Tag Archives: hill

Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Nature

Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle

August 11, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Momentary sunshine illuminates a grass-covered hill and small trees in front of Die Eiskapelle at the base of Der Watzmann, near Königssee, Germany

We hiked to this spot on one of the first days of our stay in the Schönau am Königssee area of Bavaria in Germany, where we stayed in an old, rambling farm-house for a week. Aside from the general charm of the area – conforming to many of the expectations of American visitors – there are a lot of special features around here: Berchtesgaden National Park and the Königssee itself, along with the views of the Bavarian Alps, including the classic peak of Der Watzmann, the second highest peak in Germany. We took the tourist boats up the length of the beautiful Königssee lake – which I think of as what Yosemite Valley might look like if it were filled with water – and disembarked at the start of the trail to Die Eiskapelle. This trail begins at the very civilized landing, with its outdoor cafe, beach, and lawns, and starts up the hill very gently. It soon enters the hardwood forest, narrows, steepens, and begins to feel more like the sorts of trails I’m familiar with from the American mountain west.

Die Eiskapelle is in a small, rocky valley at the base of a huge cliff dropping down from the eastern face of Der Watzmann. As I understand it, the permanent ice field seen at its base in this photograph is formed by repeated avalanches that come down this face. The July time frame of our visit usually is when I spend a lot of my time in the Sierra, and as wonderful as our trip to the UK and Europe was, at times I longed a bit for “my Sierra.” In the upper reaches of this trail, as the path disappeared and I was left to find my own route across bits of grassy meadow and rocky terrain to the base of the snow field, I felt as close to the Sierra as at any time on this trip – the feeling reminded me a bit of early season in my favorite terrain among the granite peaks right at timberline. And, momentarily returning to landscape photographer mode (despite using a small, handheld camera!), I paused here for some minutes, looking for a composition that would combine these small foreground trees with the ice field and then waiting for a bit of light from the broken clouds to move across this small grassy rise.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Tree Covered Hillside, Cliff

June 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early autumn afternoon back-light on high country trees and shadows on a sandstone cliff face, Zion National Park

Perhaps surprisingly, trees were a big draw for me during my several visits to Zion National Park in October last year, and not just the trees that were getting their fall color. The junipers and pines are also intriguing, especially when backed by sandstone or lit from behind by low angle light as in this photograph.

This area near the eastern boundary of the park has intrigued me but also puzzled me each time I have stopped there. Nearly is a significant and named park feature that seems to be the main reason for stopping. It is an impressive geological feature… but, for the life of me, I have not been able to find a way to make an interesting photograph of it. Yet each time I passed by, I stopped and looked and pondered and (most often) did not photograph it. However, with each successive stop I began to pay more attention to other features in this spot: the big cliff on the other side of the valley on which colors fade from gray-white to red, the many trees that stand with enough space between them to allow back-light to pick them off individually, and more.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Plants, Black Hill

April 8, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on desert arrow weed plants at the base of a black hill, with Death Valley Buttes receding into the hazy distance

This was very nearly the last photograph I made on my recent early April visit to Death Valley National Park. I try to go there to photograph at least once each year, and I’ve probably visited during the first week of April more often than at any other time. This tends to be a transitional season in the park, at least in my experience, and the conditions can range from cool to downright hot. On this visit it was, for the season, “downright hot” – temperatures with in at least the mid to high-nineties every day, and rose to just over 100 degrees on one day. This is not unheard of at this time of year, though it is on the high side of normal for the first week in April. This trip was a challenge for other reasons, too. On the second day I encountered a significant sand storm with accompanying winds, and the light was not exactly cooperative. On two mornings and two evenings clouds shut down the golden hour light, and there was quite a bit of general haze.

On this morning I figured I would do an hour or two of shooting before returning to camp to tear everything down and start my drive back home. I started by going up just past the turn off to Wild Rose Canyon, with the plan being to shoot some long distance photographs of sunrise light on some mountains that I have been thinking about shooting. The sunrise itself was more or less a washout – the atmosphere was so murky that I wasn’t even quite sure when the sun cleared the horizon! Eventually I did get some soft directional light from the sun, but I was finished with this subject somewhat quickly. I decided to go with a backup plan to photograph the Mesquite Dunes with a long lens. As I worked this subject I decided to head a bit further east and see if I could get anything from the backlight coming across the low hills above Salt Creek, and as I traveled that direction I passed this small black hill, where I have photographed before, and saw these backlit arrow weed plants and the more distant hills near Death Valley Buttes in the morning haze.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Winter Fog, Ridges

February 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter fog wraps around the lower slopes of Marin County mountains along the Pacific coast north of San Francisco

This was the sort of day of photography that I have learned to accept as something that comes with the territory. I was up hours before dawn, and on the road shortly after that, with an idea of photographing in the redwoods of Marin County north of the Golden Gate, or perhaps of photographing along the coast where high surf was predicted. As I got on the road I noticed that there was some fog about, which is fine as I often like photographing in such conditions. Nearly an hour later as the time of sunrise approached, I noticed that the day was not becoming light very fast and, in fact, things were looking quite gray. I crossed the Golden Gate in fog, stopped briefly on the north side of the bridge, and wasn’t able to see much of anything. I continued on to the Muir Woods area and parked. As I sat in the car, it became clear that there wasn’t going to be much in the way of compelling light here, either. (I’m not one to insist on incredible light, so when I say that the light wasn’t promising… I mean it!) I soon decided to leave and go up the coast a ways. As I drove I figured out that the murky light was the result of a combination of thick coastal fog, generally hazy conditions where it wasn’t foggy, and above it all the high clouds of a passing weather front.

While finding myself in conditions like these doesn’t exactly make me happy – who wouldn’t prefer beautiful light and easy subjects!? – I don’t get upset about it any more. In order to find really special subjects and light one must simply go “out there” a lot to increase the odds. Special things are special at least partially because they are not ordinary, and we cannot expect stupendous conditions on every outing. I shoot enough to have had the good fortune to almost regularly encounter truly wonderful conditions and to have some idea how to work with conditions that are merely good. But along with this good, I also have to accept the possibility – certainty, actually – that there will be some days when it seems like nothing happens. This was one of those days. I enjoyed being out and about, and I explored a few places that I had not visited before. I gave up on some ideas, tried others, and when the light was clearly not going to be good in the forest, I headed for the coast. When that didn’t work, I headed into the hills. It was what it was! Eventually, I ended up at the Mount Tamalpais State Park high in the Marin hills, and around one bend in the road the view opened to the west and I could see the ocean of fog bumping up against ridges below me and stretching on out over the ocean – so I stopped and made the only photographs of the day that worked. It wasn’t a great day… but it was still a good day!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: hill

Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle

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Tree Covered Hillside, Cliff

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Desert Plants, Black Hill

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Winter Fog, Ridges

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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.