Tag Archives: cascade

Three Trees

Three Trees
Three conifer trees near the base of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley.

Three Trees. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Three conifer trees near the base of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley.

This was a fruitful camera position on my late-May one-day visit to Yosemite Valley. I made several photographs within perhaps a 100-foot radius here by a little season lake that filled a small meadow. There was forest in all directions, and on two sides cliffs, including the very base of El Capitan as seen in this photograph.

There’s another hidden surprise in this photograph. A stream of water drops across the rock outcropping along the right edge. It is, as best as I can tell, the point where Horsetail Fall — yes, THAT fall — reaches the base of El Capitan and from there make a very short trip to join the Merced River.


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

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Meadow, Trees, and Cascade

Meadow, Trees, and Cascade
The view across a Yosemite Valley meadow toward a spring cascade below Glacier Point.

Meadow, Trees, and Cascade. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

The view across a Yosemite Valley meadow toward a spring cascade below Glacier Point.

To some extent, this is arguably a “record shot” that documents this year’s extraordinary spring runoff in Yosemite Valley. This winter set records for total snowfall (and snow water content) thought the Sierra, and once spring warmth arrived it began to melt, sending torrents of water downstream. When I visited the Valley in late May, there was water everywhere: meadows had become lakes, trails were flooded, and water was cascading down cliff faces in locations that are usually dry.

This view looks across the Valley to a particularly interesting section of its walls. The main mass of rock is just to the west of the Glacier Point Apron, in an area of fractured rock that drains the watershed above. Typically you might see a small trickle of water here, but at this point there was a full-on stream winding back and forth down this face toward the Valley.


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

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Silver Cascade

Silver Cascade
Silver Cascade, New Hampshire

Silver Cascade. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Silver Cascade, New Hampshire

One of the fun things about photographing in an entirely new area is the opportunity to “discover” subjects for the first time. Don’t get me wrong — I still discover new things in familiar places, just not quite as often. During our New England autumn color trip it seemed like there were new things everywhere we looked. After our first-day visit to a well-known and iconic autumn color location I remembered seeing a side road… so we went back and took it. Eventually it took us past this waterfall, located not from from one of the ubiquitous New Hampshire “notches.”

As we drove up this road we saw people stopped at this location, so we figured there must be something interesting there. We pulled over and saw a cascade coming down a narrow band of rock from the higher mountains. Compared to some of the waterfalls that I see in the Sierra this one seemed pretty small. But it was also quite charming, with water traveling this way and that across the rocks, passing trees and bushes with fall foliage, and finally splashing down in a small pool. I left the roadside stop behind and climbed up a good distance to make this photograph.


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

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Cascade

Cascade
Water falls across a fractured rock face after August rain, Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Cascade. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Water falls across a fractured rock face after August rain, Ansel Adams Wilderness.

We were here in August, a time when a cascade or waterfall like this one in the Sierra Nevada high country would typically be more of a trickle than a torrent. But a torrential rain storm had raised the creek levels just before we arrived, and the flow was quite impressive. Fortunately, by the time we arrived, the silt that had turned the water a muddy brown had almost dissipated.

We were not actually aware of this fall when we headed this direction in the late afternoon. Our actual goal was the timberline country further up the route. But shortly after we turned and began following the creek that led that direction we came to the cascade, which was positioned right next to our route. Packs immediately came off, cameras came out, tripods were set up, and we were pleasantly distracted by the photographic potential of this feature.


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

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | FacebookEmail

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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