Tag Archives: mountains

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

Winter Light, Granite And Snow

February 28, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter sunset light on a granite face and distant mountains fade into falling snow

I spent the last week in Yosemite National Park, as an artist-in-residence sponsored by Yosemite Renaissance. (Thank you!) I stayed in the Wawona area and made the drive to the Valley every day. It was wonderful to have a full week in the park and, especially, in the Valley. I spend a lot of time in Yosemite, but most of it is in the high country during summer and into the beginning of fall, so having this unbroken block of time in winter was a special treat. Making it even better, I got some weather luck. Recently California has again been in drought conditions, and last month we had record high temperatures that often felt more like spring or even summer. But I arrived to find cold (at times very cold) conditions, and a series of weak cold fronts brought snow to the Valley.

If I recall correctly, I had spent much of this afternoon photographing in the eastern part of the Valley, and as the weather closed in the light there began to die. I finished up my work in that area and prepared to depart for Wawona, but leaving enough to time to stop along the way should interesting light appear. In fact, further to the west the skies were trying to clear, and intermittent light made its way through breaks in the clouds to spotlight various areas. I stopped here and waited a few minutes, at which point almost the very last light of the day cut across the edge of the El Capitan monolith as the snow storm closed in on the upper Valley.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Pacific Coastline, Winter Haze

February 21, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Gentle winter haze along California’s Pacific Ocean coastline south of Monterey

I have visited this coast for decades, since my parents moved to California from the Midwest when I was four-years-old. Back then we took lots of family “day trips,” and the Monterey Peninsula and Point Lobos areas were often our goals, and I became familiar with the Coast Highway Pacific Ocean interface at a young age. There was perhaps a gap when I was in college, but when our kids were old enough we headed down this way from time to time, too.

There are a few constants here: the headland cliffs plunging into the Pacific, the twisting and turning route of the highway, the little places to stop and grab a bite to eat, the long views over the ocean and up and down the coast. But other things are rarely the same twice. The light is constantly changing, from morning to evening, from winter to summer, from clear air to fog. I would most typically photograph early or late, but on this winter day there was interesting light and atmosphere right into the middle of the day when I made this photograph, looking south along the coastline as the haze gradually obscured distant hills and the sunlight’s reflection turned the oceans distant surface a brilliant white.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Land And Sea

February 15, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Big Sur coast meets the Pacific Ocean

I live close enough to the Big Sur coastline that I can visit on day trips, and I can visit at times when it is relatively quiet and uncrowded. A winter weekday can be ideal, and right now it is even less busy since the route is still blocked by a giant landscape perhaps fifty miles or so below the Monterey Peninsula.

Most often I prefer to photograph fairly early in the morning, when the light skims down across the coastal hills, creating patterns of shadow and light, or else in the evening, when the warm light of the late-day sun colors the ocean and the hills. But on some almost perfectly clear winter days, perhaps with a few high clouds and some atmospheric haze, the air almost glows and I can photograph right through the middle of the day. This was such a day. The haze and mist, partly atmospheric and party from spray thrown up by surf, accentuated the bluffs and headlands as they dropped into the Pacific, and the brilliant sun made the water so bright that it was difficult to look at it.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Post-Sunset Geese

January 20, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter geese fly toward wetlands after sunset

These days photographing wild birds are frequently long. For me they begin about three hours before dawn, when I awake to a (very) early alarm, grab coffee and a bit of food, load my vehicle, and start out on a two-hour drive in the darkness. As I approach my destination the first color is coming to the sky above the Sierra — that is if tule fog doesn’t reduce visibility to 100 feet or so! I arrive a half hour before sunrise, set up camera equipment, and begin to work. At first I may make some landscape photographs, since it is often still too early to handhold the camera for bird photography, but soon the first birds fly up from the ponds. I usually spend the next three hours of so photographing birds and landscape — though the precise time varies depending on the conditions — and then I take a break in the middle of the day. By mid-afternoon I’m back, looking for evening photographic opportunities, and the pace of the work increases as sunset approaches. During the last few minutes of light a lot happens quickly, and then I photograph until the light is gone.

I made this photograph during that late period, following sunset, when lingering light colored the thin clouds above the western mountains. Around sunset there is a period of coming and going by the birds. Birds may rise up from ponds and fly away, or flocks may arrive from distant points and settle in for the night. Often cranes arrive just after sunset. The birds in this photograph are geese, most likely Ross’s geese, approaching the wetland ponds from that western sunset sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: mountains

Winter Light, Granite And Snow

Pacific Coastline, Winter Haze

Land And Sea

Post-Sunset Geese

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