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Two Domes, Evening

Two Domes, Evening
Evening light on granite domes, meadows, and forest, Yosemite National Park

Two Domes, Evening. Yosemite National Park, California. July 26, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on granite domes, meadows, and forest, Yosemite National Park

As always when staying in and around Tuolumne Meadows — though this time I had to drive in from a more distant campground — I was out in the meadows as evening approached. The campground was still closed due to late-melting winter snows, so there were even fewer than usual people out enjoying the late-day light and benign clouds floating overhead.

As I walked through the meadow I enjoyed the constantly changing landscape and patterns of clouds and sunlight moved across the forest, meadow, and mountains. From moment to moment the light changed significantly enough to almost create new landscapes. At the moment of this photograph the main subject was actually darkened a bit by the shadow of a passing cloud — perhaps giving it a more ominous appearance — but the light was bright on the smaller, more distant dome and on the meadow and forest at the base of the dome.


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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Morning Above The Meadow

Morning Above The Meadow
First light comes to ridges and peaks above a subalpine meadow

Morning Above The Meadow. Yosemite National Park, California. July 27, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First light comes to ridges and peaks above a subalpine meadow

Nothing was yet open along Tioga Pass Road when I visited in late July. Typically all of the campgrounds would be open by this point, but an exceptionally heavy winter snowfall had delayed the process of clearing the road and opening up the high country. There was still a lot of snow at around 10,000′ and higher, and water was running high and fast everywhere. Early in the morning I drove back into the park from my camp site just east of the crest, heading down to Tuolumne Meadows to make some early morning photographs.

I’m often a bit surprised by how few people who camp at Tuolumne manage to make it out to the meadow for first light, missing what is arguably the most beautiful time of the day. On this day, with the campground closed, there was almost no one else at the meadow — I had the place almost entirely to myself. I stopped at the lower end of the meadow and looked back to the east, across the meadow and then a series of successive ridges, including a couple of well-known domes, and finally to the summit of Mount Dana. The sun had just risen on the east side of the range, and its light was beginning to pour over the ridges of the Sierra crest.


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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Meadow, Forest, Cloud-Shrouded Peak

Meadow, Forest, Cloud-Shrouded Peak
Cloud-shrouded Mount Conness towers above the domes and forest of Tuolumne Meadows

Meadow, Forest, Cloud-Shrouded Peak. Yosemite National Park, California. July 12, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cloud-shrouded Mount Conness towers above the domes and forest of Tuolumne Meadows

I’ll take a break from the recent urban, night, and street photography and go back to the high country with a photograph from about this time a year ago. I spent a few days in the Tuolumne Meadows area, photography in the high elevation areas of the park. This was a particularly memorable evening that started without a specific plan, led to a surprise meeting with friends and photographs, including a hike down a river to a lovely area of granite slabs, and concluded with sunset back in the big meadow.

As we came back up the river we split up — some heading up onto a nearby high prominence and others (that would be me!) hanging out along the edge of the meadow, between the base of a granite dome and a large herd of grazing deer. As the final sun light touched the tops of the highest peaks, fog formed around the summit of Mt. Conness up along the Sierra crest.


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.

Passersby

Passersby
A couple passes a man with a dog on a San Francisco sidewalk

Passersby. San Francisco, California. July 25. 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A couple passes a man with a dog on a San Francisco sidewalk

There are stories behind all of my photographs, but the stories of street photographs can be a bit more involved — they often include not only my own story but also the stories of the events and even the people who may appear. There is a bit of both in this photograph of some people along a sidewalk in the Chinatown area of San Francisco, a photograph made in the early evening at the beginning of a night of street photography. I can’t try to describe everything that might be here, but I’ll share a few hints.

The first subject I see in this photograph is the woman, whose gaze is somewhat averted and whose demeanor does not express complete ease. The young man she accompanies is, obviously, facing away from the camera as she clutches his arm. Look to the left and notice the figure near the lamppost — a man clothed in a tie-dye “robe” (for lack of a better description of his improvised attire), carrying a backpack, and walking a very large and hairy dog. That man was the first subject to catch my attention, and when I first saw him he was behind my camera position and walking towards me. Believe me, he was quite a subject himself, but I am not fond of grabbing photographs of people who seem to perhaps be down and out — that sometimes feels like a bit of cliché. So I let him pass without a photograph, but then instinctively turned to see the scene unfold in the wake of his passage.


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.