Tag Archives: light

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

Morning Above The Meadow

August 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First light comes to ridges and peaks above a subalpine meadow

Nothing was yet open along Tioga Pass Road when I visited in late July. Typically all of the campgrounds would be open by this point, but an exceptionally heavy winter snowfall had delayed the process of clearing the road and opening up the high country. There was still a lot of snow at around 10,000′ and higher, and water was running high and fast everywhere. Early in the morning I drove back into the park from my camp site just east of the crest, heading down to Tuolumne Meadows to make some early morning photographs.

I’m often a bit surprised by how few people who camp at Tuolumne manage to make it out to the meadow for first light, missing what is arguably the most beautiful time of the day. On this day, with the campground closed, there was almost no one else at the meadow — I had the place almost entirely to myself. I stopped at the lower end of the meadow and looked back to the east, across the meadow and then a series of successive ridges, including a couple of well-known domes, and finally to the summit of Mount Dana. The sun had just risen on the east side of the range, and its light was beginning to pour over the ridges of the Sierra crest.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shoreline Tree, Evening Light

August 14, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A sturdy tree at sunset on the rocky shoreline of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

In a previous post I described how this short eastern Sierra backpacking trip transitioned from seriously challenging weather on day one to seriously lovely weather on the evening of day two. The onset of sudden, heavy, and long-lasting rain on day one created challenges for all of us, and caused me to make camp before getting to my intended destination. (Others in my group spent hours waiting out the storm under a rocky overhang, which yet other group members got quite wet trying to set up camp in the rain.) Day two started out looking like rain, but the clouds cleared and left us with pleasant, beautiful, and quite benign weather in the evening.

There is something extra peaceful about a beautiful evening following one that was distinctly not so pleasant, and we were in a relaxed frame of mind. We had a nice, spacious camp in flat, open forest, and nearby we found a flat area above the lake to sit and enjoy dinner with a view. As we ate I eyed some shoreline trees, including this one, that grew out of rocky outcroppings next to the water. Just before the final sunlight left us for the day I climbed up above this tree to position it against the evening-blue water of the lake.

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

Morning Light, Trees and Granite

August 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning sun backlights a grove of trees growing on granite slabs

One of my Sierra Nevada photographic obsessions has to do with back-lit trees. There is something about that light that I find compelling — possibly the halo effect of the brilliantly lit ends of branches, perhaps the possibility of photographing something that is very difficult to actually look at in person, or maybe the contrasting effects of sharply defined close details juxtaposed with bright and haze backgrounds. For me, this light, along with the granite slabs and boulders, provide definitive features of the Yosemite high country.

On this morning I was out early, driving along Tioga Pass Road as the sun came up. (Driving was required this time, as I had to camp outside the park and drive in very early.) I had stopped in Tuolumne meadows, nearly empty of people since it was early and the campground was still closed, and had worked in the still and quiet morning to photograph the early light coming over the Sierra crest. I happened to notice this little granite and tree vignette as I turned away from my main subject for a moment.

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

July 30, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Predawn light above high desert mountains, reflecting on the surface of Mono Lake

Mono Lake is famed for several things, among them the remarkable tufa towers found in several locations along the shoreline of this great land-locked lake east of the Sierra Nevada. And, yes, this photograph includes a few of those towers — a small group that lies far enough from the shoreline to make them less accessible and interesting to most photographers. (No, that isn’t Nessie — or a band of Nessie lookalikes — at the lower left corner.)

But tufa towers are not my primary or strongest association with this place. Mine include more ephemeral things — the sense of huge space, the expanse of the sky (accentuated by the distance and smallness of surrounding mountains), the deep quiet that is broken only by the sounds of birds and wind. In my experience, to understand those things about this place you must find a quiet place away from other people and perhaps just “be” there quietly, long enough to let its stillness begin to affect you, too. On this morning I arrived in Mono Basin before dawn, ending up at a spot that is not typically regarded as being iconic. Being early, I was in no hurry, so I set up my camera and tripod and just looked for a while before beginning to make photographs of the predawn light from beyond the eastern mountains as it reflected on the breeze-ruffled surface of the lake.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: light

Morning Above The Meadow

Shoreline Tree, Evening Light

Morning Light, Trees and Granite

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

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