Tag Archives: dawn

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

High Country, Dawn

August 2, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Just before sunrise, soft light and colorful sky above Yosemite high-country peaks, forest, and meadow.

Sometimes landscape and nature photographers enjoy complaining about certain things required to be in the right places at the right times in order to make photographs of their intended subjects. So, here is a story. The previous day I had been out photographing until the light was gone, and then had to travel back to my dark camp. By the time I finished camp business, it was quite late, and by the time I got to sleep it was less-than-a-full-night’s-sleep until the time I would have to get up. But get up I did, well before dawn. I dressed in the cold and darkness, soon heading out with no coffee or breakfast while the sky was still dark. Before long I began to find potential subjects, even though the light was not yet quite “there.”

Now, behind that story (complaining? false heroism?) is another truth: I feel fortunate to be able to do this! As I ventured out, I found myself almost entirely alone. Even though I was driving on a very popular high country road, I saw almost no one else. Before long the bluish earth shadow line began to drop toward the horizon behind these peaks, and I stopped at a little meadow I know well. Although it is next to the roadway, it was almost completely silent and still, and the meadow plants were covered with dew. I photographed as this brief show of sky color began to fade, and as I finished I thought about the number of people who only come to these places in the middle of the day, and who therefore miss the color and the quiet and the solitude. Is it worth getting out of my sleeping bag in the predawn darkness? Yes!

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

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

July 30, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Predawn light above high desert mountains, reflecting on the surface of Mono Lake

Mono Lake is famed for several things, among them the remarkable tufa towers found in several locations along the shoreline of this great land-locked lake east of the Sierra Nevada. And, yes, this photograph includes a few of those towers — a small group that lies far enough from the shoreline to make them less accessible and interesting to most photographers. (No, that isn’t Nessie — or a band of Nessie lookalikes — at the lower left corner.)

But tufa towers are not my primary or strongest association with this place. Mine include more ephemeral things — the sense of huge space, the expanse of the sky (accentuated by the distance and smallness of surrounding mountains), the deep quiet that is broken only by the sounds of birds and wind. In my experience, to understand those things about this place you must find a quiet place away from other people and perhaps just “be” there quietly, long enough to let its stillness begin to affect you, too. On this morning I arrived in Mono Basin before dawn, ending up at a spot that is not typically regarded as being iconic. Being early, I was in no hurry, so I set up my camera and tripod and just looked for a while before beginning to make photographs of the predawn light from beyond the eastern mountains as it reflected on the breeze-ruffled surface of the lake.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Eastside Dawn

June 26, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light on the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada near Long Valley

I regard myself as a bit of a sunrise connoisseur, having arisen well before dawn on many, many mornings — almost every morning, actually — and often gone out to observe and photograph at first light. Trust me, I do understand how hard it is to get out of a warm bed (or warm sleeping bag) in darkness, dress, and head out into the still-dark world. But if you can start to make it a habit there is a good chance that you’ll become addicted — and what better kind of addiction is there than to need to see the first light?

I photographed this on an autumn morning when I headed out into the valley to the east of the escarpment of the Sierra. It was, as it usually is in mid-October, very cold when we arrived. But it was also very quiet and still, and steam was rising from nearby springs and creeks as the sky began to listen and the first light touched the peaks of the Sierra. It worked its way down the face of the range, across fluted alpine faces, into deep mountain valleys, and eventually to the rounded, tree-covered hills at the foot of the range.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Lenticular Clouds, Death Valley

May 2, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn lenticular clouds from above the Black Mountains and Death Valley

After a cold and windy final night camping in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley National Park this spring, I woke up early and headed to an overlook along the summit ridge for the range before dawn. The most typical experience here is to watch the sun rise into clear skies above the desert landscape, but this time a weather system was approaching. It was cold, extremely windy, and the sky was filled with dark clouds. The only sunrise color I saw was along a distant band of light at the horizon, produced by clearer skies far to the southeast.

I had seen the giant lenticular cloud forming the previous afternoon. These clouds are almost a part of the landscape at times, arising in predictable locations and formed by interactions between the atmosphere and features such as mountain ridges. Unlike other clouds, the lenticular can remain almost stationary for long periods of time — but this is the first time I’ve awakened to see clouds from the previous day still there. The choice to use a monochrome interpretation allowed me greater interpretative latitude in the final image, and this let me draw attention to certain shapes mirrored by the clouds and the geology in the scene.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: dawn

High Country, Dawn

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

Eastside Dawn

Lenticular Clouds, Death Valley

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