Tag Archives: dusk

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

Last Light, Yosemite Backcountry

October 2, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Final evening light on the face of a granite dome in the Yosemite National Park backcountry

As I have mentioned previously while sharing this set of photographs from my early September Yosemite backcountry photography, the particular ridge from which I made this photograph drew me back repeatedly. I climbed it to photograph in the early morning and late in the evening, and in conditions ranging from clear to hazy to scattered clouds. While the larger scene might be regarded as “typical Sierra,” it was possible to juxtapose and pick out all sorts of interesting elements, and the changing light transformed this landscape in surprisingly striking ways.

This was a particularly beautiful evening, and the light and landscape offered up many possibilities over the time I was there — from very late afternoon right on past the sunset. This was one of my final exposures of the evening, and the very last beams of red sunset light were coming up the canyon from the west after passing through a lot of low-level atmospheric haze in order to softly illuminate the edges of the granite slopes along the top of the near ridge as the rest of the scene was already falling into “blue hour” light.

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

Dusk, Canyon, Trees

September 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees on a ledge above a deep granite backcountry canyon catch the last light of the day

Late on this afternoon several of us wandered of to a nearby promontory, from which panoramic views of a large section of the Yosemite high country were available, along with more intimate subjects of granite boulders and trees growing tenuously on granite slabs. This is fun terrain to explore — open enough that you can go wherever you can find a way and wherever your skills and comfort with heights will permit, yet full on surprising little features worth seeing and photographing.

Soon the light began to fade from this high point as the sun dropped to the horizon, and it was time to start back toward camp. If I timed things just right I could shoot a bit into the post-sunset evening light and still have enough light left to pick my way down the ridge and then through the lakeside forest in diminishing light. As I descended along the spine of a glaciated granite ridge, the views overlooked the gorge of the Tuolumne River, and this valley was filled with luminous blue hour light. I found a spot with a fairly clear view across slightly lower, tree-covered ledges, and made a few photographs into the canyon, using my hands to shield the lens from the last bit of direct light before the sun dropped below the horizon.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Winter Dusk, Pacific Ocean

August 10, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter dusk light on the Pacific Ocean near the Marin Headlands

This is a photograph from all the way back in January, when we had driven north across the Golden Gate with no particular plan in mind, but perhaps thought about making some photographs. We had been in San Francisco for some other purpose, had some time, and figured we use it by crossing the bridge. By the time we ended up north of the bay, we discovered that the day was going to end very soon, and that we would run out of light. Yes, we were not really prepared! We quickly got back to the car and headed to a familiar iconic location, the Conzelman Road area of the Marin Headlands, from which panoramic views of the entrance to San Francisco Bay are available.

When we arrived I was initially not very excited about the photograph potential. I know this probably sounds odd to some who have longed to see that view back toward San Francisco, or who have perhaps only seen it once or twice. But I pass this way fairly often, and after a while the novelty of a typical day here wears off and I begin holding out for more special conditions. So where we stopped I did not initially take out my camera gear — instead I simply played tourist and enjoyed the spectacular scene. However, as I looked at it I began to notice a few things that seemed interesting. At first there were some light beams coming across the dark land at the lower left, though they are no longer really visible in the photograph. They I began to notice the turbulent patterns on the surface of the water passing through the Golden Gate as the tide turned. And then I could see that there was going to be some interesting color in the winter sky above the ocean. So, in the end, I did get the camera out to make a few photographs.

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

Red, White, and Blue Hour

August 1, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last red sunset light falls on a forested ridge in front of snow topped Half Dome in blue dusk light

This past winter I was in Yosemite Valley for a few days for the opening of the Yosemite Renaissance Exhibit, and I had many opportunities to head out and photograph the Valley in beautiful foggy, cloudy conditions, with a bit of snow still remaining from earlier storms. (I also had a great time meeting up with plenty of other friends and photographers who were also there for this event and a simultaneous film festival.)

Sometimes I know what I want to photograph in the Valley, and I simply to look for that thing, often knowing exactly where to go find it. But in conditions such as those of this weekend, which included a lot of clouds and changing light, sometimes it was impossible to know for sure what the conditions were going to do. See fog developing? Head for a high place or a meadow. Possibility of sunset color? Perhaps one of the well-known Valley views. Clouds swirling around the upper ridges? Get out a long lens and shoot from innumerable locations. Soft sunlight? Perhaps time to photograph trees and granite. On this evening a number of us ended up at that most iconic of iconic Yosemite locations, Tunnel View. For the last few years, I’ve been playing a slightly different game at Tunnel View when I end up there, often shooting with very long focal lengths and trying to pick out small bits and pieces of the larger scene. I had been doing that and had pretty much wrapped up for the evening, since the light seemed to be dying behind clouds to the west, and in fact I was loading equipment into the car when my wife said, more or less, “Look at that!” A band of intensely red end-of-sunset light had found its way through a gap in the clouds to the west and suddenly cast an intense glow across this ridge standing between me and Half Dome. So we have red (of sun on ridge), white (of snow) and blue (of the blue hour light on Half Dome and the clouds above).

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: dusk

Last Light, Yosemite Backcountry

Dusk, Canyon, Trees

Winter Dusk, Pacific Ocean

Red, White, and Blue Hour

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