Tag Archives: frozen

Thawing Ice, Sierra Nevada

Thawing Ice, Sierra Nevada
Thawing Ice, Sierra Nevada

Thawing Ice, Sierra Nevada. Yosemite National Park, California. June 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ice melts on the frozen surface of an alpine lake near the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Yosemite National Park.

When I visited this lake very close to the Sierra Crest in the Yosemite back-country in late June, it was still completely covered with winter ice – though the thaw was well underway and the surface was a complex pattern of frozen sections and pools of water on top of the ice that reflected the sky, clouds, and surrounding mountains.

This photograph is a stitched panorama, created by combining two landscape mode photographs in the post-processing phase.

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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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 100, f/11, 1/640 second, stitched from two photographs

keywords: panorama, pattern, texture, reflection, gaylor, lake, basic, sky, cloud, shadow, frozen, water, alpine, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, crest, yosemite, national, park, tioga, pass, road, nature, landscape, scenic, travel, high, melt, thaw, ice, california, usa, north america, stock

Blue Ice, Alpine Lake

Blue Ice, Alpine Lake
Blue Ice, Alpine Lake

Blue Ice, Alpine Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patterns of blue and white ice emerge as the frozen surface of an alpine lake begins to melt, Yosemite National Park.

Yes, I’m still working the series of photographs from my late June visit to a frozen alpine lake in the Tioga Pass area of Yosemite National Park – and there still may be one or two more to come. This is a tightly cropped detail of a section of the ice on the surface of this lake that was still mostly frozen, albeit in a somewhat slushy form. (Other photographs in this series play with the juxtaposition of ices and meltwater floating on the surface of the ice.) The very blue tone comes from the fact that the illumination was entirely from the very blue sky, with no direct sunlight hitting the ice at all.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 100, f/18, 1/8 second

keywords: gaylor, lake, basin, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, north america, tioga, pass, road, sierra, nevada, crest, mountain, range, alpine, blue, white, ice, frozen, melt, pattern, surface, landscape, nature, scenic, stock, tuolumne, evening, late, afternoon

Ice, Water, and Reflected Clouds

Ice, Water, and Reflected Clouds
Ice, Water, and Reflected Clouds

Ice, Water, and Reflected Clouds. Yosemite National Park, California. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of clouds reflected in the surface of shoreline water on a frozen alpine lake, Yosemite National Park.

Once I discovered the reflections of evening clouds in this narrow band of water between the ice and the shoreline of this frozen lake, I managed to make several exposures as the clouds continuously moved past. (I earlier posted a color photograph taken at about the same time.) As I went through the group of images I wanted to try one in a black and white rendition and this one seemed like the of the bunch for that interpretation.

Since the “abstractness” of this scene is what drew me to it, I decided to run with that idea in this version. Although it may not be apparent, this interpretation is the result of more post-processing work than was the case with the similar color photograph.

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.

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

Sky and Ice

Sky and Ice
Sky and Ice

Sky and Ice. Yosemite National Park, California. June 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shoreline water reflects evening sky and clouds along the edge of melting winter ice patterns on an alpine lake in Yosemite National Park, California.

This morning I am back from several days of photographing on either side of the Sierra Nevada crest in the Mono Lake, Tioga Pass, and Tuolumne Meadows area. It is a beautiful early season in the Sierra – the wet and long-lasting winter produced a good snow pack (a substantial portion of which is still there if you go high enough) and now there is water everywhere.

After a mid-afternoon dinner, we headed up a short but steep and muddy trail through newly-emerging plants to reach a broad, snow-covered saddle. From this vantage point we were surprised to see that the valley below was still snow-covered, and that this large lake was almost fully covered by ice, with alternating patterns of thicker ice and melt-water pools. After descending to the lake, I climbed partway up the slope at one end to get a better angle on the ice and the reflected blue light from the sky. This photograph shows evening sky and clouds reflecting in the bit of open water close the shoreline.

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.)