Tag Archives: grove

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

Lodgepole Forest and Lower Slopes of Mount Gibbs

October 19, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Lodgepole forest trees and the lower slopes of Mount Gibbs are bathed in sunset light, Yosemite National Park.

This was an evening of “interesting” (e.g. – tricky!) light that changed from moment to moment. The issue was that there were high clouds to the west of my position not too far from Tioga Pass. These clouds can cut both ways – on one hand they can be lit up in quite astonishing ways by the light at the end of the day and just after sunset, but they can also quite simply block the light from the west. When I see this situation in the Sierra, I often make a point of being where I can take advantage of the potential for a wild show of sky color, but I’m also aware that as often as not nothing will happen and the sun will simply slide behind the clouds. On this evening things were complicated. Earlier there was a wonderful atmospheric haze that became luminous in the back-light. However, as the sun dropped toward the horizon, at times it did pass right behind clouds that were thick enough to block its light and turn the world quite gray.

Eventually I figured out that light was going to be transitory and unpredictable on this evening, so I more or less settled into “opportunist” mode, ready to move quickly when a bit of light showed up in one place or another. With a somewhat long lens on the camera, I would wander around or just stand and watch. Then, almost without warning, something would light up – a tree over there, a ridge behind me, some clouds – and provide a momentary opportunity to make a photograph. At the point that I made this photograph, in subtle, rose-colored light, I had almost given up since the trees around me had fallen into shade. But a brief bit of sun came through a break in the clouds near the horizon and lit the nearby grove as the slopes of Mount Gibbs became pink in the end-of-day light.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Trees, Shoreline of North Lake

October 5, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Autumn aspen trees line the shoreline of North Lake in morning light.

I had exactly one day to photograph eastern Sierra aspen color this week – and that may be my only shot at it this fall, with the possible exception of something closer to the middle of the month. I was in the Bishop Creek area for this single day, starting very early in the morning in the area generally around North Lake and then shooting along South Lake road into the early evening. This photograph was made at North Lake. Since I’ve photographed there many times, I rarely head straight for the best known spots, but instead poke around a bit and try to find somewhat different angles on things and/or photograph small details instead of the grand scene. This photograph is looking back across the lake toward the larger Bishop Creek Canyon in the distance, and light beams slant down across the low ridge near the end of the lake.

A quick report for those wondering how the color is doing and when to go. The colors are doing very well. If you are hoping to shoot some of the higher elevations on the east side of the Sierra, I recommend not waiting very long this year. The North, South, and Sabrina Lakes areas of Bishop Creek were in spectacular form when I was there around the middle of the week. I was not expecting much, since some of the reports I had read were less than encouraging. But in many places the colors were as good or almost as good as I have ever seen them, and the colorful trees were extending down to lower elevations that I would expect for this very early October date. For example, the colors at Cardinal Meadow were stunning. Nothing was really yet past its prime, but the higher areas are likely to reach that stage very soon, I would think.

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

Parker Lake and Parker Canyon, Fall

October 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Aspens in fall color in the lower reaches of Parker Canyon above Parker Lake, Sierra Nevada

As the fall aspen color season comes along, I’ll share photographs of this annual phenomenon, both from the current year and from past seasons. This photograph comes from last year, the autumn of 2011. That was a fall color season to remember in the eastern Sierra Nevada range, and for several reasons. First it was unusual in that several strong winter-type storm fronts swept over the Sierra during the first week or so of October. While an occasional front that drops a light coating of high elevation snow is not unusual this time of year, a series of storms that dropped up to a foot of snow in many places was a surprise. (Many of us were perhaps tricked into thinking that this was an indication of a third consecutive heavy precipitation year – but we were certainly wrong about that!) So a scene that might typically hold little or no snow at this mid-October date does have snow, and a fairly low elevations as well. Second, the development of aspen color took a few interesting twists and turns that year. There was some good color early on up high, but then the snow came and both made it less accessible and took down some of the early leaves. So this early color was interrupted, only to return in grand form a week or so later – and there was a lot of wonderful color by the middle of the month when I made this photograph.

Parker Canyon is an area that I identify with a bit. I often hike out to Parker Pass on the Sierra crest from inside Yosemite – it is a nice day hike that gets into some lovely alpine country and even is conducive to one of my favorite pastimes in the high country, cross-country hiking. So I’ve been at the pass a number of times… but have never gone much beyond it. I understand that the trail over Parker Pass heads into some very high country once it leaves the park boundaries. In addition, I’ve often looked to this area for some later color when I head to the eastern Sierra to photograph the aspens, where the area known as “Parker Bench” can have some great aspen stands. On this day I hiked from the end of the road up to Parker Lake, joining lots and lots of other folks out to see the fall color show. I did the hike more or less in the middle of the day, following early morning shooting and passing the time before the later light, and I did not necessarily expect to find a lot of interesting light to photograph. However, there were clouds! And these clouds muted the harsh midday light and added some interesting shadows to the landscape. In addition, the dark rock of Parker Canyon created an appealing contrast with the bright and colorful aspens near the upper shore of Parker Lake.

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

Meadow’s Edge, Lembert Dome, and Mount Dana

September 26, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees grow at the edges of Tuolumne Meadows as Lembert Dome and Mount Dana rise beyond, Yosemite National Park.

This photograph includes a bunch of Tuolumne Meadows icons familiar to most anyone who has spent time there – and I’ve spent a lot of time in and around this area over the years! The first obvious icon is the meadow itself, here near the “lower” section before it turns away from the highway and the Tuolumne River heads off towards Glen Aulin and eventually to the abomination of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The two prominences rising beyond the meadow are both icon. The closer of the two is Lembert Dome, well known to almost all visitors, especially the many who have hiked to its summit to experience the panoramic view of the area. Beyond Lembert Dome is Mount Dana, the second-highest peak in Yosemite. It is located on the eastern boundary of the park right above the entrance at Tioga Pass. For me, there are other icons in this scene as well, though they may be more personal. The lodgepole pine trees silhouetted along the right edge of the frame are found all over the region. The backlit haze, formed as the morning sun just clears the Sierra crest, is a condition that I strongly identify with Tuolumne – and it is a frequent photographic subject.

This simple shot posed some real technical challenges. Perhaps most obviously, the scene includes an extremely large dynamic range between the very bright areas of sunlit haze along the right shoulder of Mount Dana and the dark silhouettes of the backlit trees. In some situations I might make two exposures and blend them in post, but that does not work so well when thing tree trunks and branches stand against the sky. This is a single exposure that just barely contained the brightest tones, and from which I was able to recover just enough detail in the shadows. The composition might seem a bit odd to some, with the dark mass of the silhouetted trees very close to the right edge of the frame. The idea was to create a sense that the trees, or at least an observer among the trees, is looking out from them into the light-filled open space of the meadow.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: grove

Lodgepole Forest and Lower Slopes of Mount Gibbs

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Aspen Trees, Shoreline of North Lake

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Parker Lake and Parker Canyon, Fall

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Meadow’s Edge, Lembert Dome, and Mount Dana

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

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