Tag Archives: Mountain

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Fall Aspen Color, Boulder Mountain

April 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Brilliant autumn aspen color on Boulder Mountain, Utah

I produced a lot of photographs in the state of Utah in 2012. Although I had not photographed there before (as astonishing of an omission as that seems!) I think I did a pretty good job of making up for lost time. I made three visits to the state, one in spring and two in the fall, and spent a total of about 35 days on the road to, from, and within Utah. I plan to go back!

On that first spring visit we drove over the shoulder of Boulder Mountain between the Escalante and Torrey areas before the new spring foliage had yet come to the extensive aspen groves found in that area. Being an aspen aficionado I could imagine what these slopes must be like in the fall when the foliage changes, and we made a plan to try to pass by here again in the autumn. Not being completely familiar with the seasonal patterns in this part of the country, we might have been just a bit late for peak Utah color – in general we saw brilliant aspen color in many places, but it had already passed at the higher locations, and we soon learned that the cottonwood color comes a bit later in the month. So when we left the town of Boulder to follow the road up and over the Boulder Mountain area, we had a combination of some brilliantly colorful groves at the lower and perhaps middle elevations and higher groves that had more or less completely dropped their leaves. That is the scene in this photograph, made in early evening light on a day when there were some high clouds – and the shockingly colorful foreground trees are backed by the bare trunks of winter aspens higher up the slopes of the mountain.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Plants, Black Hill

April 8, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on desert arrow weed plants at the base of a black hill, with Death Valley Buttes receding into the hazy distance

This was very nearly the last photograph I made on my recent early April visit to Death Valley National Park. I try to go there to photograph at least once each year, and I’ve probably visited during the first week of April more often than at any other time. This tends to be a transitional season in the park, at least in my experience, and the conditions can range from cool to downright hot. On this visit it was, for the season, “downright hot” – temperatures with in at least the mid to high-nineties every day, and rose to just over 100 degrees on one day. This is not unheard of at this time of year, though it is on the high side of normal for the first week in April. This trip was a challenge for other reasons, too. On the second day I encountered a significant sand storm with accompanying winds, and the light was not exactly cooperative. On two mornings and two evenings clouds shut down the golden hour light, and there was quite a bit of general haze.

On this morning I figured I would do an hour or two of shooting before returning to camp to tear everything down and start my drive back home. I started by going up just past the turn off to Wild Rose Canyon, with the plan being to shoot some long distance photographs of sunrise light on some mountains that I have been thinking about shooting. The sunrise itself was more or less a washout – the atmosphere was so murky that I wasn’t even quite sure when the sun cleared the horizon! Eventually I did get some soft directional light from the sun, but I was finished with this subject somewhat quickly. I decided to go with a backup plan to photograph the Mesquite Dunes with a long lens. As I worked this subject I decided to head a bit further east and see if I could get anything from the backlight coming across the low hills above Salt Creek, and as I traveled that direction I passed this small black hill, where I have photographed before, and saw these backlit arrow weed plants and the more distant hills near Death Valley Buttes in the morning haze.

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

Quiet Forest, Reflected Meadow Light

March 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Forest trees are illuminated by soft light reflected from a nearby meadow, Yosemite Valley

This could be any number of places in Yosemite Valley where forest and meadow come together. I was walking from one photographic location to another when I passed by this clump of trees at the edge of the forest and thought about photographing them. I even set up and composed a shot… and then the light died. This was a day when the light was coming and going quickly, and this was especially true in this spot which was not far from the edge of the Valley and the boundary between partial sun and the clouds that gathered around the cliffs. So I continued on a bit and tried to find a way to photograph the other subject that had been my original goal.

Finishing that, I started back and soon came upon these trees again. This time the light was back. Off to the left of the trees was a large open area leading to an even larger meadow a bit further out toward the center of the Valley. As there was more light in the meadow and because there were clouds above, a good deal of the light reaching these trees was diffused side-light rather than the overhead light that might have been here if the weather had been clear. So, once again, I set up the tripod and framed a tight composition of these trees, a bit of the winter-dormant grass at their base, and the denser forest beyond. As I set up I could see that the light wasn’t going to last, and I had time for one decent exposure before the light died again.

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

El Capitan, Mist

March 4, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Winter mist shrouds the immense granite face of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley

One of the major attractions of Yosemite in the winter – for me, at least – is the variety of fog, mist, clouds, and all sorts of other weather conditions and their associated possibilities of light. (Frankly, I rarely go to the Vally in the summer any more.) The diversity of conditions seems infinite, especially when combined with variations in terrain and vegetation and, of course, light as it changes throughout the day and due to weather. At one extreme, a clear winter day can almost be more clear than you can imagine, with bright, crystalline sunlight everywhere. At the other extreme, low clouds dropping rain or snow can mute the visibility of anything more than a few feet away. In between lie atmospheric haze that mutes details and reveals shadows; clouds drifting along the Valley floor, rising up its walls, or floating among the tops of cliffs; rain or snow showers seen from a distance, and much more.

El Capitan seems like a cloud magnet in the winter. Because of its size the conditions at its base can be quite different from those above, and the lower face may be clear while the summit is wreathed in clouds. Evening fog often develops and drifts across the valley, sometimes seeming to slosh back and forth like a slow motion sea, rising against El Capitan’s base. This February day saw high clouds above the entire valley, but mists were developing and clinging to every level of El Capitan and sliding across and up its face, alternately obscuring and revealing bits and pieces of the mountain. I could sit and watch this for a long time – as I did, in fact! Using a long lens I isolated a section of the prow of the monolith and then watched as the cloud show unfolded.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: Mountain

Fall Aspen Color, Boulder Mountain

Desert Plants, Black Hill

Quiet Forest, Reflected Meadow Light

El Capitan, Mist

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