Tag Archives: glacial

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

Gaylor Basin and the Cathedral Range, Evening

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Gaylor Basin and the Cathedral Range, Evening
Gaylor Basin and the Cathedral Range, Evening

Gaylor Basin and the Cathedral Range, Evening. Yosemite National Park, California. July 26, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening shadows stretch across the boulder-filled meadows and forests of Gaylor Basin with the peaks of the Cathedral Range on the skyline, Yosemite National Park.

On the first evening of my late-July four-day visit to Yosemite’s high country along Tioga Pass Road I decided to visit this favorite location of mine. It is a short (but steep!) hike from near Tioga Pass over a nearby ridge to reach this quiet basin with its many lakes, long distance views of the Cathedral Range, and the treeline terrain of rocks and trees that I believe is my very favorite in the Sierra.

I started out after my mid-afternoon “dinner” and the drive to the trailhead from my camp at Porcupine Flat. Probably because it was so late in the day, I met a fair number of people hiking back out but only saw two others in the entire basin once I arrived. I suppose this is one of the advantages of keeping odd “photographer’s hours” – while most people are heading back to camp to fix dinner, I’m heading out to catch the evening light.

In the end, I didn’t make many photographs on this evening. I mostly wandered, something I love to do in these high open basins. I walked around the first lake, passing over some still-unmelted snow, and crossed the very full outlet stream, trying to skirt the wettest portions of the meadow by looking for rocky terrain. I finally settled on an area just below the lake and made a few photographs of trees and rocks and the long, shallow valley leading toward the main trunk of the Tuolumne River and the mountains beyond. I finished just after dusk, climbed back up the ridge as darkness came on, and finished the hike back to my car with the help of the light from my headlamp.

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

Juniper Trees and Granite Slab, Morning

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Juniper Trees and Granite Slab, Morning
Juniper Trees and Granite Slab, Morning

Juniper Trees and Granite Slab, Morning. Yosemite National Park, California. July 27, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two juniper trees in morning light at the base of Pywiack Dome, Yosemite National Park.

This strong and straight juniper and the smaller twin hiding behind it grow at the top of the rocky debris field at the base of this dome not far from Tenaya Lake in the Yosemite National Park high country. A bit later than the “golden hour” time, the morning light begins to spill around the side of the dome and illuminate these trees from behind, creating a glow in their branches and the branches of trees and brush around them.

Last night someone asked me if I choose when to go to the Sierra to photograph based on the weather conditions. I wish I had that luxury! To some extent I make general decisions about where and what to shoot based on the season – The Valley around the end the start of November, the east side in early October, etc. – but for the most part I go where I can go when I can go there. However, I do alter the focus of my shooting based on the current conditions. This late-July trip is a good example.

I associate certain types of light with different seasons, and I tend to look for clear and crisp light in late July along, accented by snow fields and lots of new growth. I was a bit surprised by the amount of haze in the atmosphere. In fact, in some ways it almost reminded me of very late summer and early fall when Sierra wildfires often create a smokey haze over the range. With this in mind, I figured out that crystal clear photographs of mountain peaks against sky were not going to be in the cards. Instead I focused more on closer subjects, and when I shot more distant subjects I thought a lot about how to use the haze, embracing its effect rather than regretting that I had to deal with it. This photograph is perhaps an example of both of those approaches. The main subject here, the central pair of trees, cannot be more than a couple hundred feet away, if that. Behind the trees and the slab are more distant granite domes and cliffs and forest winding up the mountainside. Shooting almost straight into the sun accentuated the hazy quality of the more distant elements of the scene and enhanced the sense of front to back distance, and separated the foreground trees from the background it a way that would not have been possible in “better” lighting conditions.

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

Dead Branch, Glaciated Granite

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Dead Branch, Glaciated Granite
Dead Branch, Glaciated Granite

Dead Branch, Glaciated Granite. Yosemite National Park, California. June 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dead branch lies on glacially-polished granite in the Yosemite National Park back-country.

I made a promise to someone to not say where this photograph was made – I’ll just say it is in Yosemite National Park. But the exact location really doesn’t matter too much, as these large expanses of glaciated granite slab are a common feature throughout the park, and you could find similarly interesting geology in thousands of locations.

I was a little surprised to find this weathered branch in this location, since it was a good distance from any trees and also not near any flowing water. Besides its location, a few other things about it caught my attention. First, its curving shapes lined up in a way tht seems to tie in with the bit of glacially-polished granite that lies beneath it. (And, yes, this is exactly where the branch was when I found it.) In a way, the larger shape of the lighter area of granite winding across the photograph from side to side almost seems like a much thicker echo of the curving shape of the branch. In addition, the warm brown tones of the branch seem to stand out a bit – though perhaps more in a larger print – against the relatively drab color of the rock.

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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.

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

Trees and Granite Slabs, Morning

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Trees and Granite Slabs, Morning
Trees and Granite Slabs, Morning

Trees and Granite Slabs, Morning. Yosemite National Park, California. July 23, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning backlight catches a group of lodgepole pine trees growing on a series of granite slabs in the high country of Yosemite National Park.

This photograph carries with it what almost amounts to a bit of embarrassment – of the “how did I not see this” category. I have driven past this spot literally scores of times, more likely hundreds of times, and not seen the possible photograph here. In fairness, it was not always at this particular time of day, and it is in a location where it would be natural to be distracted by other visual interests.

In any case, this series of granite slabs on a low dome-like feature is fairly typical of the Sierra high county of Yosemite, and I am always attracted to the combination of the widely separated trees and the glacially-formed granite slabs. Here I was also attracted to the way the main trees were set off against the muted tones of the distant ridge which is still in shadow at the early hour of the day.

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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