Tag Archives: grass

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

Flooded Meadow Near Greenstone Lake

August 17, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Late-season snow fields are reflected in the pond of a flooded alpine meadow near Greenstone Lake, Sierra Nevada.

During this year of heavy and late winter snowfall, there is still a surprising amount of snow in the Sierra Nevada high country. In the upper portion of this image you can see large snow fields (with much larger ones higher on the slope and out of the frame) at that base of this talus slope at around 10,000+ feet of elevation. During a more typical year, there would still be a few scattered snow fields, but nothing like we see this year. And because there is still so much snow, the plants that would normally be well-developed by now are still just emerging, and the creeks and ponds are overflowing, the meadows are flooded… and the mosquitos are having a field day!

This little pond among the boulder-filled meadows near Greenstone Lake at the far end of Saddlebag Lake was still overflowing with snowmelt water that reflected the extensive snow fields still on the talus field beyond. To get to this spot – in mid-August! – I had to cross a number of still frozen snow fields, follow trails that were flooded in places, and pick my way carefully across waterlogged meadows. It is going to be a short summer season in the high Sierra, but as a compensatory bonus we may still see wildflowers all the way into September.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Burned Forest, Evening

August 14, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on an eastern Sierra Nevada forest recovering from a recent wildfire.

This spot is in Mono County along highway 395 not far from June Lake, and it is a spot that I’ve had my eyes on for some time. As a person who was brought up in the “Smokey the Bear” era, when wildfires were thought to be entirely a bad thing, it took me a while to come to terms with the knowledge that such fires are a natural and necessary element. I understood this logically before I understood it aesthetically, and I struggled for some time with the idea that places where fires have occurred can be seen as sites of rebirth rather than as destruction and desolation.

I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity and the right light to photograph this burn area for a couple of years now. I pass by fairly often, but it has always been at the wrong time of day or at a time when I could not afford to stop. However, as is often the, unexpected coincidences caused me to be here just before sunset as the light turned golden in mid-August. Ironically, part of the cause was… a forest fire in Yosemite! Up in the Tuolumne area, the afternoon air had turned smokey and the light had taken on the sort of brownish color that forest fire smoke can create. This light was not inspiring me, so I thought that I’d drive over the pass and head south a short distance on highway 395 to see if I could find more interesting lighting. As I traveled south from Lee Vining I happened to notice the turn-off for West Portal Road, which heads out in the general direction of Mono Craters. I took this road and spent some time poking around, eventually making a few exposures in the area called Aeolian Buttes, and then returned to the main highway a bit south of where I had originally left the road.

As it happened, this choice dropped me onto 395 at a place where I could see this burned area just a bit further down the road. The sun was not far from dropping behind the Sierra crest, so I figured this could be my chance to give it a try. I found a spot where the late afternoon light was warming the color of the summer-dried grasses and some white flowers grew among the burned trees, and I had perhaps 15 minutes to work before the sun dropped behind the peaks.

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

Morning Reflections, Unnamed Lake

August 2, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The still early morning surface of an unnamed subalpine lake reflects the boulders and trees along its rocky shoreline, Yosemite National Park.

This is yet another of those little places in Yosemite that is both surprisingly accessible and surprisingly neglected. Since keeping it that way may be a good thing, I’ll refrain from locating it more specifically than to say that it is along the Tioga Pass Road through the park.

I have photographed here before, and I am intrigued by the good-sized granite boulders along the shoreline and out into the water of this shallow lake surrounded by forest. Because of the surrounding terrain, morning light does not reach down to th lake right away, so I was able to shoot in this soft and indirect light and include both some details in the shadows of the forest and their beautifully blurred reflections in the still surface of the water.

The photograph includes one indication of what an unusual year this has been in the high country. The horizontal white area beyond the shoreline trees at the left side of the frame is a melting snow bank. Normally that might not be a big deal, but this photograph was made near the very end of July. It is a very unusual year when we can still find snow at this elevation near the beginning of August!

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

Trees and Boulder, Sunset

August 1, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large boulder against the base of lodgepole pines at sunset in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

After finishing up an earlier evening shoot in a place that might be described as a mosquito-infested hell, but a very beautiful one, I left that location with as much haste as I could muster. Having done so, I found myself with a bit of extra time just as the final light of the day approached. Since I wasn’t too far away, I headed towards Tuolumne Meadows, figuring that I might just catch the last light that slants across the length of the meadow right below sunset.

When I arrived there I had very little time to carefully consider where and what I might shoot since the light was within minutes of disappearing for the day. So as I drove along the road through past the meadow, I kept my eyes open for any trees or boulders that might be catching this final light. As luck would have it, as I passed the RV holding tank dumping station – pretty rustic, no? – I saw this combination of lodgepole pine and boulders against the background of the sunlit trees across the meadow on the other side of the river and the ascending slopes beyond. I quickly pulled over, got out the tripod and camera, and made a few exposures here as the last light left the tree.

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