Tag Archives: meadow

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpine Lake in Shadow

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Alpine Lake in Shadow
Rocky terrain around a awilderness alpine lake in shadow, Kings Canyon National Park.

Alpine Lake in Shadow. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rocky terrain around a wilderness alpine lake in shadow, Kings Canyon National Park.

I photographed this scene in a sort of light that I might not typically use for such a subject. This lake lies in a basin beneath some very tall and rugged peaks, and it loses its sunlight well before sunset as the shadows of those peaks stretch over the landscape. The softness of the light here is what you get it and kind of light, where the illumination comes from the diffused blue dome of the sky.

Of all the variations of Sierra Nevada terrain, places like this hold a special attraction for me. Near timberline, they mark the transition from the familiar forested country to the wild and rugged high places. The softening effect of vegetation is still here, but the views are open and rocks are everywhere. It is a landscape of possibilities, chief among them the potential to follow any line of passage that you can see.

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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Photographs: Nature

Tumbleweed Among The Wildflowers

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Tumbleweed Among The Wildflowers
An old tumbleweed settles in among a field of spring wildflowers in the Temblor Mountains.

Tumbleweed Among The Wildflowers. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old tumbleweed settles in among a field of spring wildflowers in the Temblor Mountains.

One evening I ventured into the foothills of the Temblor Mountains, the range that traces the scar of the San Andreas earthquake fault through a portion of California. There are few places — perhaps no others at all — where the scale of this fault is visible. The range runs in an almost perfectly straight line, separated from the plain to the west, where valleys and streams are clearly offset by the north/south slippage along the fault.

I went there to photograph the intense Spring wildflower bloom that was underway that year. Over a period of a few weeks, hills and valleys that are brown and dry during the rest of the year erupted with new green growth and carpets of wildflowers. During this brief interval, unlike the rest of the year, the dry tumbleweed plant seemed like an interloper.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wildflowers and Fog

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Wildflowers and Fog
California spring wildflowers recede into tule fog.

Wildflowers and Fog. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

California spring wildflowers recede into tule fog.

This photograph continues with the theme of last year’s California spring season and my travels to photograph it. (Travel? Remember that?) This location among the range of hills between the coastal areas and the Great Central Valley is full of grasslands, oak-covered hills, though it becomes increasingly dry as you travel further south and east. That particular spot seems almost desert-like during much of the year. But during a short period in late-winter and early-spring, especially in a wet year, it springs to life. Hills are covered in green and there is a climax of extensive and beautiful wildflowers.

Here the wildflowers stretch for miles across the lowlands of a giant valley that runs alongside the San Andreas earthquake fault. A typical photograph of this location might show that expanse and the hills in the distance. But on this morning tule fog arrived and reduced the size of the visible world down to a radius of a few hundred feet — albeit a spectacularly colorful radius!

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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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

Stream And Meadow

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Stream And Meadow
An alpine stream descends through a boulder-strewn, meadow-filled Sierra Nevada valley

Stream And Meadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An alpine stream descends through a boulder-strewn, meadow-filled Sierra Nevada valley.

One reason I made this photograph is that the scene is so ordinary, believe it or not. In fact, these little landscapes of flowing water, meadow, rocks, and small trees are perhaps my favorite in the Sierra Nevada, found in the region just below timberline where the terrain begins to open up. I’d love to be able to add the sound of this scene to the post, with its characteristic and almost ever-present lullaby of flowing water.

This location was only a few hundred feet from our camp. We stayed in a small valley between two ridges, and just below the truly alpine region of moraines and ridges and peaks. Here several streams converged, draining various higher canyons and lakes, and we were never far from water.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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