Tag Archives: meadow

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

Corn Lily Plants

July 4, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

New corn lily plants emerge alongside a stream in the Yosemite National Park high country.

Shortly after the winter’s snow melts, the Sierra corn lily plants begin to grow quickly in wet areas, especially those next to streams and lakes. This year I saw them earlier in the season than usual, and for the first time I saw them as they first emerged. I’m used to seeing them in the form shown in this photograph, with the large curving leaves that I assumed were responsible for the “corn” part of the plant’s name. However, as the plants first break through the soil they look almost exactly like unhusked corn, and now I wonder if that is the actual reason for the name.

These specimens, as is often the case, were growing in a tightly packed group along the banks of a fast-flowing stream that meanders through a nearly flat meadow. The plants remain beautiful throughout the season, though the nature of that beauty changes. Soon they will lose the lush green of spring and become somewhat tougher looking. At some point in late August they will begin to show some brown edges, and a bit later they will turn brilliant golden, yellow, and brown colors as the short Sierra summer comes to an end.

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.

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

North Dome and Merced River Trees, Winter

February 25, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Black and white photograph of North Dome and bare winter trees reflected in the Merced River near the swinging bridge, Yosemite Valley, California.

After first getting distracted by dawn light on Yosemite Falls – and joining a small throng of other photographers shooting this exact same subject (he writes, somewhat embarrassed… ;-) – I pulled myself together and wandered off along the Merced on this frosty morning looking for scenes that were a bit less obvious. I’m not going to claim that this one is completely non-iconic – I can’t since North Dome, in the upper center of the frame, is a fairly well known feature of the Valley. However, the thing that mostly caught my attention here was the skeletal shapes of the dormant trees along the Merced River and the way they lined up across the scene creating some interesting symmetries and forms against the background of the upper end of The Valley.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 35mm f/2
two blended images: ISO 100, f/11, 1/40 second and ISO 10, f/11, 1/10 second

keywords: yosemite, valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, meadow, swinging, bridge, cottonwood, silhouette, grass, sky, north, dome, royal, arches, snow, reflection, ripple, morning, light, black and white, monochrome, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, clouds rest, landscape, scenic, travel, nature, bare, forest, grove, stock

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Oaks and Hills, Winter Fog

January 24, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Winter morning fog clears over northern California hills and oak forest.

When it comes to photography, there is a long list of subjects that I cannot resist. Included on this list are: morning sunshine across the shoulder of a grassy hill, oak trees, clearing, high clouds from an approaching weather front, hills receding into the haze-shrouded distance, stacked diagonal forms, a bit of a trail. This is, of course, a list that corresponds pretty much to what is found in this scene.

I was out hiking in my “photographic backyard” in the Calero hills on this early-January morning. I initially went out looking for fog, and I found that in abundance earlier in the morning when I photographed a solitary oak tree in a fog covered valley. Soon, however, the fog began to hold light that suggested clearing above, so I headed up a trail to a nearby ridge that commands a good view of surrounding oak-filled valleys and ridges. When I arrived there the fog was still quite thick, but I felt it would soon start to clear so I went ahead and unpacked my gear and set up my tripod… and waited. Soon I was rewarded with this scene to my south, mostly backlit by the morning sun as the fog washed in and out of the valleys and finally the sun became bright enough to light this foreground ridge and cast shadows from the oak trees.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: california, usa, landscape, winter, stock, calero, county, park, santa clara, tree, oak, fog, mist, cloud, grass, nature, oak, forest, grove, meadow, trail, grass, silhouette, ridge, mountain, haze, atmosphere, recession, light, clearing, bush, valley, hike

Photograph Exposed

A Photograph Exposed: “Submerged Boulders, Lake, and Cliffs”

January 14, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

(“A Photograph Exposed” is a series exploring some of my photographs in greater detail.)

Submerged Boulders, Lake, and Cliffs — Sunlight illuminates submerged boulders near the cliff face along the High Sierra Trail – Sequioa National Park.

I have backpacked in California’s Sierra Nevada range for quite a few decades. A number (a large number!) of years ago my wife and I went on a two-week trans-Sierra backpack trip that traversed the range from west to east between Crescent Meadow and Whitney Portal, following a route known as the “High Sierra Trail.” On the third morning we left our camp and began the stiff ascent toward the pass we had to cross to enter the Kern River drainage. Near the top of the steepest part of the climb the trail momentarily leveled out and we found ourselves facing a high, rockbound lake with a perfectly vertical patterned rock face dropping straight into the water on the far side. The view seemed familiar – and I realized that it was a scene captured by Ansel Adams (“Frozen Lake and Cliffs“) in the early 1930s. (I also later realized that there is a wonderful and well-known photograph of the subject by Vern Clevenger.)

My wife and I were enthusiastic about photography in those days, too, and we carried a couple of Pentax SLRs and a few lenses and many rolls of film into the back-country. But I don’t think I came back with more than a few “snapshots” of this lake on that trip.

Fast-forward a few decades to 2008 when a group of my backpacking friends decided to follow this same trans-Sierra route — and, of course, I had to join them. Once again, I found myself ascending the trail toward that small bowl, but this time I had a plan to photograph the lake and the equipment to do it right. I recalled parts of the climb from my previous trip, but I had probably forgotten more than I remembered during the intervening decades. As the trail traverses a beautiful wet section full of wildflowers (which I had forgotten) I could tell that the lake was just ahead, and soon I topped a small saddle and saw the familiar scene before me.

As planned, I set to work doing some of the photography that I had contemplated before the trip. To be honest, I mainly worked from more or less the location that Adams must have used, though the conditions were a bit different on this day – the light was changeable as broken clouds passed above, and there was very little snow, much less ice, left at the lake. After perhaps 30 or 45 minutes of work, my hiking partners were getting restless and it was time to move on. I felt that I had worked this scene about as much as possible under the circumstances – and I did get a photograph of the “classic view” that I like a great deal — so I loaded up my heavy 9-day backpack load, put away the camera, and strapped the tripod to the outside of the pack. I hoisted the load and slowly started up the switchbacks immediately above the lake.

A couple of switchbacks up the trail I happened to look back at the lake from a slightly higher vantage point, and from here the astonishing deep blue color of the lake and the apron of rocks falling into the water became visible. My first reaction was a combination of “Wow!” and “No way am I taking this pack off and setting all that stuff up again!” Continue reading A Photograph Exposed: “Submerged Boulders, Lake, and Cliffs” →

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