Tag Archives: forest

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Coastline, Dusk

February 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dusk light falls across the rugged Big Sur coastline, California

This was a very special bit of end-of-day light. Earlier we had spent about nine hours driving south between Monterey and Piedras Blancas on the Big Sur coast, stopping frequently along the way to make photographs of the beautiful winter light. At the southern end of our drive we spent time photographing the elephant seals at their “nursery” alongside the road – a popular place for observing this amazing creatures, especially at this time of year when the females are giving birth and the beach is crowded with all sorts of elephant seals: bulls, females, new babies.

Finishing here, it was time to turn the car north again and head back the way we had come. We started up the Pacific Coast Highway and very soon began the first climb into the coastal hills. We kept an eye out for potential gold hour photographic subjects. There are, of course, no shortage of them along this spectacular coastline, so we figured that we would find something no matter where we were during the last hour of light even though we had no specific plan yet. Eventually we came to a place where we had stopped earlier on the southward drive and we pulled off. Earlier, closer to the middle of the day, the light had been very bright here, illuminating coastal haze and reflecting off the ocean surface in a way that reminds me of molten metal. But now the light was lower and coming in at a more direct angle, and the atmosphere softened and the colors warmed in the late-day light. At first the light was more intense and I made a few photographs with the scene brilliantly colored. At one point I looked away to photograph something else, and when I looked back the sun had dropped behind a semi-transparent band of clouds near the horizon, significantly muting the brightness and color of the light on the base of the hills, but still leaving a few intense spots higher up.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake and Rocky Peninsula

February 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Smooth water behind a small rocky peninsula reflects clouds above a high Sierra back-country lake, Kings Canyon National Park

We stopped at this small lake along the route to and from our destination during our September 2013 nine-day photographic excursion into the high Sierra back-country of Kings Canyon National Park. Between the trailhead and the 11,000′ basin where we camped for nearly a week, there was a 15+ mile hike, two near-12,000′ passes, and a final climb of well over a thousand feet – too far for our party to travel in a single day. So we ended up making a stop here on the inbound and outbound trips. This is a view a few steps away from our campsite near the outlet stream.

My previous visit to this lake had been several decades earlier, back on my very first solo Sierra Nevada backpacking trip. That is a story worth its own lengthy post at some point, but the most striking point may be that I decided that my very first solo trip would be two weeks long! Given that solo backpacking may strike some as a stretch in several ways, a shorter first trip might seem more sensible – but in retrospect I’m glad that I went out for so long. After a few initial days of dealing with the expected “issues” of solo backcountry travel, I got past those concerns and have rarely felt as connected to the natural world as I did during the second half of that trip. At about that point I stopped at this lake on the walk between Bubbs Creek and Rae Lakes, and I recall the next day’s climb to the Pass, where I sat for a long time, in no hurry to leave or get to any place in particular.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Subalpine Forest, Morning Light

February 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on the trees of a subalpine forest in the high country of Kings Canyon National Park

During September 2013 four photographers spent nine days in a remote backcountry area of Kings Canyon National Park, camped at 11,000′ in a beautiful lake-filled basin and spending our days exploring and photographing the surrounding area. Being there for such a long time, we had opportunities to photograph in diverse light and weather conditions, and to return to subjects more than once.

Nearby there was a large subalpine bowl with a dozen or more lakes ranging from quite large to mere tarns. We made the 15 minute walk to this spectacular location many times. We photographed in evening rain, in overcast, in brilliant afternoon light, and in the early morning. I made this photograph on one of those mornings. I had begun very early, when the sun had not yet risen. At first I photographed in the blue-tinted early light, and then I began to chase the light/shade boundary as it crossed the lakes and surrounding terrain. Eventually the sun rose high enough that nearly everything was in the sun, with the exception of a few glades right up against steep slopes. I decided to head back to camp by skirting the shady side of the bowl, and I photographed this beautiful stand of trees backed by rising hills and more distant forest as I began this walk.

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

Rim Fire Burn Zone, Morning

January 10, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An area near “Rim of the World” recently burned by the Rim Fire

Late this past summer one of the worst wildfires in the Sierra burned extensive areas near and within the northwest “corner” of Yosemite National Park. The “Rim Fire,” as it has come to be known (since it started near the “Rim of the World” overlook) came at a time of very bad conditions – in hot and dry weather, late in the season, and at the end of a second drought year in California. The first spread very quickly, and it took tremendous efforts to contain it – and full suppression took many, many weeks.

Since the fire burned in areas that I know very well from decades of travel through this part of the Sierra, I was anxious to see the extent of the damage. At first I thought I might get a chance in early September, when I traveled back and forth to the eastern Sierra to photograph fall colors. However, weather interfered – snow closed Tioga Pass Road and I ended up taking different routes across the range. Finally, at the very end of October, on a drive to Yosemite Valley I passed this way early in the morning. Overall, from what little I could observe, several things seem clear: the fire burned a very large area, some sections were very badly damaged and it will be a long time before trees grow there again, other sections were only lightly burned and a few were skipped over. This view, from the “Rim of the World” overlook, rises from the close charred hills above the Tuolumne River Canyon, across more distant ridges, and culminates at far peaks with a light dusting of early season snow. All of the conditions I described above are visible here – serious destruction in the foreground, a bit further in there are some trees that were burned by not killed, and far beyond there is forest that appears to have not been burned.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: forest

Coastline, Dusk

Lake and Rocky Peninsula

Subalpine Forest, Morning Light

Rim Fire Burn Zone, Morning

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