Tag Archives: light

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

The Last Light

July 15, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A final and unexpected bit of sunset color over the Sierra Nevada crest at Tuolumne Meadows

I could probably write a chapter on topics related to this photograph and the circumstances of making it. But I promise to keep this to a couple of paragraphs… at least for now. Earlier on this day I thought that I might make an evening visit to this high point in the Tuolumne Meadows area. As I ascended the conditions were far from promising — thunderstorms and light rain were falling to the east and the cloud shield extended far enough west to cut off the light. It was one of those occasions when I was ready to simply enjoy being in the place and perhaps not bother to photograph. There was one other photographer in this location and since there wasn’t much to photograph we spend some time in casual conversation, largely about the less than exciting light. There was a lighter area far to the west, but it appeared to be too far north of the setting sun to send much light our direction.

As we talked I mentioned a specific condition that can quickly (and often quite briefly) turn very boring light into something miraculous. If the cloud shield ends far to the west (or in the east at sunrise) there may be a narrow gap between the edge of the clouds and the horizon. If so, as the sun nears the horizon there can be a short burst of intensely colorful light. Any time I’m in a situation like the one on this evening, I look for signs of that horizon light… and if they are present I stay. That’s what I did on this evening, and I set up my camera with a lens selected for my guess at what the scene might do. With 5-10 minutes to go before sunset the sky was still murky and gray, and it appeared that my patience might not be rewarded. Then I noticed some pink in clouds far to the north. In a matter of second a soft reddish glow appeared at the summit of the large granite dome, and almost instantly the light came up on the peaks as a beam passed across the forest in the foreground. For the next 3-5 minutes the entire scene was a miracle of colorful light… until the sun dropped below the horizon and the red was gone.

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

Evening Light, Sierra Crest

July 14, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft evening light on Mount Conness, in the distance beyond Tenaya Lake

I’ve been (mostly) off the grid since early this past week while spending four days in the high country in and around Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows. (Tuolumne Meadows used to have poor cell service. It now seems to have none at all, which is a mixed blessing.) This being July, there was a lot of interesting stuff to see in the Sierra — there is still plenty of flowing water (at least for this low-precipitation year), most meadows are still lushly green, and the wildflowers are spectacular. While there are plenty of people up there — and, it seems, more every year — the August crush of high country tourists hasn’t yet arrived. Evidence? I was able to walk up to the kiosk and get a campsite in the middle of the day.

Weather was sometimes a challenge. Clouds are both a blessing and a curse when photographing the high country. Most often they are plus, given that the Sierra can be “afflicted” by successive days of boring blue skies at times. On the other hand, it is certainly possible to have too much of a good thing, and at times the welcome “interesting” weather evolved into somewhat “blah” light. However, it is common for moments of special light to appear out of the blah conditions, and I was treated to several such instances on this trip. (One of them may soon be the genesis of an article on knowing when to stay and wait and when to move on.) On this evening I suspected that late light might cut through the haze and create some dramatic effects on the distant Mount Conness from this familiar location, so I headed straight there late in the day.

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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

Reflection, Morning Shadows

July 9, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shadows on lakeside meadow as morning light hits Sierra Nevada peaks

This is a scene of what I regard as classic Sierra Nevada scenery. It also has the three main ingredients of many mountain photographs: rocks, trees, water. I made the photograph in the morning, probably most of the way through this morning’s photographic work. A typical morning in such a place begins with an alarm going off (quietly!) well before sunrise, followed by rolling out of the tent, grabbing camera pack and tripod, and heading off to some likely location to find morning light. Photography begins before sunrise, often moves quickly as the first direct light hits the landscape, and then evolves with the changing morning light… until, several hours later, it is time to wander back to camp and fix coffee and breakfast.

We were camped very close to this lake — though you could have easily walked past it and completely missed our camp, which was hidden away in the trees. We remained here for the better part of a week, allowing plenty of time to become familiar with the local landscape, photograph in a range of conditions, and make longer excursions away from camp. I actually did not photograph this closest lake much until near the end of our stay, when I realized that it was now or never. I made this particular photograph in the morning, well after sunrise but a few minutes before the sun peeked over nearby peaks to illuminate the shoreline meadow.

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

Light on Granite

July 4, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A gesture of light falls across an irregularity in the granite face of a Yosemite cliff.

There is a tendency for people to regard the landscape as a fixed and even a permanent thing. The mountain will be there when you go back to it in a year or ten or a hundred, so the photograph “captures” a thing that is unchanging. This is, of course, incorrect, and on multiple levels. Supposedly permanent things change constantly — in fact, the forms by which we know them today are the result of profound forces of change that are ongoing. (One reason that climbers wear helmets is that rocks fall…) But changes on much shorter scales are of tremendous interest to those who photograph (or just like to view) than landscape. They range from annual (what is it like [i]this[/i] year?) to seasonal. Some of them obviously occur on a daily basis — and photographers think about those a lot. Light and atmosphere vary in profound and often remarkable ways.

In so many cases, timing is everything. For some, calculating that timing is a key. I just read a friend’s report on a night photograph that he had “figured out” over a year ago — it required him to be in a certain place during a narrow window of time with conditions that were just right. I am impressed! For others — including my friend — even more critical is being attuned to what is happening right now or in the next few minutes or hours and then being ready to respond. I share all of this here with this photograph as the effect of light on this granite face was tremendously transitory. The time between the bulk of the face falling into shadow (and leaving the thin strip in sun) and the complete loss of light was perhaps measured in seconds, and certainly little more than a minute. (This is another photograph from my artist-in-residency sponsored by Yosemite Renaissance this past winter and spring.)

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: light

The Last Light

Evening Light, Sierra Crest

Reflection, Morning Shadows

Light on Granite

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