Tag Archives: foliage

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

Lodgepole Forest, First Light

August 17, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light touches the tops of lodgepole pines in a lakeside forest, Yosemite National Park, California.

This bit of dense lodgepole pine forest is on the far shore of an easily-visited lake along Tioga Pass Road, and I like to photograph it when the morning light is just starting to make its way over the tops of the surrounding mountains and it begins to touch the first trees along the lake shore.

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.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Trees and Granite Slabs

August 15, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees growing in granite slabs in the Yosemite high country stand in morning light.

Scenes like this are, for me, among those that most strongly characterize the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, and specifically the portion of the range found in Yosemite National Park. There are many mountain ranges that have their own attractions, but the combination of large swaths of glacially formed and polished granite with open forests filled with light immediately shouts “Sierra Nevada” to me. I used to be attracted most to the highest alpine peaks, but more and more I like the more intimate landscapes of the parts of the Sierra in which small ponds and tarns are placed among little meadows separated by trees and bits of granite.

Scenes like this one are not, frankly, all that hard to find in Yosemite and elsewhere in the Sierra. I photographed these trees and boulders in this expanse of glaciated granite near Olmsted Point in the early morning when the light was still warm and the shadows long.

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.

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

Detail, White Bark Pine

August 12, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Detail of dense growth of a white bark pine tree in the high country near Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

I photographed this dense growth of white bark pine in a high meadow not far from Tioga Pass, after venturing out into (and around, given the wet conditions!) this area very early in the morning. Although it isn’t apparent in this very close-up photograph, this was a rather unique tree. It had grown up around a large boulder and taken on the boulder’s shape since the branches followed the outline of the boulder almost exactly – it almost looked like the boulder was covered with a “tree blanket.”

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.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Sidewalk, Brick Building, Hotel Sign

July 28, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Black and white photograph of a street scene in San Francisco containing slanting sidewalk, brick and other buildings, and a hotel sign.

The geometric forms of this scene caught my attention as I walked up a street where many art students seem to hang out. The image is obviously full of all sorts of tall rectangles of varying sizes and colors, ranging from the small windows to the white column of the far building in the center to the bulky and dark form of the brick building on the right side of the frame. A couple of little elements also intrigued me: the juxtaposition of the parking meter and surrounding shadows and fire valves on the wall, and the parallel and slightly diagonal lines of the curb and the streetcar wires overhead.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.