Tag Archives: late

Favorite Time in the Range of Light (Morning Musings 8/31/14)

August 31, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Thoughts about seasonal light in the Range of Light…

Sunset, Lower McCabe Lake, Shepherds Crest, and Virginia Canyon - Afternoon storm clouds clear from the sunset sky above Lower McCabe Lake, Shepherds Crest, and Virginia Canyon, Yosemite National Park. — Sunset, Lower McCabe Lake

It is no secret that I can find something to love about every season in the Sierra Nevada — the storms and snow of winter, the wildly flowing water and new growth of spring, and the lazy days of summer that bring easy access to the high country. But if I had to pick one perfect day in the Sierra high country it would be in fall.

This ideal day would come some time between the middle of September and the middle of October, when it becomes increasingly clear that summer really is ending and that winter really is on its way. This is not a wild season — no giant winter storms, no raging rivers and waterfalls, no spectacular growth and colorful fields of wildflowers. It is a quieter time. The crowds are almost all gone, and the people you do meet there are more likely to be those with a deeper relationship with this range.

The light is beautiful — perhaps as beautiful as it gets — and perhaps even more precious because it doesn’t last as long on these shortening days of the late season. The sun is lower in the sky and less intense, and there is often a muted, golden quality to the light, amplified by the golden colors of dry meadows, the beginning of fall colors, and softened by seasonal haze. And it is all the more sweet because we know that winter is just around the corner and that these days will end very soon.

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

Calero Oaks and Summer Grass

August 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Oak and grass-covered summer hills extending into late summer morning haze

This is a portrait orientation version of more of less the same scene I shared in an earlier photograph from the same mid-August morning hike through a familiar, long time favorite local hiking and photography location. It is an area full of grasslands and oak-covered hills, lush and green for a few months each winter and spring, and then California gold/brown for much of the rest of the year. I have hiked these hills and this specific trail for many years, though it had been several months since my last prior visit — it was good to be “home” again!

This morning was special for a few reasons. There was a wonderful feeling of returning to “my world” following a few months away from this place and my return, only days earlier, from a lengthy trip to the east coast that included more than a week in the very urban environment of New York City. It also turned out, a bit to my surprise, that this hike would bring my annual “autumn is just around the corner” experience — that day each year when something tells me clearly that summer is beginning to wind down and that the beauties of autumn are not far away.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpine Trees, Last Light

February 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late afternoon light on small alpine trees growing in glaciated terrain, Kings Canyon National Park

This is a photograph from the latter portion of our nine-day photographic trip into the eastern High Sierra of Kings Canyon National Park last September. By the time I made this photograph I had been on the trail about a week, and we were nearing the end of our lengthy stay at our 11,000′ campground in the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park. All such trips transition through a series of phases, and at this point I was in a phase of feeling more and more comfortable and familiar with these surroundings that we had explored so carefully – but I was also beginning to recognize that the end of this trip was not too far off.

Late on this afternoon I did one of my by-now-customary walks up the small, lake-filled valley ascending to the south from our camp. Because of very high ridges to our west, the sun was blocked from the valley terrain somewhat early in the day – late afternoon rather than evening. I reached the upper valley while there was still sun, but almost immediately the sun/shadow border began to move down into the valley and across the trees, rocks, and lake. I made a point of following this boundary, where the light can be at its most interesting at this time of day. Consequently I was moving almost constantly, generally moving west and north across and down the valley. In many cases I had only a brief moment to photograph whatever was being struck by the light at the edge of the moving shadow, so I was working each opportunity rather quickly. When I made this photograph the light had left the background talus fields and was still just striking this row of trees on top of a granite bench next to a small lake.

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

Sunset Virga, San Joaquin Valley

December 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Momentary sunset light on virga and clouds of an incoming late-autumn weather front above California’s San Joaquin Valley

As I mentioned in my previous post, this mid-December day was one of variable weather and sky conditions that ranged from fog to clear to mixed clouds to the arrival of a weak weather front that completely block the light at times. We spent the entire day mostly photographing migratory birds in this wetland area, but also making some landscape photographs when the birds were less available.

After a lunch break at a nearby town we returned for the afternoon and evening light and the prospective fly-in of geese and cranes. We always have an eye on the sky, trying to imagine and predict what the evening might bring, and the prospects did not look too encouraging. I love clouds… but out here too many clouds can simply kill the light that can otherwise become very interesting late in the day. As the afternoon wore on towards evening, it looked more and more like the light was perhaps not going to improve, and bands of thick clouds frequently blocked the sun, leaving mostly a sort of gray haze where we were. Occasionally the clouds did thin and we had moments of interesting light and sky, but overall things seemed to be heading in the gray direction. (This happens. If you shoot enough you will have days of utterly astonishing light, balanced by days when the light is simply blah. You make what you can from the light that you find, and usually something works.) Then, to our complete surprise, a few beams of sunset light found their way through small breaks in the clouds to our west, and for perhaps five minutes we had a light show as cloud bottoms and virga were gently lit from below, turning shades of red and pink and purple.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: late

Favorite Time in the Range of Light (Morning Musings 8/31/14)

Calero Oaks and Summer Grass

Alpine Trees, Last Light

Sunset Virga, San Joaquin Valley

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