Tag Archives: clearing

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

Lenticular Clouds, Alpenglow Reflections

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Lenticular Clouds, Alpenglow Reflections
“Lenticular Clouds, Alpenglow Reflections” — Two lenticular clouds in the alpenglow above the Sierra Nevada crest, Yosemite National Park.

This photograph comes from her the end of the spectacular afternoon and evening that I’ve been posting about recently. To quickly recap, I saw lenticular clouds forming over the crest earlier in the day, headed to this spot that I had scoped out previously, then photographed all the way from pre-golden hour through sunset and on into the early dusk. This photograph was made just after sunset, when the pink light was still coloring the sky and the landscape but the blue of evening was gradually taking over.

If you head out into the landscape often to photograph, you will experience a lot of fine but unremarkable days. With care, you can make good photographs in those conditions. You’ll also experience a few “meh” days when nothing happens. (Deny all you want, but you’ve experience it!) But it seems like this earns you an occasional luminous miracle, when everything comes together and amazement ensues. If there is a downside to this, it might be having to explain to people that, “yes, this really happened!” That’s a small price to pay.

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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

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

Evening Light, Sierra Crest

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Evening Light, Sierra Crest
sunset light illuminates Sierra crest peaks as summer clouds clear beyond Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

Evening Light, Sierra Crest. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

sunset light illuminates Sierra crest peaks as summer clouds clear beyond Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

This is the second photograph in this series that I’ve shared recently. (Two more are in the pipeline.) I posted a slightly different one that rendered the scene in portrait orientation. But a bigger difference is how the light evolved over the couple of minutes between the two exposures. At this time of day in these conditions, the light is very dynamic as it shifts from yellowish toward pink and red and ultimately to the blue tones of dusk. Meanwhile, the sunset light from the west is affected by intervening clouds, and the light and color move across the landscape. In this exposure, those blue tones are strengthening in the foreground forest and meadow and in the darker clouds above the lenticular formations.

Often a scene suggests one particular photographic interpretation or perhaps two. Maybe portrait- and landscape-orientation versions are in order or there is more than one way to frame the composition. But on a spectacular evening like this one when the scene remains compelling as it undergoes radical transformations of color and light, it is possible to end up with too many photographs! Originally I strained to hold myself to a series of four from one vantage point. However, after returning to these images recently I now see that others work, too — like this one.

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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Clearing Storm, Sierra Crest

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Clearing Storm, Sierra Crest
A late-spring storm clears along the Sierra Nevada crest near Bloody Canyon.

Clearing Storm, Sierra Crest. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A late-spring storm clears along the Sierra Nevada crest near Bloody Canyon.

This photograph comes from an early-season trip across the Sierra crest a few years ago. It must have been quite a day. The first photographs from the set were in springtime Yosemite Valley. By the end of the day I had crossed Tioga Pass and headed out to the east of the range and into high desert near Mono Lake, the location from which I made this photograph late in the afternoon.

If only I kept a diary of these things! My hunch is that this was my “first trip of the season” across recently-cleared passes, on which I often take stock of the conditions at the beginning of a new summer season. From the looks of the clouds hugging the crest along the eastern Yosemite boundary, winter had not yet quite let go. There was still a decent amount of snow, clouds draped the crest, and it looks like there is some active precipitation.

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 | Facebook | Email

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.

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

Clearing Coastal Fog

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Clearing Coastal Fog
Morning coastal fog begins to break up over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.

Clearing Coastal Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning coastal fog begins to break up over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.

Conditions were both odd… and very normal for June on this recent visit to the Pacific coastline between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. The odd? In some spots the drizzle was heavy enough to almost count as rain, something quite unusual in these parts of California in June. The usual? We have a term for it here: “June Gloom,” when the influence of cooler ocean waters creates a lot of coastal fog, often sufficient to spread inland throughout the Bay Area.

The three things that will usually bring me to the coast to photograph are fog, a storm, and/or high surf. This was obviously a foggy day, and my general strategy is to photograph in the moody, murky fog until it begins to clear. At that point I chase the fog line, where all kinds of wonderful things happen with light and color. The blue of the sky intensifies the color of the water, and the contrasts grow between shaded ocean and the places where it is either still in fog or catching the first sun.

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 | Facebook | Email

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.