Tag Archives: landscape

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Autumn Leaves, Sandstone

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Autumn Leaves, Sandstone
Autumn leaves lie on the sandstone in a high country creek bed, Zion National Park

Autumn Leaves, Sandstone. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn leaves lie on the sandstone in a high country creek bed, Zion National Park

Every so often I decide to dig back through my older file archives from previous years, and I almost always discover photographs that I had forgotten, that perhaps didn’t resonate at the time, or were part of batches of images that I someone never quite finished reviewing. This is one of those. It comes from a lengthy autumn trip to various places in Zion with a group of friends back in 2012.

I made this photograph in Zion National Park, but it could have been made in uncounted numbers of places in Utah — it has the basic ingredients: patterned and worn sandstone plus leaves. This scene is as I found it, a small vignette of leaves, some in colors matching those of the sandstone and couple yellow enough to stand out from the background.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Cliff, Snow and Ice

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Cliff, Snow and Ice
Snow and ice encrust the granite face of cliffs near Glacier Point

Cliff, Snow and Ice. Yosemite Valley, California. February 26, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Snow and ice encrust the granite face of cliffs near Glacier Point

I made this photograph within the first few minutes after dawn and as the first light came over the Sierra to the east to touch the rim of Yosemite Valley near Glacier Point. The rugged cliff face below the summit was still in shadow, and it would remain that way for a long time, especially on a winter day like this one when the sun never rises very high in the sky. As I looked up at this view I thought back to a few times in the past when I’ve skied out to Glacier Point and looked down at the spot where I was standing on this morning.

This is a very rugged fact, crisscrossed by fractures and ledges in many places. On this morning some recent snow was still plastered to the rocks, and where water flowed from melting snow and then froze there were large patches of ice. In a few places the rock is red, I presume possibly from either some sort of seepage or perhaps from lichen. The tone of the scene is quite blue since the only light is from that gigantic blue light panel we call the sky!

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, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Snow-Covered Ledge

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Trees, Snow-Covered Ledge
A group of trees growing on a snowy ledge below Glacier Point

Trees, Snow-Covered Ledge. Yosemite Valley, California. February 26, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of trees growing on a snowy ledge below Glacier Point

Near the end of February I made a more-or-less annual winter visit to Yosemite Valley. (Not my only time to visit in winter, but I’m often there around the final weekend of this month, during the last few years to attend the opening of the annual Yosemite Renaissance exhibit.) This gave me a few days to photograph in the Valley during winter, which may be my favorite season there — when clouds can ring the Valley and, if I’m lucky, I might catch some snow.

I made this photograph on a very cold morning, photographing from an open meadow location below the face of Glacier Point, where granite ascends abruptly from behind what I’ll always think of as Camp Curry. I went to the meadow before dawn, with a plan to photograph this wall in shadow and then as the first light began to slant across it from the east. This cliff is a cold place this time of year — most of the time in shadow, dusted with snow, and with frozen water everywhere. The blue-tinged shadow light only increases the effect in this scene of a small group of trees managing to eke out an existence on an angled rock ledge.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Birds, Fog, Dawn

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Birds, Fog, Dawn
Birds fly over foggy Central Valley wetlands at dawn on a winter day

Birds, Fog, Dawn. Central Valley, California. January 28, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Birds fly over foggy Central Valley wetlands at dawn on a winter day

It is only the last day of March… and I’m already missing these winter wetlands with fog and the sound of birds. These places are found up and down California’s Great Central Valley, and each has its own personality. I know I can find eagles at one, night herons at another, cranes at several of them, and huge flocks of Ross’s and snow geese and yet another.

In my view, the best days at these refuges begin before dawn. The air should be cold — at or just below freezing is about right — and there must be at least some fog in the air. I favor thick fog that gradually clears as the morning develops, though on this morning it was thinning even as the sunrise began. The raucous sounds of the birds — mostly geese and cranes — are everywhere, and here and there small groups take off and fly past. If a faint view of the High Sierra emerges, as in this photograph, it is even better.

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.