Tag Archives: creek

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

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring

May 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Spring snowmelt rushes over a boulder in a Sierra Nevada stream, Yosemite National Park.

I made this photograph at the very end of spring last year in the Yosemite Sierra Nevada. Last year was a year that began much differently that this year in California. While this is a drought year, the previous season was one of record precipitation, and the high country opened very late. Even when it did open – in this case the Tioga Pass Road opened on the mid-June weekend when I made this photograph – there was still a lot of snow and ice everywhere, and much of the backcountry was still largely inaccessible. This little bit of water cascading over a boulder is a scene that could have been found in any number of places, but this one was found in a seasonal stream that tumbled down a mountainside along the roadway.

Believe it or not, this is a color photograph! The colors are, obviously, very subtle, but they are there and they are, I think, important. In fact, when I was working on the image I thought about producing it as a black and white image, tried it out, and was surprised by just how different it looked when the colors were removed. There are some subtle brown/tan tones in the upper part of the boulder, and the water contains a range of subtle but important tones of blue and green.

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

Impossible Tree Fall, Spring

April 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Rushing water of a seasonal creek splashes and leaps over rocks and past a tree, Yosemite National Park.

The name of this little seasonal waterfall – found along highway 120 – is not, as far as I can tell, official. However, it seems to be fairly well-known among Yosemite folks. It is also a great name – not only because of the fun conduction of words, but also because it so aptly describes the most notable feature of the fall, the “impossible tree.” In this odd little section of rocky hillside above a road, a creek flows for a short time in the spring as the winter snow melts out. In this middle of this rocky jumble grows a single tree, with its roots seemingly attached to nothing more than rocks. So it is a doubly impossible tree, growing in the middle of a waterfall and somehow finding sustenance from granite.

This photograph was made outside of the more typical “golden hour” time, though it wasn’t all that late in the morning. My timing was just right – though luck probably had as much to do with this as did planning. As we passed by, the sun was rising high enough to peek over the top of the ridge above the fall and its light was just starting to strike the leaping water from behind and above.

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

Spring Torrent, Yosemite

April 5, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A cascading creek zigzags among boulders as it descends a steep mountainside, Yosemite National Park.

This is a scene I have photographed many times, as I continue to work on “seeing” and understanding its elements. (And as I work on trying not to duplicate other beautiful “takes” on this location that have been produced by other photographers whose work I respect a great deal!) As a matter of fact, the “many times” would have to include the many times I photographed it on this particular visit, as photographing moving water tends to be a bit of a game of percentages. While you can start to gauge some of the patterns of the water if you watch long and intently enough, in the end you have to take what you get to some extent. Fortunately, with digital cameras it is possible to improve the odds a bit since one can make a lot of exposures, with the only real cost being the great amount of time required to go through them all.

This photograph was made at just about the peak of the spring runoff season, and during a year that had featured well above average precipitation during the previous winter. In mid-June (about the time that Tioga Pass finally opened) there was water flowing everywhere – obviously in the many well-known creeks and rivers and waterfalls, but also in places where you might otherwise not expect to see flowing water. Impromptu seasonal streams were everywhere, flowing across granite and through forests and often spilling right across the roadways. The object in this photograph was to try to shoot straight into the maelstrom of the current as it dropped down a steep hillside, twisting and turning as it passed through a narrow, rocky area.

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

Spring Torrent, Boulders, and Trees

March 27, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring torrent, mist, and trees, Yosemite. — “Spring Torrent, Boulders, and Trees” — Spring snowmelt swells a rushing creek as it rushes past trees and over boulders, Yosemite National Park.

This is a Yosemite National Park cascade that I frequently photograph – at various times of the year including winter, the spring runoff season, and the much quieter and more sedate autumn time. This creek drops precipitously down a steep mountainside (as a number of Yosemite Valley creeks tend to do!) and passes in several place through narrow, twisting, and granite boulder-filled channels.

I made this photograph at almost right around the peak of the spring runoff during an above-average precipitation year, so the water was roaring though this section. The mist that is visible in the photograph was being blown strongly down the canyon and I had to stand in its flow to make this photograph. I recall that I more or less figured out the composition (two actually – one vertical and this one horizontal) before I moved into position, and then I quickly stepped into the mist and made a series of exposures before I and my equipment became too wet, shooting straight into the blowing mist. Now, when I look at this photograph, the memory of the cool, wet air and the tremendous sound of the cascading water comes back to me.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: creek

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring

Impossible Tree Fall, Spring

Spring Torrent, Yosemite

Spring Torrent, Boulders, and Trees

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