Tag Archives: evening

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

River and Forest, Evening

Image August 4, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light along the shores of the Tuolumne River

There are many little rituals that I have developed around making photographs. A few may be mine alone, but I have learned that others also engage in some similar processes. One has to do with the first photographs of any adventure. While sometimes a photograph simply leaps out at me, on other occasions it may take a while to get “warmed up” and start seeing. You have a choice — you can wait for inspiration to strike (sometimes for quite a while), or you can “prime the pump” and start making photographs. I generally prefer the latter.

On this trip I had arrived at my Tuolumne Meadows campsite in the afternoon. I set up camp, did a bunch of the usual camp stuff, then took a nap in order to compensate for getting up hours before dawn for the drive. Then I took a camera-free hike up to Elizabeth Lake. And, yes, once I got there I did regret leaving my camera gear behind! Returning from the hike, it was time to make a quick dinner and go start making photographs. I wandered out into the meadow and made a few quiet images of meadow, river, and forest… and the trip was officially underway.

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

Sierra Sunset Sky

July 19, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dissipating thunderstorm clouds and summer Sierra Nevada sunset sky

This was one of the later photographs in the quick series I made during the very last few minutes of this evening, on which gray and flat light suddenly morphed into a show of spectacular color for a few moments right at sunset. Clouds were thick above my position. There were some breaks to the west, but they appeared to be too far north to let direct light reach me or my surroundings. But, so far to the west as to be beyond my sight, there was apparently a shallow break between the distant edge of the cloud shield and the horizon. Moments before sunset this light came in under the clouds and suffused the landscape with color.

I worked quickly to make photographs of the intensely colorful light on mountain peaks along the Sierra crest and on nearer granite domes and spires. This light began to fade after just a few short minutes, so I turned my attention back to the west where the clouds were rapidly dissipating. Above two ridge lines, one of rock and one covered by forest trees, layers of clouds were arrayed against the colorful sky.

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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

Evening Light, Sierra Crest

July 14, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft evening light on Mount Conness, in the distance beyond Tenaya Lake

I’ve been (mostly) off the grid since early this past week while spending four days in the high country in and around Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows. (Tuolumne Meadows used to have poor cell service. It now seems to have none at all, which is a mixed blessing.) This being July, there was a lot of interesting stuff to see in the Sierra — there is still plenty of flowing water (at least for this low-precipitation year), most meadows are still lushly green, and the wildflowers are spectacular. While there are plenty of people up there — and, it seems, more every year — the August crush of high country tourists hasn’t yet arrived. Evidence? I was able to walk up to the kiosk and get a campsite in the middle of the day.

Weather was sometimes a challenge. Clouds are both a blessing and a curse when photographing the high country. Most often they are plus, given that the Sierra can be “afflicted” by successive days of boring blue skies at times. On the other hand, it is certainly possible to have too much of a good thing, and at times the welcome “interesting” weather evolved into somewhat “blah” light. However, it is common for moments of special light to appear out of the blah conditions, and I was treated to several such instances on this trip. (One of them may soon be the genesis of an article on knowing when to stay and wait and when to move on.) On this evening I suspected that late light might cut through the haze and create some dramatic effects on the distant Mount Conness from this familiar location, so I headed straight there late in the day.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Geese and Pond, Sunset

July 1, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Snow geese and Ross’s geese on a small island in a wetland pond

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area we expect temperatures as high as 100 degrees in inland areas. Summer is here, and with a vengeance. I like summer — long daylight hours, little need to worry about that warm jacket, and more — but it is not my favorite season. I prefer the shortening days and golden colors of fall, the interesting weather and light of winter, and the reawakening of spring, to be honest. In other words, with this photograph I am engaging in a bit of nostalgia for the past winter and a bit of expectation of the seasons that follow the one in which we now find ourselves.

While we might think of winter as being a time of less life and growth — which is surely true in most places when it comes to vegetation — the annual migration of birds inclines in the opposite direction. At the time of year when days are short, weather is cold, and growing things are in decline… the birds show up again. I photographed these birds on a late-autumn evening in early December, when trees were still shedding fall leaves and the birds were just beginning to return along the Pacific flyway.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: evening

River and Forest, Evening

Sierra Sunset Sky

Evening Light, Sierra Crest

Geese and Pond, Sunset

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