Tag Archives: morning

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

Granite, Forest, and Lake

June 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Granite slabs, mountains, and forest surround Tenaya Lake

This is, no doubt, a very familiar spot to anyone who has spent much time in the Yosemite High Country. It is, of course, Tenaya Lake, the big lake along Tioga Pass Road to the west of Tuolumne Meadows — perhaps the first place where the terrain really seems to fully feel like “High Sierra” in the sense in which I use the term.

Even in the busy season this lake can be surprisingly quiet at certain times. I made this photograph in the morning, early enough that the shadows were still long, but late enough that the sun had lifted high enough above the surrounding peaks to illuminate the granite slabs and the surface of the lake. A bit of atmospheric haze softened the light a bit, and high clouds passed overhead.

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

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Basin

June 9, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Desert hills, Mono Lake, Paoha Island, and the Mono Basin in morning light

When people think of Mono Lake they often seen to think first of the unusual tufa tower formations found along portions of its shoreline — and the subject of many photographs from the place. The towers are indeed impressive and unusual, and especially in the right light they can produce an almost other-worldly impression. But there is much more to be seen here.

My strongest associations with the lake do not involve tufa towers. Instead the strongest may simply be an impression of the vast space of the basin holding this giant lake, and the immense expanse of sky above — often pure blue and clear, but at times opaque with haze or broken by thunder clouds. There are sonic associations, and the strongest may be the sound of gulls and other birds, especially on a quiet and windless morning. On the morning when I made this photograph I was not at the “usual places” at dawn, but I passed by just a bit later, when the sun was a bit higher but the light was still spreading mostly sideways across the landscape, producing large and dark shadows.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Dunes and Sky

May 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light and clouds, sand dunes, Death Valley National Park

For photographers (and probably for others, too) sand dunes are a source of endless fascination. There is always something interesting, from the smallest scale (footprints of insects?) to the largest, all-compassing landscape. None of this is ever the same twice except in the most general ways. While the general configuration remains from year to year, the specific details change quickly, sometimes as you watch. And because the sand itself is a fairly neutral subject, the effects of light — its angles and qualities and colors — play out in unending ways on the dunes.

As is typical, we had wandered out amongst the dunes before sunrise, beginning to photograph in predawn light and then moving to larger landscape subjects as the first pink sunlight struck distant desert mountains. Before long the sun was up and the light began to lose the early hour color. This can make the scene extremely stark and harsh, but on this morning high clouds muted its intensity and we continued to photograph. I had a vague idea of a photograph combining dune textures and sky in a mostly abstract form, and this area of the dunes provided a subject that fit that concept.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Before The Dust Storm

May 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Just after dawn, the precursors of a day of Death Valley dust storms

I’ve been through a number of desert dust storms in and around Death Valley National Park — ranging from minor “dust blowing through the campsite” events to “damaging to my vehicle” events. (The latter was some years back as I left the park and headed out to highway 395 and, as I later found out, drove through record-breaking wind and driving dust and sand, to the permanent distress of my windshield.) It is fair to say that my feelings about such conditions are mixed. Frankly, they are very unpleasant — the dust gets into everything, from clothes to eyes to camera gear, and it is almost impossible to do much of anything if you are inside a really bad storm. In fact, near the end of the day on which I made this photograph we simply had to hunker down indoors for several hours and wait for it to stop. But there can be a kind of terrible beauty in these events as well, and if you are cautious you can photograph them.

I recall a day many years ago when I started to make sense of the antecedent conditions that lead to such storms. It was the final day of a Death Valley visit and I was down along the southeast part of the main valley, when I noticed a kind of fuzzy glow in the atmosphere. I made a few photographs and headed north to leave the park, and within an hour or so I was engulfed in a huge cloud of dust. On the day I made this photograph we went to a high overlook along the top of a mountain range to photograph dawn light. This time I recognized that strange, milky atmosphere, seen along and above the Black Mountains in the distance in the photograph. The morning was, indeed, quite beautiful. But it was only hours later that we began to see dust above us — even though we were thousands of feet up in the mountains — as a giant storm developed, and by the time we returned to the bottom of Death Valley in the mid-afternoon one of the biggest dust storms I have seen enveloped the area.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: morning

Granite, Forest, and Lake

Mono Basin

Dunes and Sky

Before The Dust Storm

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