Tag Archives: cliff

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

Seasonal Waterfall

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Seasonal Waterfall
Mist floats above the seasonal cascades of Sentinel Fall in late afternoon light, Yosemite Valley

Seasonal Waterfall. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mist floats above the seasonal cascades of Sentinel Fall in late afternoon light, Yosemite Valley

Tourists often visit Yosemite Valley in the very late spring and the summer, the season when the best-known waterfalls are flowing strongly — Yosemite, Bridalveil, Vernal, and Nevada falls being the most popular. They are spectacular, and they are worthy of a visit on their own. However, they are far from the only waterfalls in the Valley. (And the Valley is far from the entirety of the park!) There are many less-known waterfalls that a quite beautiful.

Many of these other waterfalls are seasonal, flowing for brief periods when the winter snow melts or coming to life mainly after storms. They tend to be quite ephemeral since the conditions that support them are often rather specific and short-lived. A number of the ephemeral Valley waterfalls are fed by streams having their origins in middle-elevation valleys that are not terribly large. As such, the bulk of winter snow melts over a short period of time… and the falls usually dry up completely. This fall is a prime example. It appears in the right conditions along the southern walls of the Valley (oddly, it is close to another, similar seasonal fall), but by summer it diminishes to a trickle and then disappears. On the day I photographed in mid-April it was flowing strongly following recent storms, producing a series of impressive waterfalls that combine to produce a spectacular drop from the rim to the floor of the Valley.

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

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 and Amazon.
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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, Photographs: Yosemite

Light on Granite

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Light on Granite
A gesture of light falls across an irregularity in the granite face of a Yosemite cliff.

Light on Granite. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A gesture of light falls across an irregularity in the granite face of a Yosemite cliff.

There is a tendency for people to regard the landscape as a fixed and even a permanent thing. The mountain will be there when you go back to it in a year or ten or a hundred, so the photograph “captures” a thing that is unchanging. This is, of course, incorrect, and on multiple levels. Supposedly permanent things change constantly — in fact, the forms by which we know them today are the result of profound forces of change that are ongoing. (One reason that climbers wear helmets is that rocks fall…) But changes on much shorter scales are of tremendous interest to those who photograph (or just like to view) than landscape. They range from annual (what is it like [i]this[/i] year?) to seasonal. Some of them obviously occur on a daily basis — and photographers think about those a lot. Light and atmosphere vary in profound and often remarkable ways.

In so many cases, timing is everything. For some, calculating that timing is a key. I just read a friend’s report on a night photograph that he had “figured out” over a year ago — it required him to be in a certain place during a narrow window of time with conditions that were just right. I am impressed! For others — including my friend — even more critical is being attuned to what is happening right now or in the next few minutes or hours and then being ready to respond. I share all of this here with this photograph as the effect of light on this granite face was tremendously transitory. The time between the bulk of the face falling into shadow (and leaving the thin strip in sun) and the complete loss of light was perhaps measured in seconds, and certainly little more than a minute. (This is another photograph from my artist-in-residency sponsored by Yosemite Renaissance this past winter and spring.)

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

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 and Amazon.
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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, Photographs: Yosemite

Conifers, Snow, Cliff

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Conifers, Snow, Cliff
A group of conifer trees at the edge of a meadow during Yosemite Valley snow flurries

Conifers, Snow, Cliff. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of conifer trees at the edge of a meadow during Yosemite Valley snow flurries

During the two-plus months of my Yosemite Renaissance artist-in-residency in the park I made hundreds of photographs. Some of those made it into a show that is now going on at Gallery 5 in Oakhurst, on the southern park boundary: “Transitions: Winter Into Spring — Yosemite Renaissance Artist-In-Residence G Dan Mitchell And Friends.” (The show continues until the end of this month, and it features the work of several fellow artists I invited to join me: Jerry Bosworth, Franka Mlikota Gabler, Charlotte Hamilton Gib, David Hoffman, Vidya Kane, and Kerby Smith.) I mention this because I am still working on photographs from this project even now — and this is one of them.

I made this photograph on a mid-April day when winter seemed to want to hang on just a bit longer. Near the start of this visit a small but energetic weather front swept through, raising the wind, dropping the temperature, and leaving behind a layer of new snow. I made this photograph as the storm passed, with snow flurries muting the features of more distant trees and the huge granite cliffs beyond. The snow also mutes the colors, and unless you look closely you might mistake this for a monochromatic photograph.

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

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 and Amazon.
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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

Coastline Near Klamath River

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Coastline Near Klamath River
Late-day light on the rugged coastline just south of the Klamath River

Coastline Near Klamath River. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late-day light on the rugged coastline just south of the Klamath River

I had passed by the great Klamath River on my way north to the Redwood National and State Parks, crossing it on the long bridge just upstream from where it meets the Pacific. On that late afternoon I took a quick detour up onto a small dead-end road from which I could look back down at the river and the sandbar between it and the ocean, and I made a few photographs before moving on — I still wanted to photograph redwoods before the day ended, and I had a bit of a drive beyond that to get to my motel.

Late the next day I found myself with a bit of unscheduled time, so I returned to the Klamath, again as the end of the day approached — but this time I was not in a hurry to leave. When I had visited the day before I had looked across the river to the hills and coastal bluffs to the south, and this time I decided to explore that area a bit. A drive took me to an overlook from which there was an unobstructed view along the coastline to the south as the evening golden hour light began.

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

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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