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SF Gate Reviews ‘First Light – Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness’

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I see that Carl Nolte has offered a review of “First Light – Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness,” a book featuring the work of Charles Cramer, Karl Kroeber, Scot Miller, Mike Osborne and Keith S. Walklet.

If you are a Yosemite aficionado, someone who loves the Sierra back-country, or a lover of great landscape photography, I recommend this book. The five photographers have a tremendous amount of experience in the Yosemite back-country, and all five are talented and highly-regarded photographers in their own right. (I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a bit of time with them “on location” in recent years.)

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.

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First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness

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So, you like landscape photography, right? And you are aware that some of the most beautiful photographic subjects can be found in the back-country of California’s Yosemite National Park, right? And you very much enjoy looking through and absorbing the work of photographers who know the place especially well, right?

You need to pick up a copy of First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness, published by Heyday Press.

The book features the wonderful photography of a group of photographers whose experience in the park is extraordinary and varied: Charles Cramer, Karl Kroeber, Scot Miller, Mike Osborne, and Keith S. Walklet. Right now copies of the book autographed by all five photographers are available from the Ansel Adams Gallery.

(For the record, I have no financial interest in this book and if you purchase through the links in my post I receive no compensation from the sale. I just like the book and the photographers a lot and think you might, too!)

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

First Light, South Tufa

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First Light, South Tufa

First Light, South Tufa. Mono Lake, California. June 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First light of dawn illuminates tufa towers and distant mountain at Mono Lake, California.

This photograph was made at the usual spot – anyone who has photographed at Mono (and who hasn’t!? :-) knows that the most consistent spot to shoot sunrise light is at the South Tufa area, down the road from highway 395 a bit south of Lee Vining. On a good morning you’ll have at least some clouds, and the location of those clouds may dictate what your foreground subject is; do you want to shoot to the north and the low hills, to the east and towards the sunrise, or toward the Sierra Nevada crest? You arrive very early, usually well before dawn, and walk out to the edge of the water where the towers are. You find a composition and wait, with the only sounds the cries of seagulls (a sound I immediately associate with Mono) and possibly the voices of other photographers. The sky begins to lighten and then, almost before you know it, the warm glow of the first dawn light begins to light up the towers. (Am I the only one who marvels that this happens in almost complete silence?)

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: Death Valley, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Half Dome and El Capitan, Morning Light

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Half Dome and El Capitan, Morning Light

Half Dome and El Capitan, Morning Light. Yosemite National Park, California. May 10, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The first view of Half Dome and El Capitan upon arriving at Yosemite Valley in the early morning.

Let’s think of this as a work in progress…

Almost every time I enter Yosemite Valley via the northern highway 120 route I stop at this turnout not far below the turnoff to Foresta, where the first view of Half Dome and El Capitan suddenly looms ahead. I am so familiar with this road that I know exactly when this view will appear, but it must be stunning for a first-time visitor to round this ridge and see these icons looming ahead. I pull out, park the car, fit the long lens, and see what the conditions will produce on this particular day.

I have a vision for a photograph that I’ll probably get some day from this spot, but it will take a perfect combination of light (type, angle, intensity) and atmosphere (some haze but some clarity in the scene as well) and conditions (a bit of snow somewhere, perhaps like that on the summit of Half Dome in this photo). I have a feeling that the day on which it happens will not necessarily be an otherwise stunning day – but the conditions for this shot will be right.

In the meantime this version and a companion in landscape orientation that I shot in early May will have to do. Besides the obvious iconic stuff (Half Dome in the far center and the face of El Capitan looming on the left) there are some interesting visual coincidences in this scene. Notice that the curve of the upper right ridge of Half Dome is mirrored in the curve of the foreground ridge in front of El Capitan. The concave curve on the very upper left side of Half Dome (close to the cliff next to the “cable route”) is mirrored by the dip in the foreground trees. The descending angle of the middle-distance ridge on the right side extends into the downward slanting crown of the trees at lower left.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

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