Tag Archives: dome

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

Morning Light on Granite Ridge

September 14, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light strikes trees on the ridge of a glaciated dome above Tenaya Canyon, Yosemite National Park

Yosemite is known for many things — the Valley, waterfalls, and other familiar sights — but above all it should probably be known simply for granite. (Apologies to geologists ,who know that “granite” is a simplification, but I’m going with it.) The cliffs and domes of Yosemite Valley are well known, but I’m especially thinking of the higher regions of the park, where one is hardly ever far from granite slabs, granite boulders moved about by ancient glaciers, granite stream beds, granite faces, granite ground into sand…

This is one of those locations where it is possible to look in the right direction and focus your attention on a particular area… and see almost nothing but granite. Here a glaciated granite ridge, topped by sunlit trees, is backed by a glaciated granite wall in shadow, with a glacial granite canyon lying between the two. The surfaces of such places are fascinating. A close look at the sunlit ridge reveals large granite boulders, with trees and small strips of meadow. Below that ridge is a large expanse of exfoliating granite slabs with trees eking out a living on little more than bare rock.

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

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

Meadow, Forest, and Dome

September 11, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Afternoon light along the edge of Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park

Late in the afternoon, about the time that many day visitors leave Tuolumne Meadows for their lodgings and when many campers are fixing dinner, I wandered out into the meadow with no particular destination in mind. With the exception of a few other walkers and two or three deer, I mostly had the meadow to myself. I walked slowly along a narrow finger of grasses between trees encroaching that are gradually encroaching on the meadow, passed through the last trees in one of these stands, and found myself in a large section of open meadow. After so many years in the Sierra and particularly in this place, it has a quiet and comfortable and unhurried feeling on an evening like this one.

Farther downstream the larger forest trees came to the edge of the meadow, and late afternoon golden light slanted across the meadow past these trees. Beyond the shoulder of a granite dome sloped down toward the lower terrain, catching the sun from the west.

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

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

Morning, Tuolumne Meadows, Mount Dana

August 26, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Lembert Dome and Mount Dana rise above Tuolumne Meadows on a cloudy summer morning

This is yet another of the stopped-on-my-way-somewhere-else photographs, often made unexpectedly as I encounter something I wasn’t really looking for and get distracted — though another way to put it is that I quickly fall into a different mode of seeing when I photograph, and I begin to recognize the potential in subjects that I might otherwise not have noticed. In this case I was headed towards a specific location that I had planned to visit this morning, with a rather specific subject in mind. I set out and, as almost always, my “photographer’s brain” engages and I start seeing potential photographs everywhere. There is a tricky balance sometimes between stopping for the thing I see right here and sticking to a plan to photograph that other thing that I want to see. (This is an old question in photography with the extreme answers ranging from “never pass up a subject in front of you for one that you might see elsewhere” to “make a plan and stick to it if you want to get the photograph you have in mind.” The truth is complex, situational, and depends as much on good fortune and good guesses perhaps as much as on any rational considerations.)

In any case, I skipped past a few opportunities/distractions but ended up stopping for this one. This is a fairly well-known view in this part of the Sierra, though not everyone sees it right at sunrise. I’ve often stopped to admire the scene and on occasion photograph it, usually with some beautiful haze partially obscuring distant details and perhaps making closer details clearer by contrast. Since I am familiar with the view and had a good idea of what I wanted the photograph to look like, stopping for a few minutes was sufficient to make the photograph… and I was back on the road to my original destination.

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

Tenaya Lake, First Light

July 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light shines on granite cliffs above Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park

I have long been intrigued by a certain patch of sunlight that descends the granite slopes above this Yosemite lake in the mornings, and I planned to photograph it again on this trip to the park. I was up early on the first morning and off to this location, but I quickly got distracted by low fog floating in a very large nearby meadow. Somewhere I have heard an old saying about not ignoring the photograph in front of you for the possibility of another photograph that [i]might[/i] (or might not) happen, and I followed that “rule” and stopped and photographed the fog as the sun rose. By the time I finished this it was well past dawn, and although I continued on to the location of this photograph, when I got there the early light had transitioned into something much less interesting.

A couple of mornings later I thought I would try again. This time I was up even earlier and resolved to not stop for any but the most astonishing distractions, and I made it here before the first light was on the granite slopes. In this case, since I had a specific photograph in mind (and a few others that I might also try afterwards), I went to the exact spot where I wanted to be, pulled out the lens I knew I would need, set up and waited for the light. My location is not exactly an isolated or inaccessible one, and later on this day (and every summer day!) there would be lots of people and vehicles here. But at dawn even a place like this provides almost complete silence and the sense of deep stillness and huge space that I love in these mountains. I marvel that so many go to the Sierra yet so few seek out this quiet stillness. Soon the first tough of light appeared high on the dome to the left above the lake as beams of light began to pass between the peaks to the right, and I photographed as the light gradually worked its way down toward the lake.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: dome

Morning Light on Granite Ridge

Meadow, Forest, and Dome

Morning, Tuolumne Meadows, Mount Dana

Tenaya Lake, First Light

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