Tag Archives: leaves

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Color, North Lake

November 15, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 7 Comments

Colorful autumn aspen colors surround the shores of North Lake with the Sierra Crest beyond.

I should probably hand out sunglasses and an Official Icon Alert warning with this one. Yes, it is that North Lake.

Later on this morning, after shooting elsewhere around the lake in the early hours, and after the workshop shooters had mostly moved on (after all, the good light was gone… ;-), I decided to cross the outlet stream and see about climbing up a hill above that lake that I had been thinking about. I found an easy trail along the side of the lake, but then had to more or less bushwhack my way up the slope to get above the tops of the very red lakeside aspens, which is no easy task when carrying a large photo pack and a good size tripod. (Once up there, I discovered a very easy trail going straight to my position. Sigh.)

Although it was no longer the “golden hour” and the morning was well along, there were scattered clouds. These shadows from these clouds moved rapidly across the landscape, sometimes producing almost uniform shade and sometimes lighting up some features while leaving others less visible. When I see conditions like this I often imagine the perfect positioning of the clouds and the light effects they produce – some primary feature caught in the spot light of a beam of sun, others in sunlight muted by thin clouds, and any spots that happen to be a bit too bright and distracting miraculously muted by a perfectly placed shadow. Yeah, right. But if I watch and wait long enough, something interesting almost always happens, and sometimes the moving clouds do momentarily solve composition and exposure problems. Here, the light on the bright red trees in the foreground is momentarily diminished by a passing cloud shadow and the shoreline trees are in sunlight… and the big cloud at upper left is reflecting on the surface of the water just beyond the foreground trees.

This photograph is 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, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees in Morning Light, Ahwahnee Meadow, Autumn

November 12, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Trees in Morning Light, Ahwahnee Meadow, Autumn

Morning light on trees in and around Ahwahnee Meadow, Yosemite Valley.

This little grove of trees might be one of the best known groves in Yosemite Valley. It sits apart from other trees out in Ahwahnee Meadow, and it can be an appealing site at various times of the year – in spring when the new leaves are bright green, in winter when the meadow and the trees may be snow-covered, and in fall. I made this photograph at the very end of October when the leaves had begun to change to fall colors and the meadow grasses had gone dormant. I had arrived here very early – before sun rise – and shot for a good hour or more in ground fog conditions. As the morning wore on the layer of fog thinned and finally disappeared completely just before I made this photograph. At about the same time, higher clouds around the rim of the Valley that had blocked the earlier light began to thin and the stronger light hit the meadow and the trees.

This photograph is 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, Photographs: Yosemite

Oak Trees, Evening, El Capitan Meadow

November 11, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A grove of oak trees in El Capitan Meadow illuminated by late afternoon light.

What Yosemite photographer hasn’t photographed these oaks, especially the four in the foreground? I know I can’t resist, and I’ve photographed them in every season and in conditions ranging from warm afternoons to winter mornings with snow on the ground. Here I photographed them during the last few minutes of direct light, just before the sun dropped behind ridges to the west, and after the light had already left the meadow, the forest and the Valley walls beyond.

This photograph is 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, Photographs: Yosemite

Autumn Rain, Merced River

November 7, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Fall colors and mist along the Merced River, Yosemite Valley.

Returning to the land of color – after a spate of recent black and white posts – this is a photograph made on a rainy day along the Merced River in Yosemite Valley, as fall color came to the trees and bushes and fog drifted along the walls of the Valley. This photograph was made from the bridge near Curry Village as it rained lightly and the colors were reflected in the calm surface of the river. Probably because of the damp weather and the relatively early hour there was hardly any one else around, and this in a location that is often quite busy.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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