Tag Archives: mountains

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Stained Granite Slabs, Small Tree

December 4, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary tree grows among broken slabs of stained granite, Yosemite National Park

I suppose that this photograph also is at least partly of the “brave little tree” school, since there is indeed a little tree standing in an improbable looking place at the far side of this jumble of exfoliated and broken granite slabs. I wouldn’t say, though, that the tree is the primary subject — I think that it is more of a “surprise” that you might see only after first registering the shapes, textures, and colors of the rocks that fill the frame. It also may help establish a sense of scale for the broken slabs, though there are aspects of this image that work to defeat that possibility, too.

I remember the general place where I made this photograph, and I might be able to narrow down the location a bit if I went back to my files to see what I shot before and after. But the specific spot probably doesn’t matter that much. It is in the Yosemite backcountry, in a large area of granite slabs and bowl-like terrain where many of the rocks are stained an unusual and unusually intense reddish-brown color. It had rained overnight and was still raining off and on, so I worked with the soft light that comes with the passing clouds, making photographs in between the passing showers.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Northern California

Mountains, Lake, Peninsula

November 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A peninsula at San Luis Reservoir, with distant hills and autumn clouds

I often pass this location on my way to and from other places — the Sierra, Southern California, the deserts, the Southwest, bird photography locations — but I almost never stop, despite the fact that this can be a place of huge spaces and beautiful light and atmosphere. The reasons for passing it by are perhaps many: I’ve been by it many times over a period of many decades, it isn’t easy to find a place to pull over and stop, it is a manmade reservoir, and I’m usually more focused on getting to or coming back from one of those other places.

Recently I made my first trip of the season out to the migratory bird areas of the Central Valley where I like to do a lot of photography in the late-fall through winter months. This visit was perhaps a bit early for real bird photography, but it gave me a chance to get back to that area that I enjoy so much… and it was a foggy day! (The fog and hazy atmosphere of the Central Valley are major attractions for me.) The bird photography out there was merely OK on this visit and, as planned, I only stayed there for the morning before returning home. As I climbed past the huge earthen dam of this reservoir I was struck by the hazy sunlight on brown hills and the brilliantly bright clouds to the south across the expanse of the water. At first I kept going, but I soon came to my senses, found a place to turn around, and headed back to an overlook where I made a few photographs of this landscape.

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

Crystal Bay, Lake Tahoe

November 9, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

My annual hunt for aspen color took me to the Lake Tahoe area in early October. I realized that although I’ve gone to Tahoe for many years that I have very few photographs of the area. So often Tahoe has been a place to go for other purposes, such as skiing or a cabin stay, etc. And, frankly, Lake Tahoe is very busy and, in many ways, an urbanized place — so my nature and wilderness instincts are often a bit frustrated there. But it is a beautiful lake, and I saw more of that when I went there with photographic intentions.

The underlying reason this time has to do with a project related to fall color in the mountains of California. I’ve covered many other Sierra fall color areas, but I needed more material from the Tahoe area. So I spent an evening, a full day, and part of a morning doing some exploring. The “full day” began with a drive to the Carson City, Nevada and then north towards Reno and back toward Tahoe via Mount Rose. There were quite a few aspens along this part of the drive, but I couldn’t stop much due to road construction. Then I did something I’ve done a number of times before — I circumnavigated the lake, paying special attention to fall color. I realized that there is quite a lot of it, even if much of the color is in areas filled with cabins and resorts. This photograph overlooks the northeast part of the lake from the roadway descending from Mt. Rose.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Old Tree and Autumn Color, Sierra Nevada

October 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An old tree stands above an eastern Sierra Nevada valley full of autumn aspen color

I got a somewhat late start on first day of this year’s trip to the Sierra to photograph the annual aspen color transition. The plan was to begin in the Tahoe area, since I needed some photographs of that region, and to then work my way down the east side of the range as far as Bishop. This was to be a somewhat complicated trip, since I’m concurrently working on a number of projects, not all of which are related to this photography! For this reason and others, I wasn’t able to leave early in the morning like I usually do, but I figure that this would still get me to some of the good aspen areas by the late afternoon hours of good light.

I went into the Sierra on highway 88 and climbed toward the Sierra crest at Carson Pass. Although the west side of the crest isn’t typically the best place to look for aspens, this pass is a bit of an exception, and I saw my first colorful autumn aspens well before the pass. There were more and more of them as I got closer to the pass, and I stopped to photograph some of them in the good light from the west. Before long I crossed Carson Pass and started down the east side toward Hope Valley, an area with lots of aspen trees. My first stop was not far below the pass, where I found this weathered old roadside tree standing high above the upper valley, where aspens were changing color in the background.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: mountains

Stained Granite Slabs, Small Tree

Mountains, Lake, Peninsula

Crystal Bay, Lake Tahoe

Old Tree and Autumn Color, Sierra Nevada

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