Tag Archives: clearing

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

Precipice, Clouds

December 26, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn storm clouds hover around a granite precipice

It was a late in the afternoon — almost evening, actually — when I made this photograph near the end of October. I had been in the Yosemite area for a few days, photographing fall color and the moody conditions of an early season rain storm, and late in the day as the storm cleared out the remnant clouds hugged the granite cliffs of the Valley.

Conditions like these are highly variable and continuously change from moment to moment. This is not the sort of landscape that you photograph by carefully composing a subject and then making a single exposure! The clouds are in motion, and with the intense backlight from the west the visibility of elements of the landscape changes continuously. Here the light in the clouds was so bright that the exposure rendered the shaded cliff face in very dark tones.

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

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

Trees, Cliffs, and Clearing Autumn Storm

December 25, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn storm clouds clear from granite cliffs of Yosemite Valley

I had a shorter time than usual for my late October Yosemite fall color this year. First off, I had some business to attend to in the town of Oakhurst, along the southern route into the park. I took care of that, drove to the Valley in beautiful fog and rain, photographed for a few hours, and headed back to Oakhurst. (More typically, I’ll stay in the Valley, even if it means camping in the rain.) The next morning I was up early, with good intentions about getting back to the Valley for the first light. But there were too many distractions on the drive — beautiful fall color in the forests, more fog, clouds filling valleys — and I didn’t get there until later.

It was another “interesting” weather day, mostly clearing, but still clouds hanging around. The clouds of autumn and winter are a favorite subject of mine here, so when I stopped to photograph these autumn trees along the edge of a meadow, I think it may have been at least partially an excuse to watch the clouds flowing back and forth along the tall granite walls, momentarily parting to reveal the details of the mountain and then closing up again. Here the faint afternoon sunlight is coming from the left and lighting the trees. The cliff is in shadow, hence that deep bluish tones of the rock, and thinning clouds pass by further up the flanks of the valley walls.

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

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

Clearing Autumn Storm

December 24, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Clouds swirl around the cliffs of Yosemite Valley as an autumn storm begins to clear

I always make a point of visiting Yosemite Valley right around the very end of October (extending into the start of November) when fall colors come to the Valley — oak, cottonwood, dogwood, and more. This year things were busier than usual, and I was only able to squeeze in an evening and the following day, but it was still beautiful, as always.

Fall color in the Valley is different from that of the aspens on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. Here it is closer to the color of the Sierra foothills and mid-elevation forests. It is also the time of year when the first winter-like storms begin to make it into California from the Gulf of Alaska. This visit coincided with one of those weather fronts, and much of my photography was done in rain, of rain, in the expectation that it would soon return, or in its aftermath. This photograph includes a few of the big, colorful Valley trees, with a backdrop of the cloud-shrouded cliffs.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Clearing Storm, Pacific Coast

November 28, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An autumn storm clears along the Northern California cost above Fort Bragg

On this November day, the light along the Pacific coast north of Fort Bragg, California was mostly spectacular and in a constant state of change. In rained, occasionally hard and more than once taking us by surprise, there was fog, the sun appeared, clouds were dark one moment and luminously bright the next.

We paused at this overlook, where the meeting of land and water is less steep. The nearly level coastal bluffs run along the water at the base of low coastal mountains, and the underwater slope is also apparently not very steep, judging from the distance from the shoreline that the waves begin to rise and break. The atmosphere was semi-opaque, filled with a combination of fog and light rain, and the glow of light on clouds was diffused and soft. To the west, sun broke through the clouds and lit the water brilliantly in patterns that curved toward the horizon. The waves broke against the seaward side of the huge sea stack — more of an island, really — that stood in front of us just off from the shoreline.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: clearing

Precipice, Clouds

Trees, Cliffs, and Clearing Autumn Storm

Clearing Autumn Storm

Clearing Storm, Pacific Coast

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