Tag Archives: high

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

Corn Lilies – Sierra Nevada

March 26, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

High Sierra corn lilies grow profusely near a waterlogged meadow in the high country of Yosemite National Park.

I had spotted this little meadow area on my way to photograph earlier in the morning at Tenaya Lake, so on my return I decided to wander down into this wet, meadowy area where a small creek flows in the early summer season. As I walked up the stream I came upon large and lush stands of corn lily plants in a boggy area where the stream turned and twisted through a flat area.

I have long been a fan of these plants. I’m fascinated by them at every phase of their annual life cycle, from the time when they first poke up from ground newly free of snow, through this phase when they grow thick and wildly green, to the first hints of brown at the tips of the leaves (which always seem to come a bit too early), to the time in late August when they begin to turn brown and yellow and hint at the coming fall, to the dry stalks that fall over in late September and October.

It is somewhat hard to give up the beautiful green color when you photograph the plants at the peak of growth, as these were when I photographed them at the end of June. However, I like the way that black and white abstracts the curving and sweeping shapes of the plants. (And I always think of John Sexton’s wonderful corn lily photograph when I work with this subject!)

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

Rushing Water and Granite Slab, Sierra Nevada

March 19, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A Sierra Nevada creek, swollen from spring runoff, flows across granite slabs – Yosemite National Park.

The image and sound of spring runoff water rushing over granite slabs are common in the high Sierra. Though the scene is almost a generic one, for me it also brings to mind many very specific places and experiences throughout the range. (Some of my backpacking friends might think of a spot along Tyndall Creek on the John Muir Trail where we have camped more than once.)

The exact location of this little bit of cascading and rushing water is probably not very important – you are never far from a little scene like this if you are near almost any little creek high in the Sierra! Here the water flows mostly across very smooth rock – so smooth that you can see right through the rushing water to the rocks in many places. In this precise spot there is a weakness in the rock and a small ledge has formed, and the result is a bit of white water.

I’ll share a few technical observations about this photograph, too. First, there isn’t a sharp thing in the image! While sharp focus can be important, I don’t think it is here. (Though if you look closely, the patterns of the blurred, fast-moving water are sharp in a fuzzy sort of way. ;-) The rocks beneath the water cannot be sharp because they are blurred by the water; the water cannot be sharp since I intentionally chose a shutter speed that allowed motion blur. Second, I have to admit that I did not originally have a black and white photograph in mind when I made this exposure. I worked on it for a while in color and though I liked the motion of the water I just wasn’t happy with the coloration of the scene. I finally realized that this image wasn’t about the “reality” of the rocks and water but about creating an impression of the rushing water – and that perhaps monochrome might work. Third, this is yet another “landscape” photograph made with a lens that the “common wisdom” (which often turns out to be not so wise) would say is not a landscape lens – a 70-200mm zoom.

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

Melting Ice, Gaylor Lake and the Cathedral Range

March 18, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The distant Cathedral Range rises above the melting ice of Gaylor Lake, Yosemite National Park.

Near the end of June last summer I hiked up here late in the day with my friends Mike and Karl. This was a somewhat unusual season in the Yosemite Sierra, in that there had been a lot of snow during the winter season and it had continued right on into spring. Consequently, the high passes opened up later than usual, and on a very late June day when things would typically be a bit more summer-ish, it looked more like late winter up here when we arrived.

I’ve visited this place quite a few times, but had never seen quite this scene before. More typically, the snow and ice are completely gone by the time I manage to get up there, and a typical visit usually entails arriving late on a warm afternoon and then hanging out in the sun while waiting for the evening light to come on. This time we were in snow before we crossed the ridge before the lake, and we had to think a bit about just how to head down toward the lake since the usual path was covered in snow. The lake itself was (obviously, judging from the photo!) still covered in ice, though melting was underway and the surface was a jigsaw puzzle of alternating blue pools and white ice.

We found a location near clumps of trees on rocky talus slopes above the lake to do our photography. In this photograph I shot down the length of the lake to mostly fill the frame with the melting ice. Beyond a small rocky rise at the end of the lake, the terrain drops off towards the meadows of the Tuolumne region, and beyond rise the peaks of the Cathedral range in early evening light.

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

Dead Branch, Glaciated Granite

February 11, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A dead branch lies on glacially-polished granite in the Yosemite National Park back-country.

I made a promise to someone to not say where this photograph was made – I’ll just say it is in Yosemite National Park. But the exact location really doesn’t matter too much, as these large expanses of glaciated granite slab are a common feature throughout the park, and you could find similarly interesting geology in thousands of locations.

I was a little surprised to find this weathered branch in this location, since it was a good distance from any trees and also not near any flowing water. Besides its location, a few other things about it caught my attention. First, its curving shapes lined up in a way tht seems to tie in with the bit of glacially-polished granite that lies beneath it. (And, yes, this is exactly where the branch was when I found it.) In a way, the larger shape of the lighter area of granite winding across the photograph from side to side almost seems like a much thicker echo of the curving shape of the branch. In addition, the warm brown tones of the branch seem to stand out a bit – though perhaps more in a larger print – against the relatively drab color of the rock.

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