“Mountains, Meadow, and Morning Mist” — Ridges leading to Sierra Crest peaks tower above a meadow with rising morning mist.
Tuolumne Meadows runs roughly on an east-west axis along Tioga Pass Road. Consequently, sunrise and sunset light shine along its length. Standing at the west end in the morning the sun rises just left of Mount Dana in the summer. It takes a while for the sun to rise high enough to clear the peaks, but when it does the light is intense.
I made this photograph on such a morning. After photographing a different pre-dawn subject, I headed here with a vague plan to photograph meadow subjects. From this vantage point, the sun’s backlight across the great distances produces striking atmospheric recession on the layers of mountains and ridges between the Meadows and the Sierra Crest.
“Shoreline Forest” — Trees grow along the shoreline of a Yosemite high country lake.
When I plan to spend a morning photographing in an area like this in Yosemite, I figure I have perhaps 3-4 hours of interesting light for morning photography. I typically start with a subject that works well in predawn light, move to one that focuses on the actual sunrise, then move around to find other subjects when their best morning light arrives. A subject like this one typically comes later and is often the final one of the morning.
I made the photograph in full sunlight, though it was slightly muted by some thin haze. I was interested in the interplay between the shapes of the trees and their shadows. In order to create this composition I had to photograph essentially directly into the morning sun light, though I positioned myself so that the shadow of one of the trees blocked the direct light.
“Trogir Building” — Bicycles are parked in front of a Trogir building in morning light.
A friend and I arrived in Trogir very early in the morning. Our plan was to photograph the city before the daytime tourist crowds arrived. We had already been photographing for some time when I made this photograph in reflected morning light. Much of the city is connected by very narrow passageways, which means things are often in the shadows. But here the city was open enough to allow reflected light to illuminate this building.
This photograph is largely about the beautiful, warm, soft reflected light. But other things play into it as well. To my eye, there is a lot of interesting geometry here — from the triangular shapes of the roof structure to the big rectangles of the windows and doors, and then the finer patterns of the stones in the building and the sidewalk. Yet all of the geometry is broken up by other elements — the curving wire on the roof, the metal cylinder near the right door, and the bicycles.
“Tufa Tower, Lake, Blue Mountains” — Mono Lake, a solitary tufa tower, and distant blue mountains in morning haze.
It is always a pleasure to visit the Mono Basin and its namesake lake, especially in the early morning when it is often still and quiet. I was there last week, dropping down one morning from a camp high up near the Sierra Crest. When I arrived I saw only one other car, and ts occupant was nowhere to be seen — it was as if I had the entire basin to myself!
I arrived well before sunrise and continued photographing right into the blue light of early morning. It was calm and the water reflected the blue of sky and distant mountains. I used a long lens to focus on a small section of those mountains, aligning them with a single tufa tower far out in the water.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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