Tag Archives: light

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

Forest, Early Evening Light

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Forest, Early Evening Light
Soft, early evening light on forest trees in the Tuolumne River Dana Fork drainage

Forest, Early Evening Light. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft, early evening light on forest trees in the Tuolumne River Dana Fork drainage

It was evening, and I had stopped in a familiar location along Tioga Pass Road between Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Pass, a place where the terrain opens up a bit to offer broader views back to the west and up toward the highest peaks in the area, and above which a rugged peak of fractured granite and talus rises. It is also a place where I can almost always spot deer late in the day.

I made a few photographs of the higher peaks and ridges, then turned my attention to photographing forest vignettes using a long focal length lens. In many places the light was difficult, as it almost front-lit the trees in the most obvious direction. As I paused and looked around I first noticed a skeletal dean tree near this spot and started to pay more attention to the forest itself. It was softly lit by light coming from a cloudy sky, and there was enough diffused light to open up the forest shadows just a bit.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Morning Fly-Out

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Morning Fly-Out
Migratory geese take to the air in morning light and thin tule fog

Morning Fly-Out. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Migratory geese take to the air in morning light and thin tule fog

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am (finally!) going back and revisiting my 2017 (!) photographs. I usually review the previous year’s raw files each December as I come up with my annual favorites post. However, I didn’t do that post (yet) for 2017, and I therefore missed that all-important opportunity look through the year’s raw file archive. Why is that important? For various reasons, which could be the subject of an article at some point, I miss some interesting photographs right after I make them — perhaps I had to move on to other subjects, I may not yet have been able to “see” the images for what they are, etc.

This comes from the very beginning of 2017, in the middle of winter. In many parts of the country winter is when migratory birds show up, as they arrive in our relatively warmer climate from areas that may be literally frozen during this season. Geese are among the long-distance travelers, and every fall and winter I look forward to their return all up and down the California flyway. I photographed this group early in the morning as the sun arrived and the birds began to leave their overnight accommodations in wetland ponds.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

River and Forest, Evening

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River and Forest, Evening
Evening light along the shores of the Tuolumne River

River and Forest, Evening. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light along the shores of the Tuolumne River

There are many little rituals that I have developed around making photographs. A few may be mine alone, but I have learned that others also engage in some similar processes. One has to do with the first photographs of any adventure. While sometimes a photograph simply leaps out at me, on other occasions it may take a while to get “warmed up” and start seeing. You have a choice — you can wait for inspiration to strike (sometimes for quite a while), or you can “prime the pump” and start making photographs. I generally prefer the latter.

On this trip I had arrived at my Tuolumne Meadows campsite in the afternoon. I set up camp, did a bunch of the usual camp stuff, then took a nap in order to compensate for getting up hours before dawn for the drive. Then I took a camera-free hike up to Elizabeth Lake. And, yes, once I got there I did regret leaving my camera gear behind! Returning from the hike, it was time to make a quick dinner and go start making photographs. I wandered out into the meadow and made a few quiet images of meadow, river, and forest… and the trip was officially underway.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | LinkedIn | Email

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: Ocean & Coast

Pacific Ocean, Clearing Fog

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Pacific Ocean, Clearing Fog
Fog clears over the Big Sur coastline near Point Sur and the Little Sur River

Pacific Ocean, Clearing Fog. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fog clears over the Big Sur coastline near Point Sur and the Little Sur River

It has been over a year since big landslides and bridge collapses during the very wet 2016-17 rainy season completely closed the Pacific coast highway though the rugged Big Sur region below Monterey. It is the nature of this roadway, which in places clings precipitously above the ocean, to suffer regular closures, but most of them are quite temporary. This time, however, two of them were quite major. A bridge just south of the town of Big Sur lost its structural integrity when one of its support columns slipped — it had to be knocked down and a new bridge constructed. That bridge opened up months ago, giving better access from the north — and letting me get to my favorite Big Sur Bakery! But another slide much further south, near the small town of Gorda, presented much bigger challenges. A good part of a mountain slipped down into the Pacific, creating a major engineering and construction issue.

The good news is that the route re-opened this past week. I decided to wait past the weekend — with its inevitable tourist traffic — and head down there today. I went as far as a few miles beyond the southern slide before turning around to retrace my route back to the north. (One unfortunate realization – the Monterey Peninsula has now become a virtual suburb of Silicon Valley, with traffic jams and the works. Even on a Monday, when the weekend crowds are gone, there were just too many people on the coast highway by the middle of the day as I started my return trip.) I made the photograph at a location I’ve shot many times before, the outlet of the Little Sur River near Point Sur. Each time I go here I look for new overlooks, trying to find a slightly different view of the scene, and today I tried several new ones. Bonus: On a July day when temperatures inland were in the ninety degree range and higher… coastal fog dropped the temperature here to the low sixty degree range!

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | LinkedIn | Email

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