Tag Archives: forest

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Two Small Trees, Autumn Fog

October 31, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A few autumn maple trees are scattered in a Yosemite National Park forest on a foggy morning

I admit it. I got distracted. This past week I had reason to visit Oakhurst, California, just below the southern boundary of Yosemite National Park. I drove up there in tremendous rain, had my meeting, and then headed to The Valley for a few hours of photography. As I drove up from Oakhurst the forest was wet and fog was everywhere — perhaps the ideal conditions for all color — but I kept driving, wanting to get to the Valley before the light was gone. At one spot inside the park I caught a glimpse of a bright yellow big leaf maple tree in a small gully leading away from the road, but I did not stop.

I was back in Oakhurst that night, and then up very early the next morning with a plan to arrive in the Valley again by daybreak. I headed up from town again, but once again there was fog, though less of it. Three things I cannot resist are autumn color, fog, and forests — so when I passed this spot again I quickly decided to turn around and come back to make some photographs. This is a complex photograph, the opposite of the minimalist images I like to produce (see some recent Mono Lake photographs for examples), but that is the nature of forest scenes like this — they are an utterly harmonious whole created out of a very complex set of components. And, even better, they are mysterious and quiet and still.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Early Fall Aspen Color

October 18, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early fall color among small, high elevation trees east of the Sierra Nevada

Back in the middle of September, several weeks before I would usually begin photographing autumn aspen color in California’s Sierra Nevada, I visited the range for an end-of-summer trip and with the idea that I might do some pre-autumn reconnaissance in order to try get some idea of what the fall color season might bring at the beginning of October. It was my plan to camp in Tuolumne Meadows, hiking and camping and photographing there, but also ventured out a bit further, especially to the east side of the range.

As expected, it wasn’t really fall color season just yet, however I did encounter much more color than I would have expected — enough, in fact, to do more than just look around. Before the trip was done I made “fall” color photographs in several locations on the east side of the range, but I also ventured further east of the Sierra to some high desert areas and other mountains where I’ve been poking around looking for color in the past few years. I had a hunch about one high ridge where I had explored back roads earlier and from which I knew there could be long views, including those back toward the eastern escarpment of the Sierra. Somewhat to my surprise, I found a lot of aspen color out here. Although much of it was in what might be termed “scrub aspens,” the color was impressive and many of the groves stretched into the distance over high mountain ridges.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature

Wildfire Smoke, Early Morning

October 14, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

layers of thick wildfire smoke obscure the morning light

This was the culmination of more than twelve hours of observation of a developing wildfire located east of the Sierra Nevada, roughly between Lee Vining and Mammoth Lakes. The previous evening I finished a hike into the Sierra backcountry not far from Tioga Pass, returning to my car well after sunset. As I drove back down Lee Vining Canyon in the near-darkness I saw a big tower of smoke to the southeast and the tell-tale glow of fire on the bottom of the cloud. The next morning I woke up and headed straight back toward Mono Lake, from which I figured I could photograph conditions related to the fire.

I began photographing Mono Lake itself, where the lake was still mostly visible with only a few thin smoke clouds floating over it. But very soon this changed as winds brought the smoke right over Mono Lake, casting a pall over the scene all the way up to Conway Summit. My goal was to head south along the eastern escarpment, but as I did so the smoke only became thicker. I made this photograph at a point closer to the fire, where the smoke was very, very thick, enough so to take away most of the sunlight and add a post-apocalyptic quality to the scene.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

East Side, Morning

September 24, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light on the hills and peaks of the eastern Sierra Nevada near June Lake

I’ve occasionally written about my “discovery” of the Sierra Nevada east side perhaps two decades ago. Like so many from Northern California, my orientation to the range came from arriving by driving east across the Great Central Valley and then making the long, gradual ascent from the Valley to the summit of the range, a summit whose peaks are often not even visible from that Valley. (But when they are, what a sight!) I thought of the Sierra as being a place of mostly forested mountains, rising gradually, and only topped by the rugged granite peaks at is furthest point. Then a friend, whose orientation was from Southern California and who had approached the range from the South, got me (finally!) to visit the east side of the range.

What a difference! Here the mountains begin in semi-arid high desert sage brush country. They mostly rise abruptly along the eastern escarpment, with rocky ridges and summits exposed to view. The range immediately has an alpine quality that is quite different from the gentle forested slopes of the west side. Yet it, too, is varied. In some places the abrupt and rugged steepness is real — some of the ridges just above Round Valley, for example. But in other locations that “abrupt” escarpment is more subtle, the result of starting at even higher desert elevations (in the 8000′ range in some places) and due to some very large canyons cutting toward the summit of the range. For examples, visit the huge valley that rises above Bishop, or consider these sage and tree covered slopes gradually ascending toward the inevitable granite cliffs in the vicinity of June Lake.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: forest

Two Small Trees, Autumn Fog

Early Fall Aspen Color

Wildfire Smoke, Early Morning

East Side, Morning

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