Tag Archives: forest

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest, Soft Light

September 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft early morning light on dense trees of a Sierra Nevada forest

There are three things — perhaps among quite a few potential other — that come to mind for me when I think of this photograph. First, it could be almost any vignette of a forest scene, at least within the limitations of places where these sorts of trees grow. Second, and in opposition to the first thought, it is a very specific place — not a place that anyone else would likely afford any special attention, but because I have given it that attention for some time it has become a special spot for me. Third, it is the opposite of a sort of photograph that we often try to create — rather than being one that simplifies by minimizing content an leaving things out, it tries to find some order and form in a small scene that is extraordinarily complex, yet which follows familiar patterns.

It is also perhaps “about” (insofar as a photograph can be “about” anything) this light, from the early morning of what will become a sunny day, when the light is still soft and diffused. It is also about the nature of forests I think. I remember one very specific moment on a backpacking trip many years ago when I was heading up Rafferty Creek toward Fletcher Lake, a hike I have done many, many times. For some reason, on that morning, I had one of those occasional and powerful epiphanies that occasionally come when I’m on the trail alone. I saw the forest in ways that are not easy to describe. I felt that I wasn’t just walking past “the forest” — I was among a community of living things, and for a moment I became aware of the deep stillness of trees, the tremendous amount to almost static time through which they live, and that they stood still and rooted through blizzards and wind and rain and sunshine.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Unicorn Peak, Grazing Deer, Evening

September 16, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small herd of deer grazes in the evening at Tuolumne Meadows below Unicorn Peak

On the first evening of this July visit to the Yosemite high country I happened to run into several photographer friends, completely by chance, as I pulled over to take a look at some interesting trees. I had set up my camp and was out scouting, as yet with no clear plan, when I found them, and we decided to join forces and head off to photograph a section of the Tuolumne River. As the end of the day approached we headed back to the main meadow to photograph the final evening light, and I ended up at the edge of Tuolumne Meadows at the base of a low dome.

I went to work making photographs of some distant subjects, but became more and more aware of the large herd of deer grazing nearby. Eventually I could not ignore them, as some of the animals were brave enough to pass within feet of my position! It was cloudy, and as a single ray of light passed across the forest on the far side of the meadow I made this photograph that includes the deer, the forest and some peaks of the Cathedral Range.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow, Forest, and Dome

September 11, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Afternoon light along the edge of Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park

Late in the afternoon, about the time that many day visitors leave Tuolumne Meadows for their lodgings and when many campers are fixing dinner, I wandered out into the meadow with no particular destination in mind. With the exception of a few other walkers and two or three deer, I mostly had the meadow to myself. I walked slowly along a narrow finger of grasses between trees encroaching that are gradually encroaching on the meadow, passed through the last trees in one of these stands, and found myself in a large section of open meadow. After so many years in the Sierra and particularly in this place, it has a quiet and comfortable and unhurried feeling on an evening like this one.

Farther downstream the larger forest trees came to the edge of the meadow, and late afternoon golden light slanted across the meadow past these trees. Beyond the shoulder of a granite dome sloped down toward the lower terrain, catching the sun from the west.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Sierra Forest, Morning Light

September 9, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light arrives in dense Sierra Nevada forest

Spend enough time somewhere and you begin to develop surprising relationships with surprising little places that perhaps no one else would even notice. Since I’ve been going to the Sierra for decades, I’ve had plenty of time to find my own “little places” and to begin to understand and value this. Some decades ago, when my backpacking experience became extensive enough that I often found myself back at places that I had previously visited, I was surprised to discover that particular rocks (like one at a high country lake where I often set up my camp kitchen, or another where I once sat and watched a storm blow in), creeks (such as one near 11,000′ in the southern Sierra where I have camped alone and with friends), trees (such as the one we discovered decades ago on a trip with kids, shortly after it had been blasted apart by lightning), and others acquire a quality of old, familiar friends.

This little bit of forest has become one of those places. It is not quite in the “back-country.” In fact, it is a scene that I drive past on my way to other places. But a few years ago it caught my attention and I began to inspect it every time I passed by, sometimes stopping to look more closely. I cannot quite articulate why or how it is that this bit of forest became “mine,” but it did. I was camped nearby on this morning and had gone out to look for light when I remembered the spot and arrived just as the first direct morning sunlight was beginning to enter the grove.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: forest

Forest, Soft Light

Unicorn Peak, Grazing Deer, Evening

Meadow, Forest, and Dome

Sierra Forest, Morning Light

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