Tag Archives: fracture

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

Pond with Boulders and Trees

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Pond with Boulders and Trees
Pond with Boulders and Trees

Pond with Boulders and Trees. Yosemite National Park, California. July 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small pond reflects trees and glaciated boulders, Yosemite National Park.

This is a little location that I’ve returned to since I first discovered it a few years ago when I made a random stop along Tioga Pass Road to photograph some fog, looked away from the road, and saw a faint trail leading off into a little valley that looked to be full of rocks. Later I returned and wandered out on the trail and discovered a surprising landscape with glaciated granite, small pools, open forest, and small meadows. The first time I photographed there I had little time, so it ended up being more of a scouting visit than a shoot. However, this summer I planned to reserve part of a morning to wander back up this trail during the time when the light would still be good.

The pools here are almost completely still. The water is flowing, but not much, especially in the small granite rimmed pools like this one. The light was just barely beginning to filter down through the trees, so I had to be a bit careful to avoid hot spots where the sun shone. I’d share where this spot is, except that if you think about what you are passing as you drive along Tioga Pass Road, and occasionally stop and look around, you can probably find your own little spots like this one.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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

Fractured Granite Ledges

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Fractured Granite Ledges
Fractured Granite Ledges

Fractured Granite Ledges. Yosemite National Park, California. July 27, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Exfoliated and fractured granite ledges form patterns in late afternoon light, Yosemite National Park.

While this particular spot happens to be in the neighborhood of Tenaya Creek, similar features may be found throughout Yosemite and in many other parts of the Sierra. These rocks have probably been eroded in just about every way possible. They have been broken away from the underlying rock via exfoliation. The area was obviously glaciated. No doubt freezing water helped to widen the patterns of cracks and break up the rocks.

I made the photograph in late afternoon light when the sun was just barely above a low ridge beyond the upper edge of the photograph. The zoom was cranked out as wide as it goes in order to capture a good width and density of these wonderfully broken up rocks and the trees and other plants that somehow manage to live on and among them.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)

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

Sunset Light, Lower Face of Fletcher Peak

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Sunset Light, Lower Face of Fletcher Peak

Sunset Light, Lower Face of Fletcher Peak. Yosemite National Park, California. September 9, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light on the lower face of Fletcher Peak near the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp, Yosemite National Park, California.

Fletcher Lake, the location of the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp, is one of “my places” in the Yosemite Sierra – I visit very year, often more than once, and I make a tradition of visiting during the late season after Labor Day Weekend. This year I did a loop trip up Lyell Canyon, then up the Ireland Lake Trail past Evelyn Lake to get there. On the first day I started very late and barely made camp as night fell, cooking after dark an the junction of the John Muir Trail and the Ireland Lake Trail in Lyell Canyon. I slept in the next morning, and eventually headed up the Ireland Lake trail to camp at Evelyn Lake that night. The next morning I headed over to Fletcher Lake, where I spent the next couple night, giving myself plenty of time to photograph this familiar area.

On the evening when I arrived I headed out in the late afternoon to photograph areas around the meadow below Fletcher Lake, eventually working my way over to Fletcher Lake as the sun dropped toward the horizon. This photograph was made not long before sunset as the warm late-day sun illuminated some talus, snow, and granite near the base of Fletcher Peak.

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.

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

Granite Cliff and Ledge – Upper Cathedral Lake

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Granite Cliff and Ledge - Upper Cathedral Lake

Granite Cliff and Ledge – Upper Cathedral Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fractured cliff face and bench with colorful lichens and trees near Upper Cathedral Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

During the last week of September I managed to squeeze in a very shot pack trip to Upper Cathedral Lakes, just out of Tuolumne Meadows in the Yosemite National Park high country, where I met five outstanding Yosemite photographers who were there for a week of shooting. Although I was only at the lake for perhaps 24 hours, I tried to make the best of it and I shot early and late all around the upper lake.

On the first evening I decided to explore some rocky gullies ascending above the lake on the side opposite from Cathedral Peak. The first gully I followed was very narrow and quite deep – I had to climb a good distance to finally find a spot where I could climb out of it onto the glacier-smoother dome-like formations above the lake. This photograph shows a tremendously fractured section of the wall of this gully, with the bases of a few trees included for scale.

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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