Tag Archives: mountains

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

Valley and Ridge, Evening

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Valley and Ridge, Evening
Early evening light on forest covered valley leading to rocky ridge, Yosemite National Park

Valley and Ridge, Evening. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early evening light on forest covered valley leading to rocky ridge, Yosemite National Park.

Earlier this month I spent a few days in the Tuolumne Meadows high country of Yosemite National Park, generally along the Tioga Pass Road and with hiking excursions outwards from there. My main goal on this trip was actually the hiking, but there was time for photography, too, of course! On this evening I went up to the meadows near the pass just inside the park boundaries and took some time to wander and make photographs.

Here I was attracted by the massive peak, with its reddish rock indicative of old materials that lay above the granite foundation of the range, along with the evening light and the overlapping shapes of lower, forest covered hills and the dark row of trees just beyond the meadow. In addition, I’ve hiked out into that area many times, and this view evokes memories of many of those adventures.

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

Sierra Crest, Evening Light

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Sierra Crest, Evening Light
Muted evening light on the Sierra Nevada crest, John Muir Wilderness

Sierra Crest, Evening Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Muted evening light on the Sierra Nevada crest, John Muir Wilderness.

Here is another photograph that I’ve recently “mined” from a vein of raw files from a weeklong visit to the John Muir Wilderness backcountry a couple of years ago. We hiked in (with pack animal support) and set up a basecamp, from which we could set out in all directions on day hikes to photograph the remarkable surroundings. The weeklong stay gave us plenty of time to explore, to revisit areas in different conditions, and to get to know our surroundings more intimately than we might on a hike-through trip.

I made this photograph in the early evening, not very far from our camp. By this time I was well acquainted with the various views from this location, and I went to this spot hoping to photograph the soft, warm early evening light with clouds from typical summer monsoon conditions. The high, bugged peaks in the distance lie on the Sierra Nevada crest.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Light, Clearing Storm

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Evening LIght, Clearing Storm
Summer storm clouds clear in the evening over the John Muir Wilderness

Evening Light, Clearing Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

One of the advantages of setting into one backcountrylocation for an extended stay is that I often get to experience the location in a variety of circumstances and conditions. I get to shoot in morning, midday, and evening light; in “perfect” blue-sky sunshine and thunderstorm conditions. And because the seasonal changes happen so rapidly in the high country, with its shortened growing season, I can watch wildflowers bloom and meadows transition from green to golden.

Along with fellow photographers, I spent a week in this spot two summers ago. On most days the sky was that Sierra Nevada “perfect blue…” that may not thrill photographers who are looking for something more interesting. But over the course of the stay those conditions changed. There was a morning with a deck of broken clouds, an night of thunderstorms, and this evening when clouds caught the light and high country pastels replaced the often stark

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People, Photographs: Photographers, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Photographer Charles Cramer

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Photographer Charles Cramer
“Photographer Charles Cramer” — Photographer Charles Cramer at work in the John Muir Wilderness.

Photographer Charles (“Charlie”) Cramer at work in the High Sierra of the John Muir Wilderness Area. A group of us spent a week base-camped in a particularly scenic portion of this wilderness area, heading out each day to find and photograph the abundant and beautiful subjects present here – ranging from the intimate (wlldflowers) to the monumental (the peaks of the Sierra crest).

The pace and nature of the work in a place like this might surprise those who haven’t experienced it. Many years ago, when my orientation to the backcountry was via long pack trips on which I moved every day, I worried that I would become bored if I stayed in the same place for more than a night. After years of doing just that, I realize how completely wrong I was. We can easily find a week’s worth of things to investigate and photograph in such places, and at the end of each trip I invariably end up wishing I could stay longer!

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.