Tag Archives: fog

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

Upper Yosemite Fall and Lost Arrow, Autumn Storm Clouds

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Upper Yosemite Fall and Lost Arrow, Autumn Storm Clouds
Upper Yosemite Fall and Lost Arrow, Autumn Storm Clouds

Upper Yosemite Fall and Lost Arrow, Autumn Storm Clouds. Yosemite Valley, California. October 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn storm clouds swirl around the Upper Yosemite Fall, Lost Arrow, and the cliffs of Yosemite Valley.

Shooting with a long lens, I watched as the clouds floated in and out of this scene, at times almost completely obscuring Upper Yosemite Fall and then clearing. At this instant the clouds cooperated for a few seconds, lining up so that the fall was completely visibly, parting enough to let the pinnacle of the Lost Arrow appear at upper left, and revealing just a bit of the tree covered ridge in the background. A few seconds later the clouds again thickened and this view was gone.

I posted a black and white version of the same photograph perhaps two weeks ago. I have since printed the monochrome version and I like it a great deal. Today I returned to these files and since I feel that it also works in color I decided to post it again.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Fog and Trees, Yosemite Valley

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Fog and Trees, Yosemite Valley
Fog and Trees, Yosemite Valley

Fog and Trees, Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. October 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Forest trees are almost completely obscured by evening fog in Yosemite Valley.

If you have been watching some of my recently posted photographs, you have perhaps figured out that I’m working on a series of photographs in which mist and fog and clouds obscure to a greater or lesser extent some underlying elements of the landscape. (If you haven’t been watching my recent posts… you can still be my friend! ;-) In a few of them I am seeing how far I can take this and still have an interesting photograph. This one marks a further step along that path in that at least half of the scene has little or no detail, being almost completely obscured by drifting fog, and even in the areas where trees are still visible the details are very muted.

I’m thinking about just how little detail I can retain in the scene and still retain a sense of form. And this isn’t the most extreme in the series at all. I’m working on another one which retains less “solid” detail than this one. (It may be that it works as a print but perhaps not as a web jpg, in which case I may not post it here – we’ll see.)

The photograph was made at – icon alert! – Wawona Tunnel View above Yosemite Valley on an evening when I had little interest in shooting the classic view of the Valley itself, but had instead gone there because I was almost certain that fog would form among the trees on the Valley floor as the temperature dropped following a rainy day. If anyone had noticed me shooting on that evening among the line-up of dozens of photographers, they might have been perplexed as to why I was aiming a very large lens down when the famous view was obviously straight ahead! ;-)

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Mist and Curving Ridge, Yosemite Valley

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Mist and Curving Ridge, Yosemite Valley
Mist and Curving Ridge, Yosemite Valley

Mist and Curving Ridge, Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. October 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mist from an autumn storm flows across the crest of a curving ridge high on the walls of Yosemite Valley.

The mist from this late-October storm is flowing over the edge of a curving ridge high above the floor of Yosemite Valley, leaving just a hint of the higher, curving ridge above this pinnacle through the clouds at upper left. This photograph, like one I posted very recently, was made as I alternated my attention between the image of Upper Yosemite Fall alternately transitioning between filtered sun and obscuring clouds and small details of the closer Valley walls as seen in this image. From moment to moment there were many interesting combinations of light, cloud, trees, and rock… but they came and went quickly and almost without warning.

I usually post photographs here before printing them, and not all of the posted photographs necessarily get printed. This one is an exception in that I made the first print of it yesterday. I’m also happy to say that some very subtle details that are barely or not visible in this web jpg reproduction are there in the print, including some faint outlines of trees in the upper left portion of the frame and some details of the rocky face at lower right.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Mist Shrouded Spire, Yosemite Valley

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Mist Shrouded Spire, Yosemite Valley
Mist Shrouded Spire, Yosemite Valley

Mist Shrouded Spire, Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. October 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A rocky spire emerges from the mist of an autumn storm along the rim of Yosemite Valley.

Still mining the backlog of photographs from my late-October visit to Yosemite Valley, here is another photograph made in the beautiful rainy and misty conditions of an autumn storm that came across the Sierra during the last weekend of the month. Since I’m crazy about photographing mist and fog, there was almost too much to shoot at times! When I made this photograph I was moving back and forth between isolated shots of small sections of the upper Valley rim blanketed by fog and light rain, and the scene of Yosemite Falls which was alternately socked in and almost clear. I kept my eyes on the cloud conditions just upwind of the falls, and when it looked like a clearing was approaching I would swing my camera that direction. Then, as thicker clouds moved across the falls and obliterated that view I redirected the camera towards small and quickly changing bits of cloud-covered landscape elsewhere along the cliffs nearby.

This is the sort of scene that makes me think more about how tremendously difficult it was/is to photograph such things with film! A subject like this is anything but static – the clouds move across and through the trees and rocks and change continuously, often so quickly that you only realize what has happened when the opportunity has passed. Accomplishing this with a few sheets of film must require not only tremendously good luck but also an excellent understanding of how these conditions evolve. I try to apply the same awareness of the conditions when I shoot such scenes… but I’m quite happy to be able to make multiple exposures quickly and without a lot of fuss!

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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