Tag Archives: gravel

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening, Eastern Sierra Near Lee Vining

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Evening, Eastern Sierra Near Lee Vining

Evening, Eastern Sierra Near Lee Vining. Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. June 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light and afternoon clouds over the high desert of the eastern Sierra Nevada range near Lee Vining, California.

I’m finally finding a bit of time to go back to some photographs I made in June this year, including a series from the eastern Sierra that I’ll present in black and white. I made this photograph on an early June trip, the first of the year on which I was able to cross the Sierra on the newly opened Tioga Pass Road. It was something of a “random trip,” as I initially thought I might end up shooting spring subjects in Yosemite Valley – until I figured out that it was going to be way too crowded there and just headed over Tioga Pass instead to camp in Lee Vining Canyon. On this evening I drove out toward Mono Lake and “chased the light” as a storm broke up over the Sierra crest. Not finding quite what I was looking for at this exact hour at Mono I headed back toward highway 395 and took a little gravel road towards the upper end of the June Lakes Loop. As I came to the top of the hill I saw this wonderful view looking north across the high desert and sagebrush towards the hills around Lee Vining with the light shining onto the valley floor below the clouds that were just starting to thin.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: eastern, sierra, nevada, range, mountains, lee vining, california, usa, sage, high, desert, hills, road, pole, utility, telephone, electric, clouds, owens valley, june lake, loop, gravel, brush, afternoon, evening, sierra, nevada, range, eastern, escarpment, lee vining, stock, light, overcast

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

Twilight, Tuolumne River and Tuolumne Meadows, Sierra Crest

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Twilight, Tuolumne River and Tuolumne Meadows, Sierra Crest

Twilight, Tuolumne River and Tuolumne Meadows, Sierra Crest. Yosemite National Park, California. July 10, 2009. © Copyright G DanMitchell – all rights reserved.

Light from lenticular cloud-filled twilight sky illuminates Tuolumne Meadows and the Tuolumne River with Lembert Dome, Mount Dana, and Mount Gibbs beyond, Yosemite National Park, California.

Yes, one more in the series – perhaps the final one, but we’ll see. I suppose it could be titled, “It ain’t over until it’s over.” After the astonishing colors of the brightest moments of the sunset fade, one might think that the show is over – but frequently it isn’t over yet.

I remember the time I first learned that when shooting evening scenes like this one should never leave until it is too dark to photograph any more! This “lesson” happened a bit further west in Tuolumne Meadows some years ago. I was photographing in the evening, shooting across the transitory early-season lake that forms there in wet years. Another photographer was nearby shooting the same beautiful evening, and I remember him remarking that some of his favorite photographs actually came after the intense light of sunset and during the time when the light almost begins to feel more like night than day. Two wonderful things can happen at this hour. First, you can still get some very unexpected color surprises even after the show seems to be over. (I learned this a second time a few years later after packing up at the summit of Lembert Dome and heading down – only to be surprised by a wonderful and completely unexpected suffusion of beautiful light, and having to quickly unpack and squeeze off a couple shots.) Second, as astonishing as the brilliant colors are that precede this darker time, this is the hour for some very wonderful deep and subtle colors that you just won’t see at any other time of day.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | 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.

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

Fiery Evening Sky, Tuolumne Meadows

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Fiery Evening Sky, Tuolumne Meadows

Fiery Evening Sky, Tuolumne Meadows. Yosemite National Park, California. July 10, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fiery sunset colors illuminate lenticular clouds above the Tuolumne River, Tuolumne Meadows, Lembert Dome, and Mounts Dana and Gibbs on the Sierra crest, Yosemite National Park, California.

This is the sky I wrote about in the text accompanying the previous two photographs made on this July evening in Tuolumne Meadows. I’ll just have to include the quote from Ansel Adams one more time for anyone who didn’t see it in the first post:

“Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.” – Ansel Adams

I don’t think it is quite that simple – to put it another way, We’re all very fortunate that it was Ansel who happened to be in those places doing the shutter clicking on those occasions! But you do indeed have to be there, and you do need to be ready to take advantage of the scene that presents itself to you. Unlike painters, we cannot just conjure up scenes like this.

I count myself as extremely lucky in that I get to spend a lot of time in the Sierra and have for many years. (I’m also very lucky to be married to an artist who understands how important it is to me to traipse off to the Sierra to make photographs – Thanks, Patty!) I’ve seen a lot of Sierra sunsets and photographed (or tried to photograph!) a good number of them. FWIW, while the good fortune of being there at the right time plays a huge part in getting any photograph, it is rarely enough.

As I wrote in yesterday’s post, I’ve learned to recognize a certain set of Sierra Nevada conditions that can (but are not guaranteed to) create a brief moment of utterly astonishing color just as the sun slips below the horizon. Once you have seen this happen and recognize the pattern, if you are like me you will drop everything to be there. Nine times out of ten the potential will be unrealized and you’ll just have “another stunning Sierra sunset” – or perhaps just a gray cloudy sunset. But on that tenth time!

So, yes, I dropped everything to be in Tuolumne Meadows two hours before sunset, and I was in position with a composition scoped out and everything set up a full hour beforehand. I was more that willing to put up with the swarms of mosquitos – and when this light show started I didn’t even notice them.

What has happened here is that the mass of stacked lenticular clouds above Mounts Dana and Gibbs on the Sierra crest and to the east are being illuminated by the very last light reflected off of high clouds to the west just as the sun drops below the horizon. Silently, and almost before you realize what is happening, the color of the landscape is completely transformed for what could be no longer than a few short minutes.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: fiery, color, sunset, twilight, evening, sky, flame, red, orange, purple, pink, blue, clouds, lenticular, atmosphere, tuolumne, meadows, river, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, high, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, peak, ridge, lembert, dome, mount, dana, gibbs, kune, crest, mammoth, peak, forest, tree, reflection, ripple, gravel, bar, grass, forest, tree, landscape, scenic, travel, meteorology, conditions, stock

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

Last Light, Tuolumne River

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Last Light, Tuolumne River

Last Light, Tuolumne River. Yosemite National Park, California. July 10, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last light touches the top of Lembert Dome and the peaks of the Sierra Crest beyond and the light from lenticular clouds is reflected off the surface of the Tuolumne River, Yosemite National Park, California.

If you don’t like sunsets… you may want to check back in a few days – this is the second of what will be a sequence of at least four photographs taken on one amazing evening in Tuolumne Meadows in the Yosemite high country of the Sierra Nevada. I posted one from the series yesterday, so I won’t repeat the entire story, but here is a bit of background information.

There is a particular set of Sierra Nevada weather conditions that I’ve experienced only a few times in its perfect state – but when it happens the sky does absolutely astonishing and magical things. There is at least one photograph in this series that may make you think that I invented the colors in post, but I assure you I did not.

Sometimes in the afternoon a stable wind pattern sets up over the peaks on the Sierra crest. The clouds, in this case the curving lenticular clouds seem to just park over the ridge. If this continues, late in the day the number, height, and size of these clouds can increase dramatically. But, as spectacular as this may be, it isn’t quite enough for the conditions I experience this past week. For this to happen, some broken high clouds should extend to the west of the range – clouds to create color when lit by the last light of the setting sun, but broken so that the light can project east onto the lenticular clouds over the crest.

On this evening I saw all of the pieces falling into place and thought that maybe, just maybe, it might happen. With this in mind I was in Tuolumne Meadow nearly two full hours before the actual sunset. I spent the first twenty or thirty minutes scouting out my location – I needed to know exactly where I would shoot from since I didn’t want to be caught looking for a composition when/if this light arrived. With a composition scoped out I spent perhaps 30-45 minutes wandering around nearby shooting various subjects as the evening wore on. An hour before sunset I was back at “the spot” – covered in mosquito repellant! – and watching and waiting.

I won’t tell the whole story here – but this photo was made at just about the time it became apparent that the “magic light” was not simply possible but actually quite likely.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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