Tag Archives: dawn

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Eastern Sierra From Afar

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Eastern Sierra From Afar
The pre-dawn eastern Sierra Nevada viewed from an aspen-covered ridge far to the east

Eastern Sierra From Afar. East of the Sierra Nevada, California. September 17, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The pre-dawn eastern Sierra Nevada viewed from an aspen-covered ridge far to the east

This may be the final photograph in this series. (But you never know!) On a mid-September day, when autumn aspen color was just beginning to show in the Sierra and the nearby ranges to the east, I arose early and headed off to a place that I had wondered about on an earlier visit. On that previous trip I had also done a bit of wandering out the east of the crest, by chance deciding to turn off of a paved road near the top of a pass, and then following gravel tracks out along a high ridge. I suspected there were aspens here, but I didn’t realize how many, and I made a mental note to come back here in the fall.

So this was my return. Arriving before sunrise I wasn’t quite sure what I would find. I knew there was a panoramic view back toward the eastern Sierra and I knew there were aspens. I also knew of a couple of likely place to stop. As I arrived near the location of the photograph it was still rather dark and very cold, so I went for something I knew and I looked for a very short spur road through the trees to a viewpoint I had visited earlier. I got out and set up camera gear in the pre-dawn cold — my first really cold morning of the season — and waited for light. As it arrived I could see that the color transition was much farther along than I expected, and I was able to frame a composition that included a few of the most colorful trees, the mountain of aspens beyond, the Sierra in the far distance, and the first pink light of the new day above.

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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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Morning, Wildfire Smoke

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Morning, Wildfire Smoke
Wildfire smoke layer drift, above Mono Lake at sunrise

Morning, Wildfire Smoke. Mono Lake, California. September 18, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Wildfire smoke layer drift, above Mono Lake at sunrise

The subject of this photograph comes about as close to being insubstantial as possible. When I began photographing before dawn on this September morning, Mono Lake was still mostly visible, though a large cloud of wildfire smoke was gathering to the southeast and beginning to drift toward the lake. First, layers of smoke began to stretch individually across the lake as sunrise approached. As more of them arrived they began to completely obscure the more distant landscape and to mute the colors and details of objects that were even closer. If you look at this photograph for a moment you can begin to see what remains — a bit of a peninsula with some tufa formations along the right margin, and in the lower center and stretching toward the left some soft reflections of morning light on the surface of the lake.

For a moment when I first saw the smoke I was disappointed that it might interfere with my photography, but it only took a moment to realize that these were special and beautiful conditions not likely to occur that often. The smoke and the morning backlight rendered details almost invisible, only seen faintly through gaps in the smoke. The smoke itself, dividing into layers and taking on subtle colors from the morning back-light, filled the scene with nearly abstract shapes. But before long smoke filled in even more, and soon it was too opaque to photograph at all.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Earth Shadow, Morning

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Aspens, Earth Shadow, Morning
The earth’s shadow and predawn light on aspen groves east of the Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Earth Shadow, Morning. East of the Sierra Nevada. September 17, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The earth’s shadow and predawn light on aspen groves east of the Sierra Nevada

On a cold and clear morning in mid-September earlier this year I left my camp in the Sierra and headed east, past Mono Lake and on out into the mountains east of the Sierra Nevada and east of US 395. I did not have a specific goal in mind, but I thought I would do a bit of early season aspen color reconnaissance in preparation for planned visits to photograph fall color a few weeks later. I gradually worked my way further out from the Sierra, stopping from time to time and poking around the ends of various gravel roads. Finally I found one that looked promising and took it.

I knew that I had previously seen aspens atop ridges in the general area of this road, and I had made a note to come back this way in the fall. I don’t typically expect to see much fall color by mid-September in the Sierra, but I soon found quite a bit of it — a whole mountain top was covered with small trees that were beginning to turn colors almost uniformly. I took a short spur road to an overlook and parked — from here there was an almost unobstructed view of a big section of the Sierra crest. It was cold enough to let me know that autumn wasn’t far away as I waited for the sun, beginning to photograph in that lovely predawn period of warm colors when the earth’s shadow can be seen in the darkened atmosphere just above the horizon.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Dawn, Desert Mountains, Lake

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Dawn, Desert Mountains, Lake
Dawn haze above Mono Lake and desert mountains

Dawn, Desert Mountains, Lake. Mono Lake, California. October 2, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn haze above Mono Lake and desert mountains

Many people perhaps think first of tufa formations when they think of Mono Lake — and given their novel quality and popularity, who can blame them? But as interesting as those formations are, they are not what first comes to mind for me when I think of this place. Instead, my associations are with immense sky, profound silence, perhaps birds, and, of course, wind. Despite being so close to the Sierra, with its intimate forest and meadow landscapes and towering alpine peaks, this place seems much different.

I made this photograph from a high place early on an autumn morning, when haze that may have come from many sources including wildfires, muted and obscured the details of the landscape, leaving mostly the larger features and forms. The foreground is a bit of the lake surface, and beyond the surrounding basin rises toward a succession of high and barren ridges and peaks as the first light makes the atmosphere luminous.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.