderstorms build over Mono Lake, Mono Craters, and Lee Vining, California.

Mono Lake can be an unforgiving place in which to try to make photographs during the day, but sometimes one gets lucky! It is a wonderful place, but if you only know it from photographs – which, of course, tend to be made at the most appealing times – you might not know that it is often hot and hazy and dry during the day. These are among the reasons that it is a place often photographed at dawn or at sunset on days when the clouds are interesting. (The latter poses its own set of problems, since the Sierra Nevada range begins to block the light well before actual sunset.)

But I did get lucky on this late July afternoon. It was thunderstorm weather, so there were some very impressive clouds floating around. However, the clouds did not completely fill the sky, so patches of light were moving across the landscape – in this photograph one illuminates the green area at far right along the shore and, more importantly, the Mono Craters beyond the far shore of the lake. And the vegetation around the lake was still green, or at least green enough to look alive in this light.

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

Granite and Trees, Olmsted Point

September 12, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Lone trees stand among glacial erratics on granite slabs near Olmsted Point as evening light strikes Clouds Rest and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park.

This photograph was made near the popular and iconic Olmsted Point along Tioga Pass Road (highway 120) across the Sierra through Yosemite National Park. The spot is a short walk from the busy parking lot, but even this five or ten minute stroll was enough to get me some relative solitude on this summer evening.

The combination of close granite slabs, glacial erratics lying about, more distant domes and peaks, and a few scattered trees says “Yosemite” to me in ways that are more true than even the iconic scenes from The Valley. Almost every area of the high country was shaped by glaciers, and all of these things are a direct result of that origin. Another thing that I like about this photograph, ironically, is that there is really nothing all that special about it! There are a few high, thin clouds – but no towering thunderheads. The light is warming as the end of the day approaches – but this is not yet prime golden hour light. And although at least one icon appears in the scene, it is not even the dominant feature.

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