Tag Archives: lake

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Storm, Mono Lake

August 31, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dark clouds of a massive summer thunderstorm move across Mono Lake.

This has been the “summer of the monsoon” in the Sierra Nevada. Although the range is terribly dry after four years of drought and this past winter’s truly anemic snow pack, summer has brought a greater than usual amount of monsoonal flow from the south, producing a great deal of thunderstorms and rain. In July I saw an odd juxtaposition of nearly snow free peaks and ridges that looked like late September of a dry year… along with green meadows and full ponds where the rains had fallen.

By the time of this early August visit to the Yosemite High Sierra and then a few days of backpacking on the east side of the range further south, things were drying out a bit and the foliage was taking on the usual late-August dry appearance. I camped down in Lee Vining Canyon the first night, and being close to Mono Lake I managed to head out there and make photographs after setting up camp. Thunderstorms were forming above the Sierra crest, and they had sprinkled on my camp. They then drifted east of the range and continued to build, so as I looked along this section of the north shore of Mono Lake, with Black Point and Negit Island visible in the foreground, the sky in the distance was turbulent, dark, and full of falling rain.

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

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

Shoreline, Trees, Morning

July 20, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on trees and granite slabs along the shoreline of Tenaya Lake

I think this photograph combines several elements that I find attracting in my landscape work. I have written that I sometimes like to photograph along the “edges of the light,” the boundaries between shadow and sunlight that move across landscapes, especially when it is early or late in the day and/or when the landscape is surrounded by higher ridges. This photograph was made in early morning, in an area where the sunlight does not arrive until some time after dawn. When the light does come, it works its way down the granite slabs on the left as beams of light pass across the valley from the right. I also love to work with haze. (I often am baffled by photographers who always want crystal clear atmosphere — that can be beautiful, too, but it can also be stark and obvious.) There was plenty of haze on this morning, and the light shining through it partially obscures the background forest. And the photograph is rendered in black and white. While I don’t think of myself as a “black and white photographer,” I frequently find myself seeing scenes like this one in monochrome. Perhaps that goes back to my roots as a photographer.

There is something a bit unusual about this landscape, too — a road bed features prominently in the scene! This is the edge of Tenaya Lake along the Tioga Pass Road through Yosemite’s high country, and here the road (for better or worse) passes right along the shoreline. But for me the trees are the dominant feature, standing along the base of the granite slabs, trying to push their way up onto the slabs, and filling the background as forest ascends the slopes of this valley toward the granite ridges above.

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

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

Tenaya Lake, First Light

July 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light shines on granite cliffs above Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park

I have long been intrigued by a certain patch of sunlight that descends the granite slopes above this Yosemite lake in the mornings, and I planned to photograph it again on this trip to the park. I was up early on the first morning and off to this location, but I quickly got distracted by low fog floating in a very large nearby meadow. Somewhere I have heard an old saying about not ignoring the photograph in front of you for the possibility of another photograph that [i]might[/i] (or might not) happen, and I followed that “rule” and stopped and photographed the fog as the sun rose. By the time I finished this it was well past dawn, and although I continued on to the location of this photograph, when I got there the early light had transitioned into something much less interesting.

A couple of mornings later I thought I would try again. This time I was up even earlier and resolved to not stop for any but the most astonishing distractions, and I made it here before the first light was on the granite slopes. In this case, since I had a specific photograph in mind (and a few others that I might also try afterwards), I went to the exact spot where I wanted to be, pulled out the lens I knew I would need, set up and waited for the light. My location is not exactly an isolated or inaccessible one, and later on this day (and every summer day!) there would be lots of people and vehicles here. But at dawn even a place like this provides almost complete silence and the sense of deep stillness and huge space that I love in these mountains. I marvel that so many go to the Sierra yet so few seek out this quiet stillness. Soon the first tough of light appeared high on the dome to the left above the lake as beams of light began to pass between the peaks to the right, and I photographed as the light gradually worked its way down toward the lake.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dusk, Clouds, Full Moon

June 12, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The full moon behind dusk clouds above and eastern Sierra Nevada meadow

This will be another short post — things are quite busy right now! The photograph is from almost a decade ago, when I accompanied my brother, his wife, and three sons on a backpack trip into a favorite area of the eastern Sierra Nevada. Our trip began with a hike to a picturesque lake between two high ridges, where we spent several days exploring… and surviving “interesting” weather. We found a beautiful campsite on a bench above a meadow and lake. In the evening I set up on this high spot and photographed the near-night darkness with the moon shining from behind the broken layer of clouds overhead.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: lake

Storm, Mono Lake

Shoreline, Trees, Morning

Tenaya Lake, First Light

Dusk, Clouds, Full Moon

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