Tag Archives: mountains

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Blue Hour Talus, Cliff and Lake

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Blue Hour Talus, Cliff and Lake
A talus field extends across the shore of an alpine lake

Blue Hour Talus, Cliff and Lake. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A talus field extends across the shore of an alpine lake

During my recent September backcountry expedition to photograph areas of the John Muir Wilderness, we were fortunate to find ourselves in a place with lots of rocky terrain — tall peaks above, mountain slopes all around, talus fields leading into alpine lakes. The lower Sierra country with it forests and gentle steams is wonderful, but I really love the higher and more rugged country, where stunted trees grow among tarns and small lakes, and where the landscape is more and more rocky as you ascend.

Near the lake at which we camped a gigantic talus field descended from the nearby ridge. At first glance such things can appear almost random and undifferentiated, being the rock equivalent of beach sand. But in the right light, looked at in the right way, and especially with a smooth lake surface to reflect their forms, structural patterns and flows begin to appear from the complexity of this landscape. In direct sunlight these rocks can be almost too harsh to photograph, with huge contacts between black shadows and brilliant reflective highlights. But during the morning and evening “blue hour” periods the light is softened, filling in shadows, and adding a different sort of coloration to the scene.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Alpine Shoreline, Autumn Plants

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Shoreline plants with early autumn colors along the back of a backcountry lake.

Alpine Shoreline, Autumn Plants. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shoreline plants with early autumn colors along the back of a backcountry lake.

For all of the usual reasons, our group base-camped at a high, subalpine lake during our recent week in the Sierra Nevada backcountry. What are those reasons? Some are, of course, scenic — many lakes provide open vistas, reflections, an easy way to walk their perimeters (though not always!), meadows, and access to other nearby locations. “Our” lake had a large and convoluted shoreline. Most of it was covered with trees and mead owing areas, though one side was comprised of the base of a giant talus slope leading down from the nearby peaks.

I walked much of the lake’s perimeter, revisiting sections a number of times during our stay. On this morning I had set out to reach the farthest point of the lake, where a rocky outlet stream led to further meadows and more lakes. I had a lot of ideas about what I could photograph there, but central in my mind was to photograph a couple of bays like this one, surrounded by rocky terrain and early autumn vegetation, and with the distant peaks of the Sierra crest in the background.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Cliff Face, Detail

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Cliff Face, Detail
Abstract forms and colors of a weathered and stained Sierra Nevada cliff

Cliff Face, Detail. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Abstract forms and colors of a weathered and stained Sierra Nevada cliff

As I do almost every summer, I headed into the Sierra Nevada backcountry with a group of friends and photographers over the past week and a half of so. The group has been doing this since about 2001, and I began to work with them nearly a decade ago, eventually moving from showing up as a solo backpacker for a few days to participating fully in the visits. Typically we get packed in to a location with lots of photographic possibilities — a pack string brings in a lot of the gear, while we typically carry in our camera equipment. Once set up we can “work” the surroundings intensively, looking more deeply into the landscape and viewing it in various conditions and light. This provides us with special opportunities to learn the nearby landscape more intimately than if we were just passing through or hiking in and out each day. Equally important, as we live and work together for a week we form a very special little photographic community.

This year we were (again) in the John Muir Wilderness of the Eastern Sierra Nevada. Every place has its own visual personality. In this location high mountains surrounded us and produced several hours of soft, shaded light in the morning and evening, with fill light reflected from surrounding peaks rising into the sunlight…

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

Desert Ridges and Haze

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Desert Ridges and Haze
Layers of desert ridges extend into distant haze

Desert Ridges and Haze. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Layers of desert ridges extend into distant haze

Desert landscapes are, in some ways, what I think of as the most “pure” landscapes. Their aridity means that there is rarely much to obscure the actual geology of these places — no forests, no grassy meadows, few bodies of water. The landscape is laid bare.

The colors, textures, and patterns of rock and soil are revealed, and the changing light paints this landscape in remarkable ways. The colors change throughout the day depending upon the height of the sun, the color of surfaces reflecting the light, and the clarity of the sky. The atmosphere itself changes the landscape — crystal clear air reveals distant features as if they were close by, while air filled with blowing sand and dust obscures detail and focuses attention on larger elements of the scene.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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