Tag Archives: meadow

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

Trees, Meadow, Snow Storm

March 13, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Snow falls on a tree-studded Yosemite Valley meadow

I made this photograph as a snow squall swept through this part of Yosemite Valley, on an afternoon that featured changeable weather. It was often cloudy, sometimes the sun broke through, at other times snow fell heavily for short periods. It was during one of those latter moments when I stopped here, entranced by the silhouetted tree shapes and the moodiness of the snow-obscured landscape.

Snow and fog (and to some extent rain) can make the task of photography more difficult, but the visual value they bring mac the challenges worthwhile. A location like this one can be almost too dense with complex detail when the air is completely clear, but some fog or snow mute the distant details and simplify the scene in useful ways. Here the dark shapes of the closer trees acquire a stronger (and more abstract) presence in the scene, and the distant features that would otherwise be visible fade to obscurity and instead provide a sort of depth to the scene. I made a practical decision, too, when photographing this scene. Because of the challenging conditions of windblown snow, rather than putting my bigger camera on the tripod I shot handheld with a smaller system I was also carrying.

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, After Snow

March 9, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Light snow on forest trees and granite faces, following winter snow

On most days I’m convinced that there is no season more beautiful in Yosemite Valley than winter, and no day in the Valley more beautiful than one following snowfall, when the sun comes out again, snow blankets the trees, and a bit of remaining mist floats among the spires. (OK, on an autumn day I may give more credit to fall colors, and on a spring day I may acknowledge new growth and wildflowers. But still.)

I was fortunate that it snowed on several days during my recent artist-in-residence stint in the Valley. (Thank you, Yosemite Renaissance.) It did not snow a lot, but it was unusually cold and snow fell all the way to the valley floor, with an accumulation in some spots of a few inches. Because it was so cold the snow did not immediately melt (as it often does at this elevation) or fall from the trees. In this photograph, across the open space of a meadow, you can still see snow in the trees, and it gets thicker as the trees ascend the south side of the Valley.

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

Meadow, Forest, Evening Light

March 6, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft evening light and haze illuminate a meadow clearing with silhouetted trees

It was late on a clear winter day, and I found myself in Yosemite Valley, in an area of trees and meadows. My first objective was group of riverside trees that were catching the early evening light coming up the Valley from the west. Soon the cliffs along the north side of the Valley cast shadows across these trees, so I moved on, following the shadow-sun line to the southwest as I crossed meadows.

Ahead a row of trees cut across the meadow along the route of a trail. A management fire was burned a bit to the west — incinerating trees that died in the drought of the past few years — and the smoke drifted, producing a gentle haze in the evening light. I found a break in the trees, with a meadow and back-lit trees on the far side, and above more trees fading into the haze toward faint cliff silhouettes. I made a quick series of exposures, and then then light was gone.

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

Curving Trees, Falling Snow

March 1, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Snow falls among winter dormant trees in a Yosemite meadow

I have known for a month or so that I’d be in Yosemite for the last full week of February. That lead-in month was a very strange one for California weather. We had virtually no precipitation, and warm temperatures often made if feel more like summer than winter. These are not happy conditions for wintertime photography in the park, when a lot of the plant life is dormant and when snow and storm clouds usually provide more interesting conditions.

But immediately upon my arrival — literally the first moments I spent in the Valley — the weather changed. Not only did winter weather return, but it did so with a vengeance, and temperatures dropped much lower than would be typical for the date. On most days of my stay there were at least some clouds and on several days there was snowfall. The day I made this photograph brought the most daytime snow. In the afternoon a weak front worked its way into the Valley, and there were periodic snow showers. I headed to a tree-filled meadow when this shower arrived, and there I photographed juxtapositions of the interestedly shaped trees silhouetted against the falling snow.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: meadow

Trees, Meadow, Snow Storm

Morning Light, After Snow

Meadow, Forest, Evening Light

Curving Trees, Falling Snow

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