Tag Archives: Mountain

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Unnamed Pond Near Blue Lake

August 18, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small pond among rocks and forest on the trail above Blue Lake, John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada.

This scene falls, I think, into the category of “typical Sierra Nevada scene.” Anyone who has backpacked into the higher portions of the range has walked past and perhaps stopped at many little ponds like this one. It is in a glacier-formed granite landscape of shallow soil, exposed smooth rock formations, and many rocks and boulders left behind by the glacier. Lush grasses grow around the pond for a few short weeks every summer and the peaks of the Sierra crest are just visible though the taller trees.

This small pond is along the trail between Blue Lake and Dingleberry Lake, not far from Blue Lake. The trail crosses the outlet stream and the skirts the far shore before heading on to higher terrain.

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography

keywords: blue, lake, pond, rock, boulder, flora, grass, meadow, log, tree, forest, grove, rocky, bush, shrub, shallow, runoff, seasonal, shore, bottom, reflection, morraine, glacial, mountain, ridge, sierra, nevada, crest, mount, haeckel, john, muir, wilderness, area, sabrina, lake, basin, trail, high, california, usa, blue, sky, clouds, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, nature, hike, backpack, camp, lodgepole, tamarack, pine, snow

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening, Picture Peak and Sailor Lake

August 16, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light at the rocky outlet of Sailor Lake with Picture Peak and Mount Haeckel beyond.

On the third night of our early August trip into the upper Sabrina Basin in the eastern Sierra I decided to grab an early dinner and then wander with my camera gear up towards the vicinity of Hungry Packer and Sailor Lakes to do some evening photography. I first went back to the outlet stream from Hungry Packer Lake, where I had found a wonderful patch of blooming lupine flowers earlier in the day. I photographed these just as the shadow line from the nearby ridge was shading them. (I’m hopeful that I’ll have a shot or two from that area a bit later.)

After finishing here I decided to more or less follow the light back to the east across the valley. This area roughly bounded by Topsy Turvy, Moonlight, Sailor, and Hungry Packer lakes is what a photographer might describe as a “target rich environment” – I’d love to go back and spend a number of days just shooting here. There are lakes, intimate meadows broken up by glacial boulders and granite benches, plenty of wildflowers, water everywhere (in lakes, ponds, and streams), waterfalls and cascades, and many small stands of alpine trees. During the good light times of the day there is more or less too much to shoot!

This photograph was made near the outlet stream from Sailor Lake and looks up toward the impressive mass of Picture Peak above Hungry Packer Lake – just as a cooperative group of early evening clouds conveniently floated behind the peak. This sort of place is what I think of most when I think of the Sierra – high, rocky areas just below timberline, threaded with streams and meadows and rocks and some trees, and with high, snowy peaks all around.

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

keywords: sailor, lake, john, muir, wilderness, alpine, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, outlet, stream, sabrina, basin, ridge, picture, peak, crest, mount, haeckel, evening, sky, cloud, rock, plant, tree, snow, glacier, alpine, cliff, granite, landscape, water, reflection, flow, scenic, hike, backpack, camp, california, usa, stock, unnamed, s

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

Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake

August 14, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Mount Conness and the shoreline meadow of Lower Young Lake at sunset.

The thin smoke from a wildfire some miles away along the Tuolumne River added some color to the sunset light on the distant ridge whose highest point is Mt. Conness, the tallest peak in along the Yosemite Park border north and west of Tioga Pass. I’ve shot from this spot along the upper shoreline of Lower Young Lake before, in fact the rock along the shoreline was the center point of another photograph I made one misty autumn evening. But this was a different evening; not only because of the somewhat unusual color of the light but also because the small inlet stream was still flowing through the shoreline meadows that still held wildflowers.

On my way back to my tent as darkness fell, I had one of those wonderful serendipitous experiences that happens with surprising frequency in the Sierra. Walking back I happened to take a different route further from the shoreline since that area was quite marshy. As I wandered through a more forested section that I had not been in for a couple years I passed very close to someone’s campsite, and I soon saw two people ahead sitting on a large boulder. I stopped to say “hi” and the older of the two asked, “Are you a photographer?” I offered one of my all-too-frequent wise guy responses, something along the lines of “No, I just like to carry this stuff around so that I look like one.” He looked a bit perplexed, at which point the younger of the two spoke up and said, “Well, he is.”

Turns out that he was photographer Leonard Sussman, and we ended up talking for a good amount of time as the light continued to fade. Leonard is a really interesting fellow, and I was surprised to find out that a “New York photographer” actually came more or less from my stomping grounds in northern California.

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

keywords: mount, conness, mountain, peak, ridge, young, lake, lower, sierra, nevada, range, evening, dusk, sunset, high, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, landscape, nature, rock, tree, stream, reflection, forest, boulder, shoreline

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

Upper Young Lake

August 11, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early evening light on Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

The first section of Upper Young Lake that you come to – at least if you approach from west side as I did – is especially beautiful. After climbing to the level of the lake you cross over gentle meadow hills spotted with small groves of alpine trees and eventually descend very gently through meadows to the lake shore. This side of the lake has an especially interesting shoreline – there are clumps of boggy, partially submerged meadow, slightly higher sections of firm ground containing wildflowers, good sized rocks and boulders embedded in the meadow and the lake shore, and a long string of rocks cuts across a rounded bay.

In this photograph I’m shooting from the slightly higher and drier meadow across one of the boggy shoreline sections on which a small, solitary tree grows next to a large rock and some wildflowers. Beyond is the the bay that is bisected by the string of boulder islands, with more small clusters of trees and glaciated rocks on the far shore, backed by the lower reaches of a tall and rocky ridge than runs along the far side of the series of Young Lakes.

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

keywords: Pinus contorta, murrayana, lodgepole, pine, tamarack, upper, young, lake, tree, forest, grove, small, grass, flower, meadow, shore, shoreline, rock, boulder, grass, talus, scree, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, backpack, hike, nature, wilderness, flora, water, reflection, granite, alpine, travel, scenic, landscape, evening, light, stock

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