Tag Archives: haze

Smoke-Shrouded Hills

March 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Wildfire smoke envelops hills east of the Sierra Nevada near Mono Lake

I made this photograph on a special morning that didn’t initially seem all that special. The night before I had driven down into Lee Vining Canyon after dark, and I could see the glow of a new wildfire to the southeast. In the morning I left my camp in the canyon and headed east to see what I could see. I found a high overlook and soon saw a giant plume of rising smoke to the south and tendrils of smoke drifting north toward and over Mono Lake.

I spent a few minutes photographing the drifting smoke above the lake, but very soon the smoke became too thick. I had to find a location that was on that boundary between too much and too little smoke — enough to partially obscure the details of the landscape, but not so much as to render it invisible. I moved further north to another high elevation locations and photographed back into the Basin. But this point the lower elevations were largely filled with smoke, but here one tree-covered ridge emerges and rises toward the still blue sky.

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

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Wildfire Smoke, Morning Light

November 30, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light reflects on the surface of Mono Lake, partially obscured by drifting wildfire smoke

The night before I made this photograph I had driven back to my Lee Vining Canyon camp from a backcountry hike in the Tioga Pass area, leaving the park and descending the steep route after dark. As I crossed the upper end of Lee Vining Canyon, where there is a relatively clear view to the east, I saw the pall of smoke from a developing wildfire and the glow from the flames lighting it from below. Given California’s drought, the late point in the dry season, and the number of other fires in this area, I was quite concerned about what might be happening.

I got up well before dawn the next morning and as I headed down canyon toward Mono Lake there was just a bit of smoke in the air. As I came around the final bend before the junction with US 395, however, I could see that there was a very dark cloud to the southeast and that layers of smoke were starting to drift across the surface of Mono Lake in the pre-dawn light. My first though was a bit of disappointment that the smoke was likely to interfere with my photography plans, but this was quickly replaced by the realization that I was starting to see some very special and unusual conditions as the dawn approached. I found a high place and went to work photographing abstract and soft patterns composed of the reflecting surface of Mono Lake, the drifting smoke bands, and the partially obscured distant mountains.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Eastern Sierra Foothills, Autumn Aspens

October 26, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small grove of autumn aspens is dwarfed by eastern Sierra foothill terrain

This is another Sierra Nevada autumn photograph, though the aspens take a smaller role in this one. The eastern base of the Sierra is a fascinating place. In some locations one can almost precisely locate the base of the range, where steep mountains or cliffs plunge directly into the alluvial fans at the base of the range. In several of these spots I have descended from the crest on long pack trips and walked to the “edge of the Sierra” to suddenly find myself in what feel like high desert terrain. In other locations the transition is more gradual, such as this location where the north-south highway reaches 8000′ of elevation or higher, putting this country in the same elevation range as many High Sierra meadows.

Here the junction with the range is more gradual, with high desert mountains and hills seeming to merge with the eastern extent of the Sierra and occasionally marked by huge rocky outcroppings and here and there cut by the ancient paths of glaciers. At the base of the hills in this photograph a couple of small groves of aspens manage to find a place in what is otherwise sage brush high desert, hinting at the forests to be found at higher elevations.

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mountains and Lake, Autumn Haze

October 21, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hazy autumn light at dawn on Mono Lake and desert mountains about autumn light in California.

I’ve written about the “golden” color, the muted quality, its softness, and otherwise tried to put my finger on what it is. I’ve known, for example, that something special happens to the light in the Sierra from late September onwards. But I’ve never been able to quite put my finger on the nature of the change. Is it the angle of the sun, changing weather, the colors of vegetation, or something else? It finally occurred to me — sometimes I’m slow! — after all these years that this is the wildfire season in the state and that this might be an important factor.

It surely is a factor in this early October photograph of morning light over Mono Lake. I’ve been poking around this area and making photographs for years, moving more and more towards images that are about the gigantic spaces and forms of this remarkable lake and its surroundings. On this morning I had gone to a different location, high above the lake, from which I had an overview of much of the lake and out to the east toward the rising sun as that autumn haze filled the air, muted details of the landscape, and filled the atmosphere with warm, golden light.

For decades I have recognized the obvious, that there is something different and special

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: haze

Eastern Sierra Foothills, Autumn Aspens

Mountains and Lake, Autumn Haze

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