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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite, Post-processing Workflow

Trees, Granite Slabs, Morning Light

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Trees, Granite Slabs, Morning Light
Trees, Granite Slabs, Morning Light

Trees, Granite Slabs, Morning Light. Yosemite National Park, California. September 4, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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

Peninsula, Trees, Evening Light

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Peninsula, Trees, Evening Light
Peninsula, Trees, Evening Light

Peninsula, Trees, Evening Light. Yosemite National Park, California. September 3, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light comes to a tree-dotted peninsula on a subalpine lake, Yosemite National Park

A subalpine Sierra Nevada lake like this one, where I photographed over the course of six days in September, is both a comforting source of familiarity and an opportunity to seek and discover new things. Anyone who has spent much time in the Sierra back county is familiar with lakes like this one. It is set in a very shallow bowl between higher ridges in most directions, a low and rock ridge in another, and a forested valley holding its outlet stream. This one is entirely surrounded by forest, dense and growing right to the shoreline in places, and sparse and rocky in others. A walk around the lake — and I made quite a few of these walks! — reveals marshy sections, places steep and rocky enough to make passage challenging, rocky outcroppings, views through trees, small granite islands, and more.

These walks almost inevitably brought us to the far end of the lake, near the marshy outlet, where this granite peninsula extends into the lake and supports ground cover and a few isolated trees. As we explored and photographed individually, it was not unusual for us to run into one another in this spot where there are so many interesting possibilities. The peninsula was a bit of an enigma for me. Its visual appeal was immediate — the individual trees standing in the light, the granite rocks, the open views of surrounding terrain, and its path away from the shore and out into the lake. But once there, I discovered that it was not as easy to photograph as I might have expected! Despite its obvious appeal, there were challenges — how to find an effective background, getting just the right light, and placing the individual components of the scene into a pleasing composition. On this evening I shot with a wide-angle lens and decided to work the curving shoreline that faced the late-day light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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

Morning Haze and Light, Shoreline Trees

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Morning Haze and Light, Shoreline Trees
Morning Haze and Light, Shoreline Trees

Morning Haze and Light, Shoreline Trees. Yosemite National Park, California. September 3, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Forest trees at the edge of a Sierra Nevada subalpine lake in morning light, Yosemite National Park

This is another photograph from that magical first day of shooting at a location that I would stay at for nearly a full week. As I wrote previously, the magic of this first morning comes from many things. Recognition is one of them — the experience of experiencing again the familiar elements of the Sierra backcountry that I have known for so many years: the sounds of gentle wind and water lapping at the end of the lake, the stillness of the morning air, that beautiful light coming over a ridge and striking trees and rocks from behind, the bits of detritus along the shoreline. A sense of expectation is another — the focus on seeing what is new at this place, the almost certain knowledge that I will discover new and unexpected things during the upcoming days.

On this morning I walked down to this lake for the first time. (I had arrived so late the previous day — after sunset, actually — that I had not even gone to the shoreline.) I began to circle around its west side slowly, first on a trail through flat terrain near where we camped, and then on rockier areas that forced me to ascend above the water a bit. All the time I was looking for subjects and compositions — though it would take a few more days before I fully fell into the ideal mode of seeing. I love backlight and I live juxtapositions of subjects, and I was attracted to the fringe of morning light on the branches of the trees at left and on the grasses below, and to how they contrasted with the deeply shaded area beyond.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

Morning, Subalpine Lake

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Morning, Subalpine Lake
A granite peninsula holding small trees extends into the waters of a subalpine lake, Yosemite National Park

Morning, Subalpine Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 3, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A granite peninsula holding small trees extends into the waters of a subalpine lake, Yosemite National Park

I made this photograph on our first real photography day of our early September backcountry photography trip in Yosemite National Park. There is a sort of life-cycle to any trip and especially for longer trips like this one. The entire first day of the “expedition” was spent loading vehicles, driving across California, and getting settled into first night accommodations in the eastern Sierra. The second day was a travel day — first a drive up to our trailhead, getting our gear to the packers who would take the majority of it in to our destination, leaving vehicles and starting the long hike, arrival and camp setup, and dinner… and the day was gone. So this third day of the trip was the first for serious photography.

The first day in a location where you will spend substantial time photographing is an interesting one, and the first morning is a very special time. After two days of transit, this is when photography begins. We arose before dawn, loaded up packs of camera gear, and headed down to the lake, each following his or her own path. It is a time of renewal and recognition — of the features and sensory elements of being in the Sierra high country and of focusing your “seeing” intensely. I began by first making an obligatory warm-up shot or two and then working my way around the west side of the lake, looking back across it toward the early morning sun as it eventually rose high enough to backlight trees and rocks. When I look at this photograph, the point of view and the elements in the frame remind me again of those first day sensations as we began our relationship with this lake and its surrounding terrain, a location we would photograph for the better part of a week.

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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