Tag Archives: edge

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Reflections, Rocky Shoreline

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Reflections, Rocky Shoreline
Huge rocky slabs meet the shorline of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

NOTE: This original interpretation interpretation of this photograph has been superseded by a later version found here.

A group of us recently spent a week camped at 11,000′ in a landscape of water, glaciated rocks, meadows, and high peaks. AS the week went on we gradually pushed out the boundaries of our photographic explorations. My first view of this formation was on my initial scouting trip to this lake — I did not photograph it on that visit, but I made a mental note to return when the light would be more ideal. In this case, “ideal” meant “not in full sun,” so my plan was to come back in the early morning and evening hours. Early morning turned out to be best since the air was still at that hour, leaving the water still enough to produce coherent reflections.

I returned a few mornings later. Demonstrating once again the importance of what I might term “attentive serendipity” in photography, even though I got distracted and arrived at the lake later than planned, the timing turned out to be nearly perfect. I had a few minutes to photograph the larger landscape in the pre-sunlight “quiet light” before moving on to photograph this still-shaded scene. And once I finished here, the sunlight cooperated by arriving at a nearby rocky peninsula and both backlighting a tree and turning the water a lovely deep blue color.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Rocks, Water, Reflection

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Rocks, Water, Reflection
Granite slabs and submerged rocks at the edge of an alpine Sierra Nevada lake

Rocks, Water, Reflection. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Granite slabs and submerged rocks at the edge of an alpine Sierra Nevada lake.

One advantage of photographing for a long time in one small area is that you may begin to see things that you initially overlooked. I’m often immediately attracted to the large scale landscape — lakes, peaks, forests, sky — and it takes more time, patience, and attention to start to start to see subtler, smaller subjects. These often constitute what has been called the “intimate landscape,” made up of distinctly non-iconic elements, and frequently offering and almost abstract quality of shape, color, and texture.

To find these things I have to slow down a lot. It is easy to become anxious about finding that Great Photograph that will knock viewers over. But those don’t come every day or even every week. Sometimes, in fact, there are long gaps between them. At one point on this trip one of my fellow photographers mentioned that he had seen me from where he was working, and that I seemed to be doing a lot of “contemplation.” Guilty as charged! In a sense, most of the work of photography may be done without the camera. Sure, the camera is in my bag or attached to my tripod, but I’m looking and considering and thinking more than I’m actually making photographs. This photograph comes from one of those moments — I had simply been walking along the edge of “our” lake, spending a lot of time just looking, when I noticed this pattern of granite and still water than I had walked past quite a few times before.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Dunes Meet Playa

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Dunes Meet Playa
Desert sand dunes meet the edge of a playa in evening light

Dunes Meet Playa. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert sand dunes meet the edge of a playa in evening light.

A late-winter or early-spring visit to Death Valley is always on my photographic agenda. This year I visited in early March, shortly after a big atmospheric river weather system had dumped tremendous amounts of rainfall all over Southern California. Years ago I became aware of the seeming irony that the effects of water are nowhere more visible than in Death Valley, and on this visit they were even more obvious. Playas were flooded, roads were washed out and closed, mud flows were everywhere, and the colors of the dunes were intensified by the remaining moisture.

I made this photograph in the evening of my final full day in the park. The light was challenging — late in the afternoon clouds began to arrive, and as the golden hour approached most of the color was drained from the light. I had traveled to this area of dunes hoping to find some interesting light — and a small group of photographer friends — but when I got there it did not look promising. I decided that instead of going directly to specific dune subjects I would find a high place with a wide panorama. From there I could see the entirety of the upper Valley and be ready to use a long lens to take advantage of any good light that might briefly appear, even if it should be at a distance. As dusk came on the sky opened a bit and glowing light from the west softly lit the boundary between playa and dunes.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Grasses, Water, Talus

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Grasses, Water, Talus
Talus from a glacial moraine reaches the edge of a reflective alpine lake with a shoreline patch of grass

Grasses, Water, Talus. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Talus from a glacial moraine reaches the edge of a reflective alpine lake with a shoreline patch of grass

This is (yet another) photograph from my September backcountry sojourn in the John Muir Wilderness, accompanied by a group of four friends and photographers who try to do this every year. We packed in to a lake a few miles from the trailhead, set up camp, and proceeded to work the surrounding landscape for the next week, starting early and finishing late almost every day. In the course of the week we thoroughly explored the surroundings within a few miles radius of our camp.

The far edge of the lake near our camp was completely rocky and almost entirely devoid of flora. (Our side did features a meadow and some stunted trees.) A tremendous talus field, distorted by glacial action, rose straight up from the lake shore to the surrounding ridges. I photographed this material several times during our stay, most often working in the early morning before the direct sunlight arrived. In many of the photographs there is nothing by rocks and water, but in this one I included a bit of the colorful shoreline grass.

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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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