Tag Archives: moraine

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

Lake, Trees, and Mountains at Dawn

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Lake, Trees, and Mountains at Dawn
A quiet morning at a High Sierra backcountry lake in Sequoia National Park.

Lake, Trees, and Mountains at Dawn. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A quiet morning at a High Sierra backcountry lake in Sequoia National Park.

As is often the case, one thing leads to another, and I sometimes end up in a place I did not anticipate. I saw a question online about a particular sort of landscape subject, and I immediately thought of a photograph of mine that was related to that discussion. But after finding my photograph and thinking how it might inform that discussion… I decided not to share it. But looking for that photograph sent me back into an archive of photographs from a wonderful trans-Sierra pack trip I made almost fifteen years ago — and that’s where I found this photograph. (Perhaps not surprisingly, I’m now revisiting that entire archive!)

That trip was a wonderful one. A small group of friends(1) spent almost two weeks on the trail, crossing the range from west to east. On such a long trip some days are devoted to just moving onward toward the eventual goal, and this was one of those days. We selected this camp location because it was conveniently located along our route. This lake is not what I regard as an alpine spectacle — instead it is a quiet place, and a fine spot to just slow down for a moment. I was up early the next day to photograph the first light on nearby peaks in the morning quiet.

1 — Bonus photo! Here’s a picture of our little gang on the summit of Mount Whitney near the end of the trip.

Talusdancers on Mount Whitney, 2008
The Talusdances on the summit of Mount Whitney, August 11, 2008. (L-R: Ernie, Caroline, Owen, Emily, Steve, Dan)

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.

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

Peak, Lake, and Boulders, Sunset

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Peak, Lake, and Boulders, Sunset
The last light of the day touches the top of Sheep Peak in the McCabe Lakes Basin, Yosemite National Park.

Peak, Lake, and Boulders, Sunset. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last light of the day touches the top of a peak in the northern backcountry of Yosemite National Park.

This is not a new photograph — rather, it is a reconsideration of one that I made almost a decade ago and recently looked it with new eyes. The location is in the northern backcountry of Yosemite National Park, in a somewhat remote area characterized by high ridges, rocky terrains, and some lovely lakes. I was there with a group of friends and photographers for a few glorious days during which we took our time and explored the surrounding terrain.

We were camped at a lower lake among forest trees, in a location that gave us shelter but also access to tons of higher, more alpine terrain. Often we headed off individually to photograph, but on this late afternoon we all headed to the same place, ascending a slope at the upper end of “our” lake to arrive at the next lake up the valley. Sequences of lakes like this are common in many backcountry areas, and I enjoy the individual personalities of the lakes as they are affected by terrain and elevation. This lake was surrounded by alpine meadows, very small and sparse trees, lots of talus, and towering peaks.

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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Glaciated Terrain

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Glaciated Terrain
A Sierra Nevada scene including glaciated slabs, a shallow lake, and old moraines

Glaciated Terrain. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Sierra Nevada scene including glaciated slabs, a shallow lake, and old moraines.

There are quite a few “terrains” in the Sierra Nevada, ranging from foothills oak grasslands through the mid-elevation forest, and on up to the rocky alpine heights. Off all of them, I think my favorite is that found just below the treelike, where granite slabs are frequently interspersed with small trees and meadows, where you are rarely very far from water, and where evidence of the glacial heritage of the range are everywhere. There is virtually no element of this scene that doesn’t owe something to those glaciers — the smoothly rounded slabs of foreground granite, the lake lying in a scooped-out hollow where glaciers converged, the moraines (at least two of which appear in the photograph), and even the line between the tops of the glaciers and the more jagged formations that remained above their reach.

This photograph is also about light, and a more subtle form of it. I composed the scene to exclude as much of the direct morning sun as possible, but yet to take advantage of its presence nearby. One of the favorite forms of light among photographers is that which is reflected into the scene from nearby objects in bright light. Here much of the warmer colored light is of that sort, reflected into the scene from nearby slopes that were already in the direct morning sun. This light fills shadows and can add soft color to the cold tones in the shadows.

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, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shoreline, Glacial Moraine

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Shoreline, Glacial Moraine
An old glacial moraine reflected the water of an alpine lake in blue hour light

Shoreline, Glacial Moraine. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old glacial moraine reflected the water of an alpine lake in blue hour light

Over the years — decades, actually — I have learned to recognize more patterns in the backcountry landscape. (Which is not to say that I recognize or understand everything — there is still more to learn!) In places where I used to, and still do, respond with, “beautiful scene!,” I now ask additional questions: What makes it beautiful? Why does it look this way? How are these features connected? What processes are at work here? How is this changing? I have always known that glaciation played a big role in the formation of the Sierra Nevada. It is hard to miss this when crossing glacial polish on a granite slab or when tracing the shapes of Yosemite Valley. But it took longer to become aware of subtler effects.

For many years I hiked a particular route out to the Sierra crest that begins not far from Tioga Pass. There is considerable up and down in the first section of the hike — notable enough that I remember three specific such locations. It wasn’t until I had crossed them quite a few times that I realized that they were the remnants of very old lateral/media moraines. That doesn’t make them any easier to cross, but it does “excuse” them! This photograph includes another of these patterns, in this case a mound of gigantic boulders and smaller talus that was clearly pushed up by a small but long gone glacier that stopped just short of the shoreline of this lake. I made the photograph in blue hour light, in the shadows of the ridge above the talus field, and that light and the nearly smooth water evoke for me the stillness and deep quiet of such places.

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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.