Tag Archives: clouds

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Basin Mountain, Mount Humphreys, Dawn

January 1, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light on a stormy morning above Basin Mountain, Mount Humphreys and the Sierra Nevada crest

Let’s welcome the New Year with a sunrise photograph! Happy New Year 2015! I made the photograph a bit more than five years ago, during a fall trip to the Eastern Sierra to photograph autumn colors. I made a series of similar photographs on this morning, at least one of which I have shared in the past. However, as I worked my way though a decade’s worth of old raw files during the past few weeks, I came on this one and felt that it could work will in the panoramic presentation seen here.

As I recall, on that morning I had awakened at my camp higher up in the mountains, planning to head further up the canyon before daybreak to photograph high elevation aspen trees. However, the light did not look promising, as it was quite overcast. I realized that it was one of those mornings when there was a chance for a special lighting condition that occurs when it is clear far to the east, and right at sunrise a narrow band of light breaks under the clouds and sends a line of light across the eastern face of the Sierra, light that works its way down from top to bottom as the sun comes up. So I quickly changed plans and headed the opposite direction and out into the “Buttermilk Country” below the Sierra, arriving just in time to find this beautiful light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

San Luis Reservoir, Autumn Haze

December 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft light and autumn atmosphere obscure the view across the San Luis Reservoir

Since I have previously described the circumstances of photographing this scene, I’ll keep this description short. The San Luis Reservoir is a huge manmade lake in central California, between the south San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley. I frequently pass by here as I travel to the Valley, the Sierra, and beyond.

On this day I had been out in the Valley photographing migratory birds and the landscapes in which they are found — my first such visit to the Valley this season. On the way back home I passed the reservoir in the middle of the day, when the bright, late-autumn sun was reflecting off the surface of the lake and making the clouds above the distance mountains glow.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Utah Dawn Sky

December 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cloudy sky at sunrise above the high country of Capitol Reef National Park

This photograph came from a particularly productive morning shoot near Capitol Reef National Park. We had decided to get up early and head down the east side of the park along a lengthy gravel road, with the eventual goal of either exploring a slot canyon or going up high on the ridge to the west of the water pocket fold valley. We drove east through the park in pre-dawn darkness, but as we left the park and started to head south the sun was just coming up. It soon became apparent that a special sunrise might be in store for us, so we quickly found a place with some broad views and stopped and got out.

The morning conditions were a bit unusual and quite special. To our west the sky was darkened by some slightly ominous looking clouds — the sort that seemed to have the potential for bringing rain later in the day. Far to the east there appeared to be enough breaks in the cloud cover to allow some dawn sunlight through, and we hoped that the foreground peaks of Capitol Reef might be lit against this darker sky. In fact, that is precisely what happened very soon after we arrived. I chose the vertical format for this photograph, minimizing the size of the brilliantly lit slopes ascending toward the peaks, so that I could emphasize the ominous quality of this dark sky.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Boat, San Luis Reservoir

December 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two fisherman in a very small boat on the very large surface of the San Luis Reservoir on a cloudy and hazy autumn day

Returning from my first Central Valley winter bird photography excursion of the new season, I passed by San Luis Reservoir in the middle of the day when soft clouds hung above the mountains across the water and the sun made the hazy atmosphere glow. I usually just drive right past this place — which isn’t easy to access, even though the road runs right next to it — but I decided to figure out how and where to stop and make some photographs.

I found a high overlook at the visitor center that stands at the north end of the huge earthen dam, and from here there was a panoramic view of the surface of the lake and the surrounding California hills, which are mostly golden at this point in the early winter season. (Before long, after the first real rains, they will turn “impossibly green.”) As I photographed landscape subjects I noticed one very small fishing boat on the otherwise-empty surface of the huge reservoir.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: clouds

Basin Mountain, Mount Humphreys, Dawn

San Luis Reservoir, Autumn Haze

Utah Dawn Sky

Boat, San Luis Reservoir

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