Tag Archives: crest

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

Thawing Ice, Sierra Nevada

July 23, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ice melts on the frozen surface of an alpine lake near the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Yosemite National Park.

When I visited this lake very close to the Sierra Crest in the Yosemite back-country in late June, it was still completely covered with winter ice – though the thaw was well underway and the surface was a complex pattern of frozen sections and pools of water on top of the ice that reflected the sky, clouds, and surrounding mountains.

This photograph is a stitched panorama, created by combining two landscape mode photographs in the post-processing phase.

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 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 100, f/11, 1/640 second, stitched from two photographs

keywords: panorama, pattern, texture, reflection, gaylor, lake, basic, sky, cloud, shadow, frozen, water, alpine, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, crest, yosemite, national, park, tioga, pass, road, nature, landscape, scenic, travel, high, melt, thaw, ice, california, usa, north america, stock

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

Blue Ice, Alpine Lake

July 12, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Patterns of blue and white ice emerge as the frozen surface of an alpine lake begins to melt, Yosemite National Park.

Yes, I’m still working the series of photographs from my late June visit to a frozen alpine lake in the Tioga Pass area of Yosemite National Park – and there still may be one or two more to come. This is a tightly cropped detail of a section of the ice on the surface of this lake that was still mostly frozen, albeit in a somewhat slushy form. (Other photographs in this series play with the juxtaposition of ices and meltwater floating on the surface of the ice.) The very blue tone comes from the fact that the illumination was entirely from the very blue sky, with no direct sunlight hitting the ice at all.

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 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 100, f/18, 1/8 second

keywords: gaylor, lake, basin, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, north america, tioga, pass, road, sierra, nevada, crest, mountain, range, alpine, blue, white, ice, frozen, melt, pattern, surface, landscape, nature, scenic, stock, tuolumne, evening, late, afternoon

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

Tuolumne Meadows – Flooding River and Spring Snow

June 10, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Spring snow covers Tuolumne Meadows and the Tuolumne River overflows its banks withLembert Dome, Mounts Dana and Gibbs, and Kuna Crest on the skyline.

These were special conditions that I encountered in Tuolumne on the evening of June 5, the day that Tioga Pass opened for the 2010 season. Tuolumne Meadows was still almost completely covered in snow, except that the river was so full with meltwater that large sections of the meadow were flooded, making parts of it look more like a lake than a meadow. The watercourse in the foreground of this photograph will simply be a grass-covered meadow a few weeks from now, and soon after that will be a great place to look for wildflowers – but on this night it was a fast flowing and cold body of water containing floating bits of slushy ice.

The peaks on the horizon are “old friends” to those who frequently visit Tuolumne – from left to right they are Lembert Dome, Mount Dana, Mount Gibbs, and the end of Kuna Crest where it terminates at Mammoth Peak.

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 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 105mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/25 second

keywords: yosemite, national, park, sierra, nevada, mountain, spring, nature, tuolumne, meadows, river, snow, pack, overflow, flood, flow, lembert, dome, mount, dana, gibbs, kuna, crest, ridge, peak, forest, sunset, evening, light, reflection, landscape, nature, california, usa, north america, sky, stock

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

Mammoth Peak and Ice-Covered Tioga Lake

June 9, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A late winter scene with ice-covered Tioga Lake and snow-capped Mammoth Peak at Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park, California.

The view of Mammoth Peak from the Tioga Pass area is a favorite of mine, and I rarely cross the pass without stopping to at least take a look. My favorite light on Mammoth Peak comes late in the afternoon when it strikes the peak from the side, bringing the textures into relief, especially when there are still snow patches.

The conditions in this photograph are fleeting, in that the photograph was made during the brief interval between full high-country winter and the “summer” season, during which the lakes quickly become free of ice. On this early June day the late afternoon shadows of clouds and nearby peaks fall across the mostly frozen surface of Tioga Lake which is marked by a few areas that are beginning to melt out.

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 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 149mm
ISO 200, f/16, 1/200 second

keywords: yosemite, national, park, sierra, nevada, mountain, spring, nature, california, usa, north america, tioga, tuolumne, lake, kuna, crest, mammoth, peak, snow capped, ice, covered, frozen, pass, road, trans-sierra, highway, 120, sky, clouds, shadows, forest, trees, ice, pond, melt, shadow, reflection, nature, winter, spring, season, thaw, stock, landscape, nature

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