Tag Archives: lake

Photographs: Nature

Wildfire Smoke, Early Morning

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Wildfire Smoke, Early Morning
layers of thick wildfire smoke obscure the morning light

Wildfire Smoke, Early Morning. Along US 395, California. September 18, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

layers of thick wildfire smoke obscure the morning light

This was the culmination of more than twelve hours of observation of a developing wildfire located east of the Sierra Nevada, roughly between Lee Vining and Mammoth Lakes. The previous evening I finished a hike into the Sierra backcountry not far from Tioga Pass, returning to my car well after sunset. As I drove back down Lee Vining Canyon in the near-darkness I saw a big tower of smoke to the southeast and the tell-tale glow of fire on the bottom of the cloud. The next morning I woke up and headed straight back toward Mono Lake, from which I figured I could photograph conditions related to the fire.

I began photographing Mono Lake itself, where the lake was still mostly visible with only a few thin smoke clouds floating over it. But very soon this changed as winds brought the smoke right over Mono Lake, casting a pall over the scene all the way up to Conway Summit. My goal was to head south along the eastern escarpment, but as I did so the smoke only became thicker. I made this photograph at a point closer to the fire, where the smoke was very, very thick, enough so to take away most of the sunlight and add a post-apocalyptic quality to the scene.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Dawn, Desert Mountains, Lake

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Dawn, Desert Mountains, Lake
Dawn haze above Mono Lake and desert mountains

Dawn, Desert Mountains, Lake. Mono Lake, California. October 2, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn haze above Mono Lake and desert mountains

Many people perhaps think first of tufa formations when they think of Mono Lake — and given their novel quality and popularity, who can blame them? But as interesting as those formations are, they are not what first comes to mind for me when I think of this place. Instead, my associations are with immense sky, profound silence, perhaps birds, and, of course, wind. Despite being so close to the Sierra, with its intimate forest and meadow landscapes and towering alpine peaks, this place seems much different.

I made this photograph from a high place early on an autumn morning, when haze that may have come from many sources including wildfires, muted and obscured the details of the landscape, leaving mostly the larger features and forms. The foreground is a bit of the lake surface, and beyond the surrounding basin rises toward a succession of high and barren ridges and peaks as the first light makes the atmosphere luminous.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shoreline Aspen Color

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Shoreline Aspen Color
A variety of colorful autumn aspen trees line the rocky shoreline of an Eastern Sierra subalpine lake

Shoreline Aspen Color. Eastern Sierra Nevada. September 30, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A variety of colorful autumn aspen trees line the rocky shoreline of an Eastern Sierra subalpine lake

While understatement can often be a good thing, sometimes when making photographs of Sierra Nevada autumn aspen trees one simply has to go with the colors. This was one of those times. I was fortunate to arrive at this spot on close to the ideal color day for this section of the lake. Not only were nearly all the trees showing their fall color, but quite a few trees showed the less common shades of red and orange, along with the more typical golden-yellow. These are not big trees, but what they lack in stature they make up for in color.

This photograph is also an example of one good kind of light for photographing this subject. I began photographing a bit earlier in  the soft, shaded light. This sort of light can be very “friendly” to intensely colorful subjects and to subjects that include lots of shadows. But it can also be quite blue — except here I photographed just before the sun reached this spot, and much of the ambient light was acquiring a warmer quality. The soft light doesn’t push the intensity of the colors so far that they may blow out — it tends to make the colors more vibrant, but gives a bit more control.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

East Side, Morning

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East Side, Morning
Early morning light on the hills and peaks of the eastern Sierra Nevada near June Lake

East Side, Morning. Along US 395 near June Lake, California. September 8, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light on the hills and peaks of the eastern Sierra Nevada near June Lake

I’ve occasionally written about my “discovery” of the Sierra Nevada east side perhaps two decades ago. Like so many from Northern California, my orientation to the range came from arriving by driving east across the Great Central Valley and then making the long, gradual ascent from the Valley to the summit of the range, a summit whose peaks are often not even visible from that Valley. (But when they are, what a sight!) I thought of the Sierra as being a place of mostly forested mountains, rising gradually, and only topped by the rugged granite peaks at is furthest point. Then a friend, whose orientation was from Southern California and who had approached the range from the South, got me (finally!) to visit the east side of the range.

What a difference! Here the mountains begin in semi-arid high desert sage brush country. They mostly rise abruptly along the eastern escarpment, with rocky ridges and summits exposed to view. The range immediately has an alpine quality that is quite different from the gentle forested slopes of the west side. Yet it, too, is varied. In some places the abrupt and rugged steepness is real — some of the ridges just above Round Valley, for example. But in other locations that “abrupt” escarpment is more subtle, the result of starting at even higher desert elevations (in the 8000′ range in some places) and due to some very large canyons cutting toward the summit of the range. For examples, visit the huge valley that rises above Bishop, or consider these sage and tree covered slopes gradually ascending toward the inevitable granite cliffs in the vicinity of June Lake.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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