Tag Archives: face

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

Morning Light, Haze, El Capitan

May 3, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Beams of early morning sunlight pass through haze to illuminate El Capitan

I’m coming to think of the start of this particular day in lower Yosemite Valley as being “Bierstadt Day.” Albert Bierstadt was a landscape painter who made several notable renderings of Yosemite subjects in the 1800s, paintings that perhaps formed the image for the park for many who saw them. They are not “realistic” in a photographic sense, but tend toward exaggerating features and using dramatic effects of perspective, atmosphere, and light. When I see Bierstadt paintings I often think both of how they evoked the wonder of seeing remarkable places like Yosemite Valley and of how flexibly and subjectively he treated these subjects. I also think about how little they look like the literal place, as least in objective sense.

However, at certain moments, the quality of light and atmosphere came close on this morning. The morning began inauspiciously, and in the pre-dawn light I could tell that it was cloudy and gray. However, as I approached the Valley from Wawona there were breaks in the clouds. Arriving at my first clear viewpoint, the iconic tunnel view (where I usually wouldn’t stop on my way into the Valley), the view included the usual Valley features, layers of drifting clouds and mist, and beams of colorful light playing across this landscape. I put a long lens on my camera and began to follow the changing conditions, picking out small sections of the grand view that seemed most interesting. At the moment of this photograph (and, indeed, the light lasted only a moment) sun beams broke through the clouds and moved in front of the face of El Capitan.

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

El Capitan, Morning Light and Clouds

May 1, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Clouds and mist shroud El Capitan shortly after sunrise

This morning was (yet another) lesson about not making assumptions too quickly, and about being ready to react quickly to changing conditions. I was up well before dawn and after coffee I quickly packed and headed out the door to my vehicle, ready to start the drive from Wawona to The Valley. There was enough light to get some idea of the conditions, and they did not warrant much optimism — the sky was completely covered by clouds, and as I drove they seemed to be getting thicker to the west, suggesting that they were increasing rather than thinning. As I continued to drive, crossing the road’s high point before descending toward Yosemite Valley, the light began to suggest the possibility of breaks in the clouds to the east. Sure enough, as I got my first long view of The Valley, there was open sky in that direction. What had promised to be dull and gray was starting to look more like their could be potential for special atmospheric conditions.

I made a few quick photographs at this first viewpoint and quickly moved on, driving through Wawona Tunnel and existing to the famous view of the Valley. Typically there are very few photographers here in the early morning — the opposite of the typical evening crowd — but the unfolding light show caused some of us to pull up short here and make some photographs. At this point I rarely do “the shot” of the full Valley scene in anything short of astounding conditions, preferring instead to focus on smaller components of the grand scene. As I photographed with a long lens, light appeared and disappeared, clouds drifted, beams struck isolated elements of the landscape, and there were bits of visual drama everywhere.

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

Detail, Granite Face

April 27, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Detail view of a section of a Yosemite Valley granite cliff face

Yosemite, and especially Yosemite Valley, is famous for its “granite” (quotation marks for any geologists reading this post…) cliffs, towers, domes, slabs, and other formations. While we tend to think of this rock as being “gray,” the coloration varies quite a bit depending on the nature of the rock itself, the presence of lichens or plants, and on the light. Almost everywhere the expanses of granite are cut through by intrusions of different colored rocks. I don’t usually think of this particular face as being all that colorful, but on this morning the light somehow brought out the rust-colored tones on many sections of the rock.

I did just enough rock climbing many years ago to have developed memories of the sensations of such rock, from the cold and smooth slabs, to sharp edges of cracks, and rough surfaces (you hope!) on some friction routes. A close look at this section of cliff reveals an amazing variety of surfaces and irregularities. Perhaps most obvious is the large, curving vertical crack towards the left. The dark water stains are also striking, as is that rust colored rock. A closer look reveals other patterns, including a diagonal rising from left to right.

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

Dead Trees, Snow

April 25, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dead forest trees silhouetted against snow storm clouds swirling around a granite face

I have written before about my long-term process of trying to find ways to photograph the beauty of dead or burned forests, a subject that I was brought up to regard as a tragedy. For decades, Smokey the Bear told me that forest fires were a wholly bad thing, to be avoided at all costs. Eventually we came to understand and (mostly) accept that fire is a normal and even necessary part of the life-cycle of healthy forests, and in places like Yosemite fires are often “managed” rather than suppressed. Currently in the Sierra Nevada the issue is compounded by the sight of millions of trees that fell victim to bark beetles during the recent drought, and whole forests have died in some places. A few dead trees are a normal part of the landscape, but this is unprecedented in the lives of any of us.

This photograph was made on a snowy day in Yosemite Valley, probably the last such day of the current season as winter turns to spring. Beyond the stark trees, a combination of clouds and blowing snow mostly obscured the Valley’s cliff faces. This photograph illustrates something else I figured out about photographing tall trees some years ago. I used to feel that the way to show the vertical scale of tall trees was to move back and show the whole tree, usually in a vertically framed image. I specifically recall the day when I figured out that there is another way. I was photographing in the coast redwood forest north of San Francisco, where I was unable to move back to get the tree-encompassing distance. I realized that I could do the exact opposite of what I had been doing — use a panoramic framing that does not show the whole tree, but instead implies by absence that subject is too tall to fit in the camera’s frame.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: face

Morning Light, Haze, El Capitan

El Capitan, Morning Light and Clouds

Detail, Granite Face

Dead Trees, Snow

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