Tag Archives: kings

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake and Rain, Dusk

October 1, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

A late-evening rain shower above the smooth surface of a rocky Sierra Nevada lake

From our camp site at a narrow point in the canyon among all of these lakes, we more or less had the option of going upstream to a group of several nearby lakes that were visible from our camp, or of going downstream and around a bend to an equally large group of lakes that were about 10 minutes away. The choice was often difficult – we didn’t always go the same direction, sometimes we might go upstream in the morning and downstream in the evening, or vice versa as the mood would take us. This, again, is an advantage of remaining in one area for an extended time – in our case we camped here for six nights with the primary goal of exploring and photographing.

On this evening I decided to go up-stream. Early on the trip I had made a very brief visit to what we regarded as the “upper lake” – though, in truth, there was one more further up the drainage that was likely inaccessible to us. On that first visit I had taken a direct route to the outlet stream of the lake and had then looked around a bit at this lower end before the light faded and I headed back to camp. On the evening when I made this photograph I started earlier, and instead of taking the direct route I went more slowly and wandered a bit, exploring the very interesting terrain among the lakes. Somewhat to our surprise, light rain cropped up again late in the day, and by the time I was approaching the upper lake there were showers here and stronger showers further down the canyon. Just before actual sunset, the sky turned intense pink as a bit of rain fell on the lake, imparting purple and pink tones to the landscape, and far down the canyon there was a faint glow from an area where the clouds cleared and a bit of blue sky shone through.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Ridge in Sun, Lake in Shadow

September 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light from a nearby ridge is reflected in the wind-rippled “blue hour” surface of an alpine lake still in the shadows.

In this area of many, many lakes this almost seems like “yet another anonymous lake,” though it is a bit special in that it was a very short walk from the place where I was camped for six nights this late summer in the Kings Canyon National Park back-country. I could get out of my tent, wander up the hill toward a nearby ridge, and be at this location within perhaps five minutes or so. Consequently, I visited this lake several times, though always in the early morning hours when its surface was still in the shadow of a nearby large granite dome.

I’m fascinated by the very blue light found in the shadows of large mountains, domes, and cliffs. This lake is set in a somewhat deep bowl with a ridge of granite slabs along two sides, and a very tall glaciated ridge topped by a large dome on the other. These features prevent the direct sunlight from reaching the surface of the lake until some time after sunrise, and the cold, blue light remains here longer than in other locations. It was literally cold when I arrived on this morning, and gusty winds were periodically stirring up ripples on the lake’s surface. I decided to contour around one side of the lake to a point where I could gain a bit of elevation above its surface and where the warmer colors and diffused shapes of a nearby sunlit ridge were reflected, refracted, and otherwise distorted.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Shadows, Alpine Lake

September 26, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening shadows fall across an island-studded alpine lake and surrounding cliffs as the sun drops behind a nearby ridge

This lake is one of many located close to the spot where four of us spent six mid-September nights camping near 11,000′ of elevation near the spine of the Sierra in Kings Canyon National Park. We remained in one base camp location, and each day we explored more of the surrounding terrain of lakes, granite, meadows, vast bowls, ridges, and surrounding peaks. While the backpacker’s imperative is often to keep moving in order to see a lot of country, ours was to stay in one area and spend time getting to know it better. Our subjects were literally outside the doors of our tents, and we were up before dawn every morning and we didn’t return from shooting until dark.

I photographed this lake and its surroundings on multiple occasions, ranging from early morning on sunny days to dusk on a day when I shot in light rain. The appearance and mood of such a place is transformed significantly according to the light at various times of day and in response to the weather. One constant in this particular location was that large areas were often in shadow in the very early and very late hours, as steep slopes and high ridges stood between the landscape and the sun in many places. The light in this photograph is illustrative. Perhaps only minutes earlier, the final direct sun of the day had come across a high ridge to the right of my camera position and washed warm light across the water, the rocky islands and shore line, and the broken granite cliffs. But here, all that remains of the light is an intense beam of light angling down from right to left beyond the main cliff and casting only a bit of direct light on its edge. Below, light in the bowl holding the lake has turned cold and blue – a change that literally took only moments. While I think we tend to first think of that earlier, warmer light, this cold shaded light is an intrinsic element of these high places and the feeling of that light is what I wanted to capture in this photograph.

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: kings

Ridge in Sun, Lake in Shadow

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Evening Shadows, Alpine Lake

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Granite Bowl, Sierra Nevada Lake

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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.