Tag Archives: mountains

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Snag, Lake, Mountains, Evening

August 18, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Golden hour light on the lower slopes of a high Sierra peak is reflected by the surface of a lake

Arriving at this lake would normally require a one-day walk from the usual trailhead. Our group planned to make a little detour to circumnavigate a nearby peak, however, and take two days to get there. It did take me two days, but not for the reasons I expected! The day before we got a later start than I would have liked, and we ended up doing most of the hiking in the afternoon. That probably would have been fine, except that a fairly serious bit of weather arrived when I was only about two-thirds of the way to my goal. At that point I decided to set up my tent and settle in — which turned out to be a good idea, as it rained for the next three hours!

So, the next morning I found myself several miles and a good climb short of the previous day’s goal. I recalculated, got up slowly, spent some time drying my gear, and was on the rail shortly before noon. The revised plan was now to head straight to this lake, bypassing the original longer route… and hoping to avoid more rain! In the afternoon it did appear that more rain was moving in, but something changed and the clouds moved away, leaving completely clear skies in the evening when I made this photograph.

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

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Evening Storm Clouds, Mountains

August 3, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening thunderstorm clouds begin to break up above high desert mountains east of the Sierra Nevada at sunset

The Sierra Nevada, being more out of the path of the seasonal monsoonal flows that beset the Southwest, often experiences clear weather — sometimes too clear! Most photographers prefer a more interesting sky, and we can actually be heard complaining about too much nice weather at times. But periodically the atmospheric flows shift northward and westward a bit, and we do see thunderstorm weather in the Sierra. Most of us love this, and we look forward to “interesting skies” when it happens. The clouds often build up over the crest and they can then spread east or sometimes west as the day wears on. Mostly the clouds will clear out late in the day, but sometimes when they drift to the east of the range the electrical show may continue into the evening.

I experienced some of this “interesting weather” on my recent visit to the Sierra around the northeastern portion of Yosemite. It actually turned out to be more interesting than expected, when a forecast of clearing on day two of my trip morphed into a forecast to daily thunderstorm chances. On one afternoon I took a hike up an east side canyon, and on my return I was surprised to find that there was rain falling near the mouth of the canyon. Before long in rained and hailed on me, and these appeared to be the kinds of clouds that might stick around into the evening. I decided to forego dinner, instead finding a high overlook and photographing the cloud show right on through sunset and into the post-sunset blue hour.

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

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

July 30, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Predawn light above high desert mountains, reflecting on the surface of Mono Lake

Mono Lake is famed for several things, among them the remarkable tufa towers found in several locations along the shoreline of this great land-locked lake east of the Sierra Nevada. And, yes, this photograph includes a few of those towers — a small group that lies far enough from the shoreline to make them less accessible and interesting to most photographers. (No, that isn’t Nessie — or a band of Nessie lookalikes — at the lower left corner.)

But tufa towers are not my primary or strongest association with this place. Mine include more ephemeral things — the sense of huge space, the expanse of the sky (accentuated by the distance and smallness of surrounding mountains), the deep quiet that is broken only by the sounds of birds and wind. In my experience, to understand those things about this place you must find a quiet place away from other people and perhaps just “be” there quietly, long enough to let its stillness begin to affect you, too. On this morning I arrived in Mono Basin before dawn, ending up at a spot that is not typically regarded as being iconic. Being early, I was in no hurry, so I set up my camera and tripod and just looked for a while before beginning to make photographs of the predawn light from beyond the eastern mountains as it reflected on the breeze-ruffled surface of the lake.

Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Clearing Sierra Nevada Sunset Clouds

July 9, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Last sunset light on clearing storm clouds above the Sierra Nevada, photographed from a commercial airline flight

We spent the past week in New York City, visiting family and hanging out and doing some photography. (More urban/street photography from the visit will be coming soon.) Our final day there started out with driving rain, but cleared it up in time for us to make our way to the Newark airport for our flight back to California. There were rumors that the storm front passing over the east coast might interfere with our flight, but we were airborne only a few minutes later than scheduled, though the pilot came on the address system to let us know that they had been given a much more southerly route to follow, due to storms further north, and that this might delay our expected 8:45 PM arrival by about 15 minutes or so.

Most people might regard that as a minor inconvenience, but I quickly calculated that this would probably put us right above the Sierra Nevada almost exactly at sunset, possibly providing some interesting opportunities for aerial landscape photography. An hour or so before landing the pilot again came on the system to announce that storms above the Sierra might call create some turbulence. Again, I thought that sounded fine as long as that meant great clouds. There must have been monsoon conditions, as there were already thick clouds well east of the range, and before long I could see a wall of very high storm clouds stretching along the length of the Sierra ahead of us. In fact, the clouds were high enough that they blocked the sun, and I began to doubt that anything photographically interesting would occur. Apparently the crew was looking for an opening through the clouds, since they soon turned a bit to the left/south, and I could see an opening ahead with colorful backlit clouds. As we passed to the south of the cloud wall — and I never could figure out exactly where we were above the range — the last light of the setting sun passed almost horizontally over these thinning clouds, producing brilliant colors and allowing a brief view of snow on the mountains below.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: mountains

Snag, Lake, Mountains, Evening

Evening Storm Clouds, Mountains

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

Clearing Sierra Nevada Sunset Clouds

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