Tag Archives: fall

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Morning, Wildfire Smoke

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Morning, Wildfire Smoke
Wildfire smoke layer drift, above Mono Lake at sunrise

Morning, Wildfire Smoke. Mono Lake, California. September 18, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Wildfire smoke layer drift, above Mono Lake at sunrise

The subject of this photograph comes about as close to being insubstantial as possible. When I began photographing before dawn on this September morning, Mono Lake was still mostly visible, though a large cloud of wildfire smoke was gathering to the southeast and beginning to drift toward the lake. First, layers of smoke began to stretch individually across the lake as sunrise approached. As more of them arrived they began to completely obscure the more distant landscape and to mute the colors and details of objects that were even closer. If you look at this photograph for a moment you can begin to see what remains — a bit of a peninsula with some tufa formations along the right margin, and in the lower center and stretching toward the left some soft reflections of morning light on the surface of the lake.

For a moment when I first saw the smoke I was disappointed that it might interfere with my photography, but it only took a moment to realize that these were special and beautiful conditions not likely to occur that often. The smoke and the morning backlight rendered details almost invisible, only seen faintly through gaps in the smoke. The smoke itself, dividing into layers and taking on subtle colors from the morning back-light, filled the scene with nearly abstract shapes. But before long smoke filled in even more, and soon it was too opaque to photograph at all.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Earth Shadow, Morning

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Aspens, Earth Shadow, Morning
“Aspens, Earth Shadow, Morning” — The earth’s shadow and predawn light on aspen groves east of the Sierra Nevada

On a cold and clear morning in mid-September earlier this year I left my camp in the Sierra and headed east, past Mono Lake and on out into the mountains east of the Sierra Nevada and east of US 395. I did not have a specific goal in mind, but I thought I would do a bit of early season aspen color reconnaissance in preparation for planned visits to photograph fall color a few weeks later. I gradually worked my way further out from the Sierra, stopping from time to time and poking around the ends of various gravel roads. Finally I found one that looked promising and took it.

I knew that I had previously seen aspens atop ridges in the general area of this road, and I had made a note to come back this way in the fall. I don’t typically expect to see much fall color by mid-September in the Sierra, but I soon found quite a bit of it — a whole mountain top was covered with small trees that were beginning to turn colors almost uniformly. I took a short spur road to an overlook and parked — from here there was an almost unobstructed view of a big section of the Sierra crest. It was cold enough to let me know that autumn wasn’t far away as I waited for the sun, beginning to photograph in that lovely predawn period of warm colors when the earth’s shadow can be seen in the darkened atmosphere just above the horizon.

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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Leaf and Sand

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Leaf and Sand
An autumn leaf in the sand of a California north coast beach

Leaf and Sand. Northern California Coast. November 19, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An autumn leaf in the sand of a California north coast beach

In many ways the spectacular and rugged Pacific ocean coastline of Northern California is a landscape of huge scale, from the ocean itself to the long views of rocky cliffs, shoreline bluffs, coastal mountain ranges, sea stacks, clouds and fog. I love this country and many of my photographs of this landscape focus on these very things.

But sometimes I do look down at my feet as well. On this afternoon we had stopped at a beach where the road dropped down to nearly the water level and the wintry ocean was wild with the energy of a passing storm, producing surf and swells so large that it seemed that we looked up at them. I wandered out toward the waterline and began to photograph the surf and some sea stacks that stood in the path of the waves. As I turned to walk down the beach I happened to look down and see this autumn leaf, stuck in the sand near the high water mark, with the faintly visible paths of water that had detoured around the leaf on its way back into the ocean.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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: Ocean & Coast

Near-Shore Islands, Clearing Storm

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Near-Shore Islands, Clearing Storm
An autumn storm clears above the Pacific Ocean and a group of near-shore islands

Near-Shore Islands, Clearing Storm. North Coast, California. November 19, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An autumn storm clears above the Pacific Ocean and a group of near-shore islands

We were up on the Northern California coast for a few days this past weekend, to celebrate Patty’s big birthday. This meant that the main goals involved drinking wine and enjoying some excellent dinners, and even allowed for more than a bit of sleeping-in, something that landscape photographers typically don’t do.

On this birthday morning we got up late and headed down to the town of Mendocino, perhaps considering a leisurely breakfast, but with no other specific plans in mind. But looking across the bay to the south we saw gigantic surf, clouds, fog, spray, and intense light — and photography distracted us. We traveled out to the edge of the headlands where there is a group of what must have once been coastal bluffs but which are now off-shore islands. The surf roared as the moving clouds cast alternating light and shadow across the seascape and dramatic clouds, some still dropping rain, passed by to the west.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.