Tag Archives: clouds

Commentary, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Yosemite

Abandoned Buildings, Eastern Sierra

August 8, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 8 Comments

Blood-red dawn light illuminates eastern Sierra Nevada peaks of Yosemite National Park and morning clouds above abandoned high desert cabins in the sage brush along highway 395.

Many who travel the eastern Sierra on highway 395 have no doubt seen these two abandoned buildings along the highway not far from Lee Vining, set against the background of the Sierra’s eastern escarpment along the border of Yosemite National Park. I’ve noticed them for years and have tried to photograph them a few times in the past.

On this late-July morning I had gotten up very early at my Tuolumne Meadows camp site and decided that there might be enough interesting clouds to warrant a trip down to the South Tufa area of Mono Lake for a sunrise shoot. However, I apparently didn’t get up quite early enough (actually, I miscalculated the time of dawn) since the sun began to rise above the horizon just before I turned east from 395 onto 120 to get to the lake. For a moment I vacillated – should I hurry on to get to Mono as soon after sunrise as possible (since the light gets there a few minutes later) or shoot whatever I could see right then and there? The intense red light made the decision for me and I quickly pulled over near these buildings and made a few exposures as the saturated and very red morning light hit the mountains and the clouds.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: blood, red, dawn, morning, sunrise, clouds, sky, virga, eastern, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, yosemite, high, coiuntry, parker, pass, snow, eastern, escarpment, forest, sagebrush, high, desert, red, pink, abandoned, dilapidated, cabin, ranch, sagebrush, highway, 395, lee, vining, mono, lake, county, roadside, fence, barbed, wire, landscape, travel, scenic, stock

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Morning Virga, Mono Lake

August 6, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Early in the morning, Mono Lake is often a very still and quiet place and the sense of empty space and the scale of the landscape are palpable. Down close to the water the only sound comes from the gulls and the water is often nearly glass-smooth. (For a while – later in the day the wind often rises and the things become more agitated.)

I had spent an hour or more photographing at the shoreline in and around tufa towers and had finished for the morning. I had packed everything up and loaded the car and was actually starting to drive away when I saw this scene composed almost entirely of blue tones, with the clouds dropping virga (rain that doesn’t reach the ground) above the distant mountains, and a few isolated tufas offshore.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Sunset Virga Above Mount Dana, Tuolumne Meadows

August 3, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Sunset virga drops rain above the summit of Mount Dana and is reflected in a quiet pool of the Tuolumne River.

Earlier on this day I had been caught out without raingear, two hours out from the trailhead on the Sierra crest at Mono Pass, as the thunderstorms began. Apparently a change in the weather pattern had sneaked in without me noticing, and what started as a completely clear morning turned into an afternoon of thundershowers and quite a bit of rain in the Tuolumne region.

For a photographer, this can be good news. All too often, Sierra weather can be what seems like an interminable string of boring, perfect blue sky days. A bit of weather is often a lot more interesting.

Since it had rained all afternoon, I thought there might be a chance of interesting sunset colors if the clouds over the crest stuck around and the clouds to the west cleared enough to allow the light of the setting sun to shine in unimpeded. You almost never know for certain when it comes to these conditions – the best you can do is recognize when they might happen, and then be there to do your work if it happens. You’ll either get some great sunset color… or you’ll be left standing there wondering what happened.

Back in early June I had scouted this location that placed the group of three trees to the right of Lembert dome and placed a quiet pool of the Tuolumne River in the foreground. At that time, while I liked to the potential of the location, there was no interesting light and I did not even go back on that trip to photograph there – I just filed it away in my memory as something to try should I be there when sunset clouds were just right. So when I thought I saw “sunset potential” on this night, I more or less made a bee-line to this spot. I set up my gear, made a composition (and a few variations on it) and waited to see what would happen. Not only did the colors turn on just before sunset, but at that exact time a single cloud dropping virga (rain that doesn’t reach the ground) appeared above Mount Dana, the distant and highest peak in the photograph.

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.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

“Ublic” – Imaginary Landscape with Clouds

July 20, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

An imaginary landscape photographed in San Francisco.

It has been a while since I’ve posted an “imaginary landscape” photograph – so here goes. This is a single exposure, everything that appears in the frame was there when I made the exposure. Some significant post processing was done to this image, but it was not constructed in post.

Beyond that, I’ll leave it to your imagination to think about what is going on here.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 200, f/11, 1/320 second

keywords: san francisco, california, usa, north america, city, urban, sky, clouds, birds, billboard, wall, light, pole, pigeon, picture, imaginary, landscape, urban, ublic, blue, lamp

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