Tenaya Lake, First Light. Yosemite National Park, California. July 15 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light shines on granite cliffs above Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park

I have long been intrigued by a certain patch of sunlight that descends the granite slopes above this Yosemite lake in the mornings, and I planned to photograph it again on this trip to the park. I was up early on the first morning and off to this location, but I quickly got distracted by low fog floating in a very large nearby meadow. Somewhere I have heard an old saying about not ignoring the photograph in front of you for the possibility of another photograph that [i]might[/i] (or might not) happen, and I followed that “rule” and stopped and photographed the fog as the sun rose. By the time I finished this it was well past dawn, and although I continued on to the location of this photograph, when I got there the early light had transitioned into something much less interesting.

A couple of mornings later I thought I would try again. This time I was up even earlier and resolved to not stop for any but the most astonishing distractions, and I made it here before the first light was on the granite slopes. In this case, since I had a specific photograph in mind (and a few others that I might also try afterwards), I went to the exact spot where I wanted to be, pulled out the lens I knew I would need, set up and waited for the light. My location is not exactly an isolated or inaccessible one, and later on this day (and every summer day!) there would be lots of people and vehicles here. But at dawn even a place like this provides almost complete silence and the sense of deep stillness and huge space that I love in these mountains. I marvel that so many go to the Sierra yet so few seek out this quiet stillness. Soon the first tough of light appeared high on the dome to the left above the lake as beams of light began to pass between the peaks to the right, and I photographed as the light gradually worked its way down toward the lake.

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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