Tag Archives: light

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Crack System

December 15, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of small trees find a marginal existence growing along a crack at the edge of an exfoliated slab of granite, Yosemite National Park

It took me three tries, on successive days, to finally get the photograph of this little bit of granite slab and trees that I was looking for. On evening of our first day camping in the vicinity we were under the thick smoke plume from the early September “Meadow” fire in Yosemite, which was burning some miles away in the Little Yosemite Valley area — but also sending dense smoke towards us and dropping ash from the sky. I did make a few photographs in this eerie light the first night, but it was a very tricky situation that did not work well for this subject. I went back on the second evening, when the smoke had diminished at our location to the point that it wasn’t a major factor in “intimate landscape” photographs like this one. I went to the top of a large granite bowl before the light was good and scouted for likely photographs to make as the evening light improved. I spotted this lengthy crack at the edge of an exfoliated granite slab, in which a number of small trees had taken tenuous root and decided that it could be an interesting subject with evening sidelight. I wasn’t the only one, however, and three members of our party had the same idea! We are a cooperative bunch, so I photographed some other things while my partners worked this spot, and then returned to set up a shot that looked more directly up the length of the crack that curves through the composition in this version. Later that evening I was quickly reviewing my shots from the day, and I realized that one of my buddies had cast a long shadow into part of the frame! Ah, well, such things happen.

So I made plans to go back yet again on our final evening in the area and try once more. In the end, I’m glad that I did. I’m now convinced that by going back I found a more interesting composition that accomplished several things. First, no one’s shadow is in the image! Second, I think that positioning the large crack so that it curves more diagonally through the frame works better than my original composition. Third, due to this different camera position and somewhat different light, I was able to let the shadow of the tree create a sort of mirror image of its form, resulting in a relationship between the tree and the shadow that I like. There are spots much like this one all over the place in Yosemite — smooth slabs of granite on which tiny but often mature trees manage to find just enough sustenance. In this little spot, a somewhat unusual number of these trees seem to have made a success of it.

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, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite, Post-processing Workflow

Trees, Granite Slabs, Morning Light

December 10, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees scattered along granite slabs are backlit by morning light, Yosemite National Park

I am a complete sucker for scenes with scattered trees, separated enough to allow light to pass, that are backlit by morning or evening sun. Among my photographs, they are a bit of a theme, or so I’ve been told, but they are also almost an icon of the Sierra for me. When I think of the term “range of light,” it is most often this light that comes to mind. I know that I’ve always been intrigued by light that makes the atmosphere glow, is so bright that it is hard to look into it.

Early on this morning I began by making a bee line for this rounded granite ridge at the top of a large system of sloping slabs above the lake where we were camped. Initially I was thinking of the location as a place from which to photograph distant subjects in a different direction, but once at this high point, with the sun spilling brilliant light my direction after having just topped the farther ridge, I turned my attention to these trees and rocks, backed by luminous haze and more granite, tree-covered slopes leading toward a higher ridge.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Gate Latch and Padlock

December 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late afternoon sun on a fence with a gate latch and lock

We were in Southern California on a family holiday vacation in late November, and on the day after Thanksgiving we decided to “go do something” other than sitting around and digesting the previous day’s dinner. We planned a get-together with family/friends way up in Pasadena and the Southern Californians suggested the Huntington Library (and gardens and museums), which we had not visited before — so off we went.

We did not know what to expect from this place, but soon realized what a large and diverse and interesting facility it is. There are a number of museums on the huge grounds of the former Huntington estate, a few of which we visited (including one housing an intriguing Caponigro/Davidson exhibit), places to eat and drink, and many gardens — Chinese, Japanese, desert, and more. We walked through the Japanese garden that the start of the beautiful light time of the afternoon, when the late season sun was low in the sky and producing soft, warm light as it shone through trees and bushes on this small gate.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Trees and Cliffs, Morning

December 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on red rock cliffs and trees

Zion National Park, especially to a California Sierra photographer, is an almost ridiculously colorful place. One California friend describes Zion Canyon (which is not where this photograph was made, by the way) as “Yosemite Valley in Technicolor.” Another friend, a California landscape photographer, points out that somehow the Sierra looks “so gray” when one returns to their after photographing in Utah. And the color contrast is even more striking in the fall when the red rocks are not the only source of intense color — there are also the wild colors of autumn leaves, the deep blue of the sky, and the greens of pinyon pine and juniper.

I’m always a sucker for photographs of trees and mountains lit from behind, and I knew in advance that such an opportunity might arise when we went to this slightly less popular canyon in the early morning. In fact, I even rephotographed a few subjects that I had shot on the previous visit, partly because the conditions were different this time and partly because I think I understood them better on the second visit. This ridge sits below a much larger — monumental, actually — sandstone cliff at a bend in the canyon. As the sun rises above the much higher canyon rim it begins to cast light obliquely across this buttress and the single tree that grows on top of it.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: light

Trees, Crack System

Trees, Granite Slabs, Morning Light

Gate Latch and Padlock

Trees and Cliffs, Morning

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