Tag Archives: granite

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

Forest and Cliffs

September 17, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Yosemite forest, with many dead and dying trees, and cliffs near Bridal Veil fall

In early September, about a week after returning from over a month of international travel — and missing the entire month of August in the Sierra! — I finally got to “go home” to the Yosemite high country for a few days. I camped in Tuolumne Meadows, traveled briefly to the East Side along US 395, and returned home via quick stops in Yosemite Valley, Oakhurst, and a favorite winter bird spot in the Central Valley. It was a quick trip, but just enough to get me back in contact with the mountains. (It also let me take an early look at the upcoming seasonal changes. The signs of fall in the Sierra are clear: corn lily plants dying off and falling over, bilberry reddening meadow edges, little spots of yellow on plants high up on rocky slopes, a few golden willow leaves here and there, and a general sense that everything is slowing after summer’s frantic burst of life.)

I rarely visit Yosemite Valley in the summer, preferring almost any other time to the crowds that go there during the vacation season. Although this was a post-Labor Day visit, and the biggest crowds had departed, there were still lots of people there. After a visit to the Ansel Adams Gallery, where a show celebrating the role of photography in the parks was close to concluding (it included five of my prints), I started to head out of the Valley. As I passed this spot I caught a glimpse of drought-killed trees (with the help of bark beetles), other trees standing tall, and the cliffs around Bridal Veil fall. I noticed it too late to stop… so I took one more loop around the roads of the lower valley and came back to make this photograph in the afternoon light and haze.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Domes, Haze, Morning

September 6, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light and haze, granite domes and peaks

This is a scene no doubt very familiar to visitors to the Yosemite National Park high country, though perhaps fewer would see it at this time of day — I know that when I am out photographing during the early morning like this I am often surprised by how few people manage to get up and see this beautiful time of day! The scene includes domes, mountains, and a bit of forest at the upper end of Tenaya Lake.

The difference here is that I used a very long lens to photograph the scene, thus eliminating the lake and the higher peaks that stand in the distance. The long lens also intensifies the effect of atmospheric haze by condensing it, here muting the details of the distant peak the stands in front of Mount Conness.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Morning Light on Trees

August 4, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light glances across high elevation trees, Kings Canyon National Park

Back in 2013 a small group of us spent roughly a week camped in a beautiful 11,000′ basin in Kings Canyon National Park, photographing a remarkable area of many lakes, intimate landscapes of trees and tarns and granite, and high and desolate ridges and peaks. Such a long stay in one area reveals things about the landscape that are too easily missed on shorter visits, and it gives us the opportunity to photograph in conditions ranging from storms to sunlight.

At the start of such a long trip, despite having made quite a few of them, there is always a bit of concern about spending such a long time in such a small area — “How will I find enough to photograph over such a long time?” This thought crosses my mind still, even though I know that on every previous long trip I have found myself wishing for more time at the end! This photograph comes from my final day of photography in this area, and very soon after I made it we were heading back out to what passes for the “real world.”

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

Tuolumne River, Forest, Evening

August 3, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light falls across forest and granite, Tuolumne River Canyon

On the first evening of my July trip to the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite, having set up my camp and taken care of other chores, I decided to go photograph something nearby. The Tuolumne River is about as nearby as one can find, so I decided to walk down a section where it descends through an area of granite slabs and begins to offer down-canyon views.

My first destination was a particular cascade from which a nearby peak is visible. But as I finished photographing that, a look downstream toward the next bend suggested that better light might be found that way. One thing usually leads to another, just as surely as one bend in the river provides a view of yet another, and eventually I wandered down to this spot, where the river tracked off into the trees and the last light of the day illuminate nearby trees and the ridges and forests further down the river canyon.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: granite

Forest and Cliffs

Domes, Haze, Morning

Morning Light on Trees

Tuolumne River, Forest, Evening

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