Tag Archives: evening

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Sandstone Cliffs, Autumn

June 26, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on the autumn sandstone landscape of Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

I began this fall season visit to Utah in the far southwest corner of the state, making Kanab my base for the first few days. There I explored various valleys and canyons, mostly improvising an itinerary as the mood struck me. I returned there to a few places I had visited in the past and also visited a few new places. After a few days here I took a back-route up to Capitol Reef where I would meet up with my friend and fellow photographer David Hoffman.

I arrived at Capitol Reef in the afternoon, found Dave’s campsite (he had arrived earlier) and set up my tent. As I recall, we were unable to resist the lure of the nearby place selling home-made pies, and it wasn’t until late in the day that we decided to make a quick run for some sunset light. We found it quickly — the location of our campground is just out of sight to the right around the bend in the road running up this valley. Because the landscape tilts up to the west here, the sunset seems to come a bit earlier than I would expect, and we were barely in time of catch this light before the valley fell into shadow.

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

Tuolumne River, Evening

June 24, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Tuolumne River flows through the Yosemite Sierra Nevada high country

We had one day in the Yosemite area on the summer solstice, and we made as much of the long daylight hours as we could. We started out very early in the morning in Oakhurst, just outside the southwest boundary of the park, and then headed towards Tioga Pass Road. We took that route through the high country to Tuolumne Meadows, and after lunch we crossed Tioga Pass and headed down to Lee Vining for a brief east side visit.

While we were in the Lee Vining area we began to see interesting clouds east of the range, and it looked like lenticular clouds might form before sunset. That is my cue to find a high place with light from the west, so we headed back up to Tuolumne, stopping a few times on the way there, and finally arriving nearly perhaps an hour and a half or more before sunset. As we followed a trail out into the meadow to find foreground for photographs of the Sierra crest and the clouds I looked back to the west across the twisting river, meadows, and forests to see this scene in evening light.

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

Lenticular Clouds and Ridge

June 23, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This scene was a visual benediction at the end of a very long June day in Yosemite National Park. We began all the way over in Oakhurst, where we had been the previous evening to attend the artist reception for an exhibit at Stellar Gallery that includes eight of my photographs. Afterwards we shared a late-night Mexican dinner with friends and fellow photographers. The next morning we got up relatively early (but not all that early by photography standards!), grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed out of town with a general plan to photograph along Tioga Pass Road.

We drove through most of the morning good light as we headed into the park, climbed past the turnoff to Glacier Point Road, descended briefly to the Valley, climbed Big Oak Flat Road, and finally turned east onto Tioga Pass Road. We briefly stopped once or twice along the way, including a bit of photography at Tenaya Lake, then finally stopping at Tuolumne Meadows for lunch. We explored a bit near Tioga Pass before descending to Lee Vining and then making a quick trip up Lundy Canyon before returning to Lee Vining. We then headed back up toward Tioga Pass, timing this leg to arrive back in the high country at the time when shadows would lengthen and the color of the light begin to warm. We photographed a bit just below the pass, but when we noticed a spectacular lenticular cloud building beyond the crest we decided to head to Tuolumne Meadows, where we though the cloud might be more visible and have more interesting foreground. We photographed there until the light left the meadow, and then started to think about the long drive back to the Bay Area. Not more than a couple of minutes down the road we looked back and saw what we sort of expected, namely the intense sunset color on the tops of the ridges of the Sierra crest and the spectacular cloud. We quickly stopped, set up cameras and tripods, and spent a few moments photographing this beautiful final light of the day.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dusk, Clouds, Full Moon

June 12, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The full moon behind dusk clouds above and eastern Sierra Nevada meadow

This will be another short post — things are quite busy right now! The photograph is from almost a decade ago, when I accompanied my brother, his wife, and three sons on a backpack trip into a favorite area of the eastern Sierra Nevada. Our trip began with a hike to a picturesque lake between two high ridges, where we spent several days exploring… and surviving “interesting” weather. We found a beautiful campsite on a bench above a meadow and lake. In the evening I set up on this high spot and photographed the near-night darkness with the moon shining from behind the broken layer of clouds overhead.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: evening

Sandstone Cliffs, Autumn

Tuolumne River, Evening

Lenticular Clouds and Ridge

Dusk, Clouds, Full Moon

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