Tag Archives: forest

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Half Dome and El Capitan, Morning Light

May 27, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

The first view of Half Dome and El Capitan upon arriving at Yosemite Valley in the early morning.

Let’s think of this as a work in progress…

Almost every time I enter Yosemite Valley via the northern highway 120 route I stop at this turnout not far below the turnoff to Foresta, where the first view of Half Dome and El Capitan suddenly looms ahead. I am so familiar with this road that I know exactly when this view will appear, but it must be stunning for a first-time visitor to round this ridge and see these icons looming ahead. I pull out, park the car, fit the long lens, and see what the conditions will produce on this particular day.

I have a vision for a photograph that I’ll probably get some day from this spot, but it will take a perfect combination of light (type, angle, intensity) and atmosphere (some haze but some clarity in the scene as well) and conditions (a bit of snow somewhere, perhaps like that on the summit of Half Dome in this photo). I have a feeling that the day on which it happens will not necessarily be an otherwise stunning day – but the conditions for this shot will be right.

In the meantime this version and a companion in landscape orientation that I shot in early May will have to do. Besides the obvious iconic stuff (Half Dome in the far center and the face of El Capitan looming on the left) there are some interesting visual coincidences in this scene. Notice that the curve of the upper right ridge of Half Dome is mirrored in the curve of the foreground ridge in front of El Capitan. The concave curve on the very upper left side of Half Dome (close to the cliff next to the “cable route”) is mirrored by the dip in the foreground trees. The descending angle of the middle-distance ridge on the right side extends into the downward slanting crown of the trees at lower left.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

keywords: yosemite, valley, national park, half dome, el capitan, silhouette, haze, light, cliff, mountain, forest, trees, black and white, landscape, scenic, travel, california, usa, sky, snow, spring, morning, early, first, view, overlook, stock

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

Dogwood Blossoms and Leaves

May 20, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Spring dogwood tree blossoms and new leaves, Yosemite Valley.

I found this pair of dogwood blossoms and the accompanying diagonal arrangement of new leaves when I left the crowded “Mirror Lake Trail” (which is, in reality, a road…) and instead walked the parallel and much more attractive footpath through the forest. It can be hard to get a full view of the dogwood flowers from above since the great majority of the flowers grow above eye level. Here I found a large boulder parked next to a tree, and while the leaves were a good distance up in the tree, by climbing onto the boulder and setting my tripod up on top I was able to find a good high position to photograph them.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Spring Grass, Point Lobos

May 11, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring grass in the pine forest at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

Unfortunately, I’m not expert enough at plant identification to come up with a more precise title than “Spring Grass, Point Lobos.” (Yes, that is an open invitation to friendly botanists to offer up a more precise identification! :-) While I was photographing Rattlesnake Grass – photo posted recently – in this spot in the pine forest at Point Lobos I also noticed the impressive seed heads of this nearby grass. This is another of my plant photographs made with the unlikely 70-200mm zoom lens – again, the long focal length lets me work from a slightly greater distance and use the narrow DOF of the longer lens to create a nice out of focus background.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Textures

Grass, Point Lobos

May 10, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A thick carpet of spring grass at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

As I hiked through the pine forest in the southern part of the Point Lobos State Reserve on a foggy day during the last weekend of April the spring grasses and wildflowers (and poison oak!) were growing everywhere. I had stopped to photograph a scene of pines with a meadow containing yellow flowers when I spotted one large clump of very green grass that had been blown or otherwise pushed into this interesting pattern.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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