Tag Archives: lake

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Granite and Snow

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Granite and Snow - Early autumn snowfall or ledges of a cracked granite wall near North Lake
Early autumn snowfall or ledges of a cracked granite wall near North Lake

Granite and Snow. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 8, 2011. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn snowfall on ledges of a cracked granite wall near North Lake.

This was a cold photograph! After the 2011 early October sequence of surprise snow storms, I headed up to the North Lake area as soon as the road was (barely) passable, arriving to find nearly a foot of snow in some places. Needless to say, the series of storms had not been kind to the aspen color – many of the most colorful leaves had been blown down, others had turned black, and much of what remained was inaccessible or caked with snow.

I initially thought about taking advantage of the relatively small number of photographers who had shown up and photographing the classic view from near the outlet, but I decided that it would be more interesting to take advantage of the unusual snow conditions. With that in mind, I set out to walk the road alongside the lake. Next to this road the hillside rises and eventually becomes quite rocky, in places starting to seem almost like cliffs. In one of these areas I came across this bit of cracked and shattered granite, sparsely covered with lichen and with new snow resting on small ledges.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Black Aspen Leaves, Frost

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Black Aspen Leaves, Frost
“Black Aspen Leaves, Frost” — Blackened aspen leaves in frost following an early fall snowfall, eastern Sierra Nevada.

This is a photograph from last year’s (2011) aspen color season in the eastern Sierra Nevada range of California. It was a bit on an unusual season, though in the end it turned out to be one that provided quite a lot of aspen beauty of various sorts. Because that autumn followed the second of two winters with greater-than-normal precipitation in the Sierra, there was a lot of lush and healthy plant growth of all sorts, and even as the end of the summer season arrived there was a lot of greenery about. Then, just as the color season started near the beginning of October, a series of three winter-like storms traversed the range and dropped a foot or more of early season snow. While some snow isn’t unusual at this time of year, a sequence of three storms and that amount of snowfall are unusual. All of the trans-Sierra passes closed for several days.

I came across Tioga Pass on the day that it reopened, and then headed south to the prime aspen-hunting grounds above Bishop, California. The next morning I decided to head up to the North Lake area, and I found the gravel road still snow-covered. I drove on up carefully, and it appeared that I might have been among the very first to try the road after the snow. Needless to say, the storms had a big effect on the aspen leaves! Many of the “ripest” and most colorful leaves had fallen, leaving the trees a bit more bare than usual at this time. And, perhaps due to the cold, rather than turning red and orange and golden-yellow, quite a few leaves went straight to black. Now I’m as attracted to the wildly colorful aspen leaves as anyone, but I’m also intrigued by somewhat unusual conditions, so I found some of the blackened leaves to be interesting, too. In the early hours I found this cluster, no doubt blown down and piled together during the storm, sitting on top of the snow bank and covered with crystalline frost from the previous night.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Light on Shoreline Trees, Steelhead Lake

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Evening Light on Shoreline Trees, Steelhead Lake - Early evening light coming across the Sierra crest illuminates shoreline trees at Steelhead Lake, eastern Sierra Nevada
Early evening light coming across the Sierra crest illuminates shoreline trees at Steelhead Lake, eastern Sierra Nevada

Evening Light on Shoreline Trees, Steelhead Lake. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. September 15, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early evening light coming across the Sierra crest illuminates shoreline trees at Steelhead Lake, eastern Sierra Nevada.

This photograph was made during that quiet evening hour, about the time when dinner has been finished and food stowed for the night, sleeping bag set up in tent, and things slow down (from their already-slow pace!) as the golden hour light comes on. Typically, the afternoon wind decreases and the lake surface becomes smooth, more clearly revealing the fish rising for an evening meal.

This is another photograph made within a few feet of my bivy sack campsite on a peninsula rising above this lake in the McGee Creek drainage. As I had eaten dinner with my two backpacking partners, I had been keeping an eye on this little scene that I had checked out earlier in the afternoon, watching to see if the four small trees down near the water might catch the last light from the setting sun before the evening shadow came across the lake.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Steelhead Lake, Shoreline

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Steelhead Lake, Shoreline - The curving shoreline of Steelhead Lake, photographed in early evening light.
The curving shoreline of Steelhead Lake, photographed in early evening light.

Steelhead Lake, Shoreline. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. September 15, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The curving shoreline of Steelhead Lake, photographed in early evening light.

This is a fairly simple shot, and I think it represents a sort of scene that many Sierra Nevada back-country travelers know well. Steelhead Lake sits high on a bench up in the McGee Creek drainage, with a very tall ridge running to the east (and blocking early morning light) and a deep canyon to the west and northwest, with views toward the Sierra crest beyond. Unusual for an east-side location, there is much better light in the evening than in the morning. (More typically, east-side high country areas are open to the east and the morning light, and the evening light is blocked by the Sierra crest.) Most of the shoreline of the lake is forested, with the exception of a section at the upper end that is covered by the base of a talus field spilling down from the higher ridges.

We camped on what almost amounted to a peninsula, at least when viewed from the direction from which the trail arrives at the lake. Our spot on the peninsula was high enough to command a view of most of the moderate sized lake, and especially back across this little cover below our position. Late in the day as the setting sun approached the crest of the Sierra out of the frame to the left, low angle light slanted across the valley below and onto the low ridge along the edge of the lake, illuminating the atmospheric haze and back-lighting the trees along the shoreline.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.