Tag Archives: haze

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

Autumn Afternoon, Merced River Cottonwood Trees

November 7, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hazy autumn afternoon light on golden cottonwood trees growing along the banks of the Merced River, Yosemite Valley

As I try to do every fall, I visited Yosemite Valley for a few days right at the end of October so that I could photograph fall color and other seasonal subjects. I typically target my visits for near the end of the last week of the month, since at about this time the cottonwood, big leaf maple, black oak, and dogwood trees can produce beautiful colors and the meadows turn wonderful shades of tan and brown and gold. There are other benefits to visiting at this time of year, too – far fewer people, cooler temperatures, availability of campsites, and I often run into friends and other interesting people in the Valley.

I’m a big fan of backlit trees, and I have shot in this area of meadows and cottonwood trees and river bank many times before. In the afternoon the light begins to come into the valley from the low sun in the west and while trees can be backlit, some of the granite cliffs are already in shadow. If there is a bit of atmospheric haze, I like it even more! On this afternoon I decided to poke around along the banks of the Merced in this area where it flows through a series of bends among meadows and forest – and there were backlit cottonwood trees galore to work with!

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake, Trees, and Granite – Afternoon Light

October 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Afternoon light slants across a Sierra Nevada landscape of water, trees, and ascending granite ridges

This lake, and the rocky meadows and forest and other small lakes and ponds surrounding it quickly became one of our favorite locations to photograph during our mid-September time photographing in the Sierra Nevada range of eastern Kings Canyon National Park. This spot was a very short ten minute hike away from our camp site, and it drew us back many times over the course of our six night stay – morning and evening, fair weather and stormy. The location was so varied and detailed that there was no end of things to see and photograph.

On this day several of us headed over there in the late afternoon, and once we arrived we headed off in various directions to find photographs. By this point we were clued in to the evening pattern of light, one that suddenly and a bit unexpectedly “turned out the lights” a bit earlier than we might have expected, with the shadow of a large ridge to the west quickly sweeping from north to south across the lake. We figured out that we had to start earlier than we might typically start for evening shooting, and that we then had to watch the change carefully so as to be ready for it when it happened. By the time I made this photograph, the wind had come up and what had been smooth waters began to take on a different appearance as the wind created some surface waves. A bit of haze accentuates the difference in distance between the closest trees and the more distant trees leading up the base of the rockier slopes.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Receding Ridges, Afternoon Rain

October 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A passing afternoon rain shower mutes the details of Olympic Mountain ridges, Olympic National Park

I made this photograph on the same afternoon and evening as several of the other Olympic National Park photographs that I have posted recently. We went up to Hurricane Ridge in the late afternoon in hopes of photographing evening light across the valleys and mountains visible from that overlook, and we were partially rewarded. The conditions varied from moment to moment – occasional sun broke through clouds, atmospheric haze thickened and thinned, there were brief rain shows and a rainbow.

When we arrived the conditions were such that we imagined that they could evolve in any of several directions. We hoped for the possibility that the clouds to the west might break and allow light through. We worried that these clouds might thicken and cut off the late light entirely. When rain showers moved across the scene in front of us and dripped a few showers our way we thought that rain might develop. (We did get our light, but only briefly, and not for this photograph.) I made this photograph during that time when rain seemed like a distinct possibility. A semi-transparent curtain of showers gradually appeared over the valleys and range to our south, obscuring the details of the scene.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Granite Bowl, Sierra Nevada Lake

September 25, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Forest and rock-filled meadows line the edges of a Sierra Nevada lake in late afternoon sun

This broad sub-alpine basin was both beautiful and, at times, a bit tricky to photograph – though overall it provided nearly unending subject opportunities and we returned to it often during our stay in the area. The primary trickiness had to do with light, and especially late in the day. At this time of year, the morning sun rose far enough towards the south that the slopes along the far side of this valley remained in shadow. In the late afternoon the color of the light began to warm and it shone on most of the basin – but an observant photographer would notice that the light began to fail quite early along the north side of the valley as tall peaks and ridges to the west began to block the sun. I think that each of use were tricked at least once by just how fast the light disappeared. One moment it would seem like there was light everywhere along the shoreline of the large lake in the upper part of this basin, and then within minutes the shadow from the high ridge would slide across and the light would be gone.

By the time I made this photograph I was figuring out this pattern, and I knew enough to start work earlier than I might have expected. I’m fond of many sorts of Sierra Nevada terrain, but the sort of terrain seen here may be just about my favorite. It is an intimate landscape of small grass-filled meadows and shorelines, frequently interrupted by piles of rocks and hills of low granite slabs, with everything eventually running into the shorelines of the nearby lakes. Walking through this terrain, you must twist and turn, rise and fall, and constantly look for a way up or down the rocks, a ramp from one level to the next, or a path leading toward the next little bit of meadow. Here at 11,000′ of elevation there are still trees, but the “forest” is open, consisting of small, widely separated trees for the most part, and light shines in everywhere.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: haze

Autumn Afternoon, Merced River Cottonwood Trees

Lake, Trees, and Granite – Afternoon Light

Receding Ridges, Afternoon Rain

Granite Bowl, Sierra Nevada Lake

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