View of Merced River Canyon and the Sierra Crest from Glacier Point in early morning fall light.
I like to visit Glacier Point at dawn at least once each autumn, and the later in the season the better. This year I got up early on the second morning of my Yosemite Valley fall color shoot and drove up there, arriving as the first pre-dawn light began to arrive. Dawn at Glacier Point, especially at this less-busy time of year is special. For one thing, I’m often nearly alone there rather than being part of the typical sunset crowd.
This photograph was made after the sun had risen above the peaks of the Sierra Nevada crest and had begun to backlight the layers of ridges stretching back along the Merced River drainage towards the highest peaks beyond.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
The snow fields, cliffs, and talus fields of Picture Peak tower above the upper end of Hungry Packer Lake, John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California.
Hungry Packer Lake is a short walk up the valley from Topsy Turvy Lake, where we camped during our recent visit to upper Sabrina Basin in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Hungry Packer is a classic, high alpine Sierra Lake with glacier polished rocks, meadows, and a some trees at the bench where the outlet stream leaves the lake and rugged rocks and talus slopes around the upper portion of the lake – with the towering mass of Picture Peak overhead. It is “my Sierra” – the sort of place that first comes to mind for me when I think of this mountain range.
We only visited for a short time, as we were on a circuit hike to visit about four of these high lakes, and the light was a bit tough during this midday period. Consequently I decided to go for a tighter shot of the lake surface and the tremendous talus slope, rock faces, and snowfields at the upper end of the lake – all with a plan to render the photo in black and white.
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.
A lush lupine-filled meadow along the outlet stream from Hungry Packer Lake near Picture Peak, high in the Sabrina Basin – John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California.
A lush lupine-filled meadow along the outlet stream from Hungry Packer Lake near Picture Peak, high in the Sabrina Basin – John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California.
We had hiked up through this meadow filled with plants and wildflowers earlier in the day while walking a circuit that included Hungry Packer Lake (beyond the saddle seen in the distance and below Picture Peak), Moonlight Lake, and Sailor Lake. At that time the early afternoon light had been far too harsh for photography, so I made plans to be back here early in the evening. I had hoped for some “golden hour” light, but I have to admit that I could see that a ridge to the right was going to cast a shadow here too early for that. Fortunately, the light on the peak came from the side such that it wasn’t as much brighter as it might otherwise have been, and it seemed like it might be possible to capture the huge dynamic range of this scene.
That last point brings up a difficult technical issue with this photograph – that tremendously large dynamic range. Although my eyes/brain could take in the full scene while standing there, no camera that I’d be carrying on the trail can possibly deal with this in a single shot. In the foreground the meadow plants were in early evening/late afternoon shade while the cloud above the peak was brightly lit by the direct sun. In the film days the only real option would have been to use a graduated neutral density (GND) filter to reduce the light from the sky. However, with digital capture we have another alternative – capturing several exposures of the scene optimized for the bright and dark areas and then combining them in post-production. That is precisely what I determined to do here.
In this case I made a main exposure that handled the middle of the dynamic range of the scene. I also made two more; one optimized to barely contain the brightest levels in the cloud and the second optimized to capture all of the details in the darker foreground meadow. The three versions of the scene were combined in post-processing to recreate something much closer to what I actually saw. (Yes, this was a complex photograph to realize!) in addition to using three exposures, I was also able to carefully customize the boundaries between them issuing masks – both of which would be impossible with a GND filter.
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.
The clouds of a late-spring storm along the Sierra Nevada crest clear as evening light illuminates sage-covered high desert slopes near Mono Lake.
Another photograph in this brief series of black and white images, this one was made very close to Mono Lake. If you have been to the famous (at least among sunrise photographers!) South Tufa area at Mono, you may know the road that departs highway 395 and heads east to that wonderful photo location. Between highway 395 and where the road drops down to the lake shore, it crosses a low ridge with good views in every direction but directly south. It was from here that I made this photograph – and a few others that may turn up here eventually.
Shooting Mono Lake late in the day can be a bit tricky since the light disappears behind the Sierra crest earlier than one might think. If the conditions are right an evening shot from Mono can be fine, but often the light is less challenging in the morning. On this afternoon I had first headed out to South Tufa, but decided that it wasn’t looking right – so I headed back up towards the June Lake loop. Once there the clouds over the crest began to break up, so after shooting some images in that area I headed back towards Mono. As I topped this hill before the descent to South Tufa I saw this wonderful back-light on the sage-covered foreground hills so I stopped right at the top of this hill and photographed this scene.
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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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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