“So That Sheep May Safely Graze” — A road sign on a single-track road in Scottish sheep country.
On the Isle of Skye, and for that matter all over Scotland, there are sheep. A LOT of sheep. What cattle are to the American west, sheep are to Scotland, or so it seems. The sheep and their abundant pastures are a significant component of the Scottish landscape — you encounter them everywhere when you walk or drive. I’ll let you speculate on the purpose of this road sign for a moment before explaining… (If you read this post where the next paragraph is already visible, pause and see if you can figure it out.)
Granite shapes, colors, and textures reflected in still water, Sierra Nevada.
Back in September I made my first summer visit of the year to the Yosemite high country. It isn’t ‘like me to miss almost an entire season up there, but we were traveling elsewhere this summer. To say the least, I was overdue to a visit to “my” mountains! I spent a few days camped just below the crest outside of Yosemite, and photographed both inside the park and along the eastern escarpment of the range.
This photograph comes from inside the park, at a place that has a bit of history in our family. When our (now grown) “kids” were very young, it was my tradition to introduce them to backpacking when they were three-years-old, and the trips always started at the trailhead next to this pond. The hike to our overnight camp was all of 1.2 miles, but to a small child I’m sure it counted as a major expedition. So, having an afternoon free during last month’s visit, I decided to go back and day-hike this little route. I made the photograph as I returned from the walk.
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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
“Spring Flow” — Rushing spring water and reflections, Merced River.
For a place made of stone, the Sierra Nevada can be a surprising transitory subject. Summer is brief, and wildflowers bloom and are soon gone. Color comes to aspens in the fall and is gone weeks later. Spring is the time of rushing water in the Sierra, from the high country to the lowlands. The water rises as the snow melts, creeks and rivers fill to their banks, and waterfalls appear. I photographed this minor torrent along the Merced River as it passes through Yosemite Valley.
Every landscape photographer I know has tried his or her hand at photographing the moving water this way. No matter what other marvelous landscape features are around, eventually we come back to the water and try to do something with the ever-changing colors and shapes of water. This is that “what the camera sees” sorts of photography, since our eyes cannot see the river this way, and these shapes and colors change too quickly without the camera to grab and hold them.
Green grass and new oak leaves, El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite Valley
Probably almost anyone who has photographed in Yosemite Valley much can recognize this sort of scene and perhaps even think of some favorite spots to find black oak trees with new spring growth, set in meadows and backed by forest. Even though this is a very dry year in The Valley – and in almost all of California – around the beginning of May the annual “greening” of the Valley did take place, and this photograph was made during that period.
When lit from behind and above, the light coming through the new oak leaves is luminous and the colors can take on an intensity that sometimes cause me to describe this as the “impossibly green season” in California. Perhaps it is because the state is brown, tan, or gray during so much of the year that the spring green seems so intense.
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
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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