Tag Archives: mountains

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

Tufa Hill, Twilight

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Tufa Hill, Twilight
Twilight and evening clouds above a tufa hill in the Death Valley landscape

Tufa Hill, Twilight. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Twilight and evening clouds above a tufa hill in the Death Valley landscape

A day or two earlier than this I had been out in a location not far from this spot at the end of the day, hoping to photograph end-of-day color. Just before sunset the sky went “dead” — some haze, no color in the sky, and a generally flat-looking landscape. I was about to pack up when “someone” (thanks, Patty!) pointed out, perhaps more than once, that I really should stick around “just in case.” And, yes, within moments a dull, gray cloud began to pick up pink tones, and before long sufficient color appeared to produce an interesting photograph. I know not to “pack before it is black,” but I need reminding from time to time!

The evening when I made the photograph seen here was challenging in many ways, and it began with perhaps even less promise than that evening a few days earlier. This time the sun went behind clouds to the west as it descended, turning the light completely flat. On top of that, the wind was absolutely howling, and sand was just beginning to blow. If I hadn’t had that reminder a couple of evenings earlier, I would have been out of there! But I stuck around, switching out the long lens that I had been using for a wider lens used for this photograph, and when the post-sunset, early twilight glow and color began I was ready. (A note regarding the title of this photograph. I’ve wondered about the source of these fantastical hills on the floor of Death Valley. As near as I can tell, they were formed many thousands of years ago, at the bottom of what was then a giant prehistoric lake.)

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, Photographs: Yosemite

Snow Begins

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Snow Begins
Snow begins to fall on trees alongside a Yosemite Valley meadow

Snow Begins. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Snow begins to fall on trees alongside a Yosemite Valley meadow

Yes, another photograph of Yosemite Valley on a winter day. I made this photograph on an afternoon when snow flurries were beginning to affect the Valley. It was an extremely cold day, and I was resuming my photography after a mid-day break. The light was “challenging” as the clouds moved in, muting colors, lowering the light levels, and producing a rather gray affect. But that is what it looks like when snow is coming!

If I recall correctly, I passed by this well-known meadow on my way to another objective, and paused long enough to walk about a bit and make a few photographs before moving on. At this point it was only snowing lightly. It is perhaps hard to see the falling snow in the meadow, at least in the small online version of the photograph, and it was still possible to see through the flurries to the surrounding cliffs.

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, Photographs: Yosemite

Granite Cliffs, Last Light

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Granite Cliffs, Last Light
The line of last sunset light crosses rugged granite cliffs in Yosemite National Park

Granite Cliffs, Last Light. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The line of last sunset light crosses rugged granite cliffs in Yosemite National Park

Late last month I had the good fortune to spend a week in Yosemite, thanks to the Yosemite Renaissance artist-in-residence program. Their generosity provided me with a warm place to stay in the park and, most important, with time to chase photographs in the Valley and elsewhere. (With the onset — finally! — of winter weather in the park, it also gave me lots of opportunities to practice my winter driving skills!)

The Valley is, of course, filled with wonderful and well-known icons. Like virtually everyone, I photograph those, too, particularly when special conditions bring the possibility of special and different light and atmosphere to those familiar subjects. However, over time I have become more interested in other little bits of visual interest that don’t necessarily reflect the best-known features. On this evening I was at one of the most famous locations — with the promise of light snow, drifting clouds, and evening light breaking through. I make a habit of scanning the entire 360 panorama around me, even when the most obvious subject is in a 45 degree vector straight in front, and near the very end of the day a beam of sunset light passed across a rocky outcropping to my left, producing intense light on the rocks while the evening’s blue and purple colors began to fill the canyons.

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, Photographs: Yosemite

Dead Trees, Clearing Storm, Sunset

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Dead Trees, Clearing Storm, Sunset
A winter storm clears to sunset light above forest of dead trees

Dead Trees, Clearing Storm, Sunset. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A winter storm clears to sunset light above forest of dead trees

The Sierra Nevada has been under stress for the past dozen years of so. (Technically speaking, some of these stresses have been building for longer than that, but the effects have become acute more recently.) Much of this is related to outlier weather/climate conditions and the secondary effects they have caused. The range has become much warmer. There are well-documents studies tracing the rising elevations of species of plants and animals adapting to this change. Recently the range has also experience some virtually unprecedented (at least in historical times) dry conditions, with a five-year period of tremendous drought broken by last years record precipitation, and then followed by what looks to be another very dry year this season. (We are getting some late rain, but not likely enough to make up for very dry December and February periods.) All of this affects forests it many ways, though two are obvious. The Sierra has always experienced wildfire, but recent fires have been extremely intense, going beyond the natural “pruning” effect to utterly destroy whole forests, and the areas affected by this destruction are huge. And in the wake of the drought conditions, beetle infestations have killed of tens of millions for trees.

This destruction is plain to see, and especially so to those of us who have visited the range for many decades. I sometimes imagine that new visitors driving through some denuded areas simply assume that this is “how it is” there, but others of us recall passing through deep forests in those places. As all of this has unfolded, I’ve tried to find beauty in such places — and it is there to find. These snags are on the side of a ridge, perhaps at the 5000′ level or so, on slopes facing west toward the foothills and the Central Valley beyond. It was snowing on this evening in the mountains, but I was near the western edge of the storm, and near sunset the snow diminished and the clouds thinned, and sunset light began to light the remains clouds and precipitation from behind, silhouetting these trees.

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 | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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