Tag Archives: granite

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

Cascade Creek, Spring

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Cascade Creek, Spring
Cascade Creek, Spring

Cascade Creek, Spring. Yosemite National Park, California. June 5, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The spring torrent of Cascade Creek descends past Big Oak Flat Road on its way to the Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California.

Every year, but especially in years of above average precipitation, this cascade flows strongly in the early season as low elevation snow melts above Crane Flat Road. The creek, swollen with runoff, drops down a narrow slot above the road, passes under the bridge, and continues its descent to join the Merced. This year the cascade was very full during my first-week-of-June visit, and even though I’ve photographed it before I had to stop again.

Lighting can be tricky here. The water is deep in the cleft in the rocks, so it is much darker and the light is fairly blue. The direct sun was lighting the foreground trees, which are much brighter and warmer in color than the background. I was lucky in that the waterfall and some morning breezes were raising a good deal of mist, which alternately obstructed the view of the fall and cleared away to show some of the trees. At the moment I made this exposure the shadows of trees outside the frame were creating shadows in the cloud of mist.

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 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 84mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/4 second

keywords: yosemite, national, park, sierra, nevada, mountain, spring, nature, tree, oak, pine, trunk, branch, rock, boulder, granite, cascade, creek, fall, waterfall, torrent, spring, runoff, melt, water, foam, spray, big, flat, road, merced, river, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, mist, light, morning, beam, stock

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

Early Season Ice on Tenaya Lake

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Early Season Ice on Tenaya Lake
Early Season Ice on Tenaya Lake

Early Season Ice on Tenaya Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. June 5, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of early season ice on the surface of Tenaya Lake with high granite peaks and domes beyond, Yosemite National Park, California.

A long-lens version of the classic view of Tenaya Lake from Olmsted Point, made on the day that Tioga Pass Road opened for the season and while ice still covered almost all of the surface of the lake. Peaks and domes tower above the lake, including the heights of Mount Conness near the upper left. In a larger version of this photograph, many seasonal waterfalls are visible along the sides of the cliffs and domes.

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 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 210mm
ISO 200, f/5.1, 1/400 second

keywords: yosemite, national, park, sierra, nevada, mountain, spring, nature, california, usa, north america, tenaya, lake, dome, conness, peak, ridge, snow, ice, field, forest, granite, cliff, june, olmsted, point, landscape, nature, cloud, sky, black and white, monochrome, tioga, pass, road, highway, 120, trans, scenic, travel, stock

News

A Brief Note About Upcoming Posts

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Posting a new photograph here every day isn’t easy! I usually try to work ahead so that I have a number of photographs queued up in advance. (No, I’m not really up at 4:00 a.m. Pacific every day finishing up and posting a new photo… ;-)

About a month ago I found myself in the difficult position of having no new photograph ready for the next day’s post on more than one occasion. Fortunately, this happened at about the time of my annual ritual of reviewing all of my photographs from the previous year. This year that amounted to more than 10,000 frames. Not surprisingly, I found a few interesting photographs that I had forgotten or which didn’t make sense to me originally.

During the past few weeks I’ve had more opportunities to get out and shoot. In fact, right now I have nearly two weeks of photographs queued up for posting here. I had the opportunity to spend a rainy afternoon at the Getty Center in Los Angeles at the end of December, and a series of photographs from that adventure will appear soon. I also had the chance to make a quick visit to the Big Sur coast yesterday and I have a few new photographs from that trip that will appear soon – including a new shot of the Rocky Creek Bridge area that I think I like a lot.

Stay tuned!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

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

Runoff Pool, Evening – Tuolumne Meadows

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Runoff Pool, Evening - Tuolumne Meadows

Runoff Pool, Evening – Tuolumne Meadows. Yosemite National Park, California. July 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Grass bordered early summer runoff pool in Toulumne Meadows reflects sunset clouds and the summit of Ragged Peak, Yosemite National Park, California.

I made this photograph on a very early-season visit to the Tuolumne Meadows area in early July of this year. Since this was a below-normal precipitation year, the road to the pass cleared a bit on the early side and by early July almost all of the snow was gone at road level – but there was still a good amount of run-off water in Tuolumne Meadows. (Though nothing like in the big precipitation years, when portions of the meadow become more lake than solid ground.) There were some interesting clouds this evening so I wandered out into one of my favorite areas in the lower end of the meadow as the day ended and photographed the new grasses and pools of water that reflected sky, clouds, and surrounding peaks. In the distance the summit of Ragged Peak marks the location of Young Lakes.

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

keywords: tuolumne, meadow, tioga, pass, road, sierra, nevada, mountains, range, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, reflection, runoff, pool, water, surface, grass, ripple, cloud, evening, sunset, dusk, summit, ragged, peak, ridge, forest, granite, blue, orange, green, nature, july, early, summer, nature, landscape, scenic, travel, stock