Tag Archives: lake

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Subalpine Lake and Forest

Image September 25, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Forest borders aYosemite National Park back-country lake.

Technically this little lake is in the Yosemite National Park “backcountry…” but just barely. It is, as far as I know, the the closest spot to roads where you may backpack in the park and camp overnight. It is a bit of a special place for our family. I took each of our three children on their first backpack trips when they were three-years-old, and this was always the destination. The first two went with just me, but when it was time for our third to go he was accompanied by the whole family.

This past week I found myself between photography locations one afternoon, and on a whim I decided to hike up there again. It may have been the first time I decades. As I hiked the very short trail I thought back to those early trips. On the first one our oldest son took four hours to hike the 1. 2 miles. But I’m sure he looked at every rock, tree, and bug along the way. In some ways out daughter — the second to take the trip — may have been the most natural back county traveler as a child. (On one later trip she memorably sang most of the way up a nearly 8 mile hike.) The third trip was extra special, since the entire family went along and squeezed into a giant five-person backpacking tent, seeking protection from a thunder and lightning storm we still talk about. (“Make it stop, Daddy!” Though Patty remembers it as, “Make it stop, Mommy!”))

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Ridgeline Trees, Incoming Storm

Image September 24, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A late-summer storm sweeps over high mountain terrain, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

My favorite time of year in the Sierra Nevada high country is right now — roughly between mid-September and mid-October or a bit later. I love the place all year, wonderful stuff happens during this season. The overbearing crowds of summer are mostly gone — and I can just show up and get a campsite! The sun is often still warm, but its intensity has diminished. The light trends toward warm and soft and golden. Fall colors arrive and, of course, we sense winter out there on the seasonal horizon. These last easy, warm days seem even more precious as they come to an end yet again.

On the other hand, this transitional period brings surprises including cold, rain, graupel, hail, wind, snow… all of which I experienced on a few recent late-September days. I made this photograph from my camp at 9000’+ of elevation just outside Yosemite’s eastern border. Shortly after I set up my tent the sky darkened and soon rain, hail, and graupel arrived. The trees on this rocky prominence we in the last bit of soft light before the storm arrived and I took cover.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Where Once a Forest Stood

Image September 23, 2023 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The skeletons of ponderosa pines at the edge of high desert.

Today I interrupt the stream of photos from our European travels (“Finally!,” a few of you say…) to share something from my first return to the Sierra and points east since we got home. The European trip was great — and I look forward to more like it — but I missed my mountains! There’s a lot more to write about that and about getting back “out there,” but I will save most of it for later posts.

On this morning I was camped above 9000′ in the Eastern Sierra, but I decided (for reasons including deteriorating weather) to head out along the eastern slopes of the range to photograph in the early light. After some less-than-satisfying photography of the eastern escarpment (wildfire smoke was an issue) I headed out into the high desert near Mono Lake and then into a remarkable grove of ponderosa pines, one of the largest (perhaps the largest) in existence. I was aware of the results of a wildfire here years ago, and I wanted to photograph the remains of burned forest, so I turned off on an unmarked route and ended up here, where dead trees still stand starkly against the desert landscape.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Central Park, Spring Rain

Image May 30, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

People pause by the edge of a lake on a rainy spring day at Central Park, Manhattan.

Who says that all landscapes must be natural landscapes? No one, actually, though there is a long tradition (starting way before photography existed) of depicting the landscape inclusive of the human presence: small figures, structures, bridges and roads, ships, and so on. Although I usually categorize my photographs in various ways (if for no other reason than searching is easier), this series cuts across a few of the usual categories.

It was a rainy morning among a series of rainy spring days in Manhattan, and many of us were anxious enough to get out and enjoy New York’s “spring” that we went out even as rain threatened. At times the rain was heavy but mostly it just sprinkled steadily, as it was when I made this photograph, with people standing on the banks of the pond and clouds shrouding the upper stories of Manhattan buildings.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: lake

Subalpine Lake and Forest

Ridgeline Trees, Incoming Storm

Where Once a Forest Stood

Central Park, Spring Rain

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