Tag Archives: fall

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

Granite, Meadow, and Trees – Fletcher Lake

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Granite, Meadow, and Trees - Fletcher Lake

Granite, Meadow, and Trees – Fletcher Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 10, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn colors and morning light on glaciated granite, late-season meadow grasses, and trees near Vogelsang High Sierra Camp, Fletcher Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

Technically this was shot near the end of summer, not in early autumn… but in the high country the observable change of seasons comes before the autumnal equinox, so it often really feels much more like autumn that summer by the second week of September. Many streams a low or dry, virtually all of the grasses have gone dormant and taken on the brown/gold color, the high country animals are clearly engaged in preparation for winter, and the number of human visitors greatly diminishes. (And at Fletcher Lake, employees are starting to dismantle the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp for the season.)

Fletcher Lake is a very familiar location for me. I go there at least once every year, sometimes more, and I almost always visit near the very end of the season. Because I know the area and its surroundings so well by now, I think that I see it in a very different way than I used to. I still notice the most striking features – the tremendous view toward Mount Conness, the impressive, fractured face of Fletcher Peak (the base of which is in the background of this photograph), the height of Vogelsang Peak. But more and more I look for the effect of warm late-season light on granite, meadow, and trees.

This photograph was made in the early morning. The very first light is blocked by a ridge to the east and by Fletcher Peak, but soon the light begins to come around the shoulder of Fletcher and light up the meadow grasses and trees, yet it leaves the face of Fletcher Peak in shadow.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Trees, Rock Face With Lichen

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Aspen Trees, Rock Face With Lichen

Aspen Trees, Rock Face With Lichen. Near South Lake, SIerra Nevada, California. October 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful lichens on a cracked cliff face between two aspen trees with fall colors near South Lake, Sierra Nevada, California.

I had passed by this section of rocks and cliffs just below Parcher’s Resort earlier in the day, noting the interesting trees against the jumbled background of the rock – but I decided against shooting there at first because the direct sun was still hitting the trees. Instead, I made a mental note to check back much later in the afternoon after the sun had moved lower and further west to put this area into diffused shadow lighting.

I came back later – when it was getting quite cold! – and wandered up and down this area making several exposures. The trickiest thing was that it was extremely windy. Low light, strong wind, and fluttering aspen leaves tend to conspire to make photography tricky, and this was no exception! The best approach seemed to involve not only high ISO… but also a great deal of patience. Once I set up a shot I would wait… and wait… and wait for a small lull in the wind, during which I would squeeze of a few exposures.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: two, aspen, trees, trunk, branch, leaf, yellow, green, gold, white, cliff, rock, crack, granite, lichen, red, fall, autumn, season, nature, flora, foliage, landscape, scenic, travel, bishop, creek, south, lake, fork, road, color, sierra, nevada, range, mountains, california, usa, landscape, stock

News

Winter arrives in the Sierra?

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A few years ago I did what was a traditional end-of-season backpack trip out of Tuolumne Meadows on the last weekend during which the NPS permits overnight parking on Tioga Pass road – this is typically on or just before October 15. It was a beautiful weekend with – as I always hope for in October – pleasant, sunny conditions and beautiful light.

The following weekend a backpacking buddy who had been unable to make that trip tried his own end-of-seasons visit, hoping to wander up into the Twenty Lakes Basin area just east of Tioga Pass. He arrived late and rolled out his bivy sack at the small campground by the lake right below Tioga Pass… and woke up the next morning with more than a half foot of snow on top of him and more on the way. He scrambled out of his bag, got into his car, and managed to get out just before the road was blocked. He liked to say that he was there for the switch from fall to winter… literally.

It sounds like something similar may happen over the next 24 hours. From all reports, one of the biggest October storms that we’ve seen in California in decades may be sweeping through tonight and tomorrow, bringing heavy winds, a lot of rain, and the potential for some significant snow at the higher elevations.

The folks at the Dweeb Report (interesting source of Sierra weather info) include an ominous sentence in their most recent update: “WINDS WITH THIS SYSTEM OVER THE CREST COULD REACH BETWEEN 120MPH AND 140MPH OVER THE CENTRAL SIERRA.”

Of course, you knew this was leading to a comment on aspens, right? Given the rather strange conditions for aspen color this fall, somehow it doesn’t seem at all surprising that the storm might bring down a good portion of the remaining leaves!

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.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | 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: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Shoreline Trees in Morning Light, Upper Cathedral Lake

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Shoreline Trees in Morning Light, Upper Cathedral Lake

Shoreline Trees in Morning Light, Upper Cathedral Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 27, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light illuminates a row of shoreline trees and autumn meadow with granite slopes beyond at Upper Cathedral Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

During the final weekend of September I briefly joined five other photographers (and a painter) at Upper Cathedral Lake in the Yosemite National Park back-country near Tuolumne Meadows. (The rest of this group was there for a full week, and I only joined them for two days.)

For a location so close to “civilization” (the trailhead in Tuolumne Meadows is only 3.5 miles away) the Cathedral Lakes area provides an astonishing wealth of photographic subjects. There are two lakes, and the pointed summit of Cathedral Peak looms nearby. But beyond that the lakes are surrounded by huge masses of glaciated granite slabs, domes, and peaks. There are beautiful meadows and surrounding forest. A short climb away are the alpine peaks of the Cathedral Range.

While the other photographers ventured further from the base camp at Upper Cathedral, I chose to work closer to camp. On the first evening I wandered up a nearby rocky gully, shooting fall foliage and granite formations. I eventually topped out and climbed out onto the smooth dome-like glaciated surface overlooking the upper lake and with a clear view of Cathedral Peak. Very early the next morning I was up and starting a 3 hour circumnavigation of this small lake, photographing the water, the shoreline rocks, the meadows, the surrounding peaks, and in this photo the forest and groves of trees than surround the lake.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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