Tag Archives: evening

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake and Rain, Dusk

October 1, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

A late-evening rain shower above the smooth surface of a rocky Sierra Nevada lake

From our camp site at a narrow point in the canyon among all of these lakes, we more or less had the option of going upstream to a group of several nearby lakes that were visible from our camp, or of going downstream and around a bend to an equally large group of lakes that were about 10 minutes away. The choice was often difficult – we didn’t always go the same direction, sometimes we might go upstream in the morning and downstream in the evening, or vice versa as the mood would take us. This, again, is an advantage of remaining in one area for an extended time – in our case we camped here for six nights with the primary goal of exploring and photographing.

On this evening I decided to go up-stream. Early on the trip I had made a very brief visit to what we regarded as the “upper lake” – though, in truth, there was one more further up the drainage that was likely inaccessible to us. On that first visit I had taken a direct route to the outlet stream of the lake and had then looked around a bit at this lower end before the light faded and I headed back to camp. On the evening when I made this photograph I started earlier, and instead of taking the direct route I went more slowly and wandered a bit, exploring the very interesting terrain among the lakes. Somewhat to our surprise, light rain cropped up again late in the day, and by the time I was approaching the upper lake there were showers here and stronger showers further down the canyon. Just before actual sunset, the sky turned intense pink as a bit of rain fell on the lake, imparting purple and pink tones to the landscape, and far down the canyon there was a faint glow from an area where the clouds cleared and a bit of blue sky shone through.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Shadows, Alpine Lake

September 26, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening shadows fall across an island-studded alpine lake and surrounding cliffs as the sun drops behind a nearby ridge

This lake is one of many located close to the spot where four of us spent six mid-September nights camping near 11,000′ of elevation near the spine of the Sierra in Kings Canyon National Park. We remained in one base camp location, and each day we explored more of the surrounding terrain of lakes, granite, meadows, vast bowls, ridges, and surrounding peaks. While the backpacker’s imperative is often to keep moving in order to see a lot of country, ours was to stay in one area and spend time getting to know it better. Our subjects were literally outside the doors of our tents, and we were up before dawn every morning and we didn’t return from shooting until dark.

I photographed this lake and its surroundings on multiple occasions, ranging from early morning on sunny days to dusk on a day when I shot in light rain. The appearance and mood of such a place is transformed significantly according to the light at various times of day and in response to the weather. One constant in this particular location was that large areas were often in shadow in the very early and very late hours, as steep slopes and high ridges stood between the landscape and the sun in many places. The light in this photograph is illustrative. Perhaps only minutes earlier, the final direct sun of the day had come across a high ridge to the right of my camera position and washed warm light across the water, the rocky islands and shore line, and the broken granite cliffs. But here, all that remains of the light is an intense beam of light angling down from right to left beyond the main cliff and casting only a bit of direct light on its edge. Below, light in the bowl holding the lake has turned cold and blue – a change that literally took only moments. While I think we tend to first think of that earlier, warmer light, this cold shaded light is an intrinsic element of these high places and the feeling of that light is what I wanted to capture in this photograph.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Paoha Island, Mono Lake, Evening

September 22, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Pastel colors in evening clouds above Paoha Island reflect on the surface of Mono Lake

On this evening I ended up at Mono Lake on more or less a hunch about the clouds – thunder clouds had built to the east out over the basin and range country and even a bit over the Sierra, and I had heard a report of thunder and lightning a bit north of here, so I decided to chance an evening visit to the south shore of the lake. Mono Lake evening light can be very special, but it can also be a bit tricky. Because the tall peaks of the Sierra Nevada crest lie directly to the west, the light leaves the lake itself well before actual sunset, so you often might end up relying on the clouds themselves to provide most of the interest. Smoke from a wildfire to the south near Mammoth Lakes had also been affecting the atmosphere, creating a lot of haze and some unusual colors.

In any case, I drove out to a point along the south shore of the lake – not the well-known South Tufa site, though visible from there – and watched the mostly uninspiring light of this very hazy evening. But there I was, and there wasn’t time before the end of the light to get from Mono Lake to other places that might be interesting, so I stayed and photographed and thought about how I might be able to work with the light and conditions that were available to me. There were beautifully shaped clouds, and they rose high enough above the lower atmosphere to gain some clarity. The haze muted the shapes and colors of the far hills and the darker shape of the island. So I composed the scene to just barely hold the island and a bit of the lake at the bottom, and used that to anchor a scene that was mostly sky.

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

Dome and Meadow Trees

September 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Beams of sunset light, shining through breaks in clouds, momentarily illuminate Tuolumne Meadows trees and the granite slopes of Lembert Dome

This is a sort of companion photograph to one I posted earlier that was taken at about the same time, but more tightly composed and focusing on just the shoulder of Lembert Dome and the slopes of Mount Dana beyond. This was one of those Sierra evenings that started out with very mediocre light, but which also held the potential for something special to happen if things were to play out just the right way. Due to a wildfire over the crest near Mammoth Lakes, the sky was quite hazy. A high layer of clouds added to the gloom. I had spent the early evening trying to find some way to photograph these conditions, but was coming up short.

Not too long before I made this photograph, I had seen the gray murk suddenly lit by the warm glow of light coming underneath the edge of the high clouds far to the west as the sun dropped toward the horizon. This is not an uncommon event when the conditions line up correctly in the high Sierra, but this time it was a bit different due to the haze. The light, which might otherwise have been so colorful and bright as to almost be beyond belief, was instead muted and softened, though no less warm. A few minutes before I shot this image, the scene had been quite different – the sun had been behind those high clouds. But as I watched this it looked to me like the sun might find its way through a gap in the clouds, so I was ready to swing my camera to the east and capture Lembert Dome and other features in this light. Here that warm evening light glances across the face of the dome and softly lights some trees at the edge of the forest around Tuolumne Meadows.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: evening

Evening Shadows, Alpine Lake

Paoha Island, Mono Lake, Evening

Dome and Meadow Trees

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