Tag Archives: national

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

Sierra Shoreline, Morning

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Sierra Shoreline, Morning
Reflections and soft morning light on on trees and boulders along the shoreline of a Yosemite wilderness lake.

Sierra Shoreline, Morning. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Reflections and soft morning light on on trees and boulders along the shoreline of a Yosemite wilderness lake.

This photograph brings back a bunch of wonderful and somewhat wistful memories. I made it on a weeklong wilderness trip with a group of photographers with whom I’ve been heading into the Sierra backcountry almost every summer for more than a decade. (The “wistful” part of the memories is largely because the pandemic has prevented us from getting together again this summer.) We typically spend that time exploring some beautiful Sierra location, base-camped long enough to really get to know the place. Every morning we emerge from tents in darkness and head out to photograph for hours. We return to camp in the middle of the morning with stories to tell and chores to take care of. Late in the afternoon we head out into the field again, photographing until the light fades and we return to camp in darkness. The we do the same thing the next day.

This trip took us to a beautiful little forested lake in the Yosemite backcountry, a place I had not visited previously even though I had been in the general area quite a few times. The lake is up high, with expansive views from nearby ridges, and surrounded by forest. On most mornings I did a slow circuit around the lake as the light arrived. This lovely section of shoreline was more or less on the opposite side from our camp, and after photographing it more than once I figured out the light well enough that I was able to photograph it in the soft morning light just before the sun arrived, when the water was still smooth.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Basalt Columns and Lichen

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Basalt Columns and Lichen
“Basalt Columns and Lichen” — Yellow lichen growing on the basalt columns of Devils Postpile National Monument

This is the second of two photographs that “reemerged” from a recent look back to raw files from a trip to Devil’s Postpile National Monument a few years ago. The first was, in essence, a “new” photograph in that I had not taken it through my post-processing workflow back when I first captured the image. At the time I was more interested in one or two other photographs from the session, so I left it behind. But when I went back and looked again this year I “discovered” it anew, and now it did not seem a like file to simply archive! This one has a different story. I did finalize a photograph of this image shortly after I made the exposure. But now, some years later, I see it differently than I did originally… so here is a new interpretation of the subject.

To rehash the old story in brief, we ended up at Devil’s Postpile essentially by accident… after sleeping in and enjoying a leisurely breakfast rather than heading out into the pre-dawn cold as I usually do. And when we got to Devil’s Postpile, at first I wasn’t even going to photograph! The geometric forms of the “post pile” are fascinating, and they are even more interesting in soft light and when sections of the formation are isolated, here with a long lens. The pattern of columns in this scene reminds me of various things — the pipes of an organ, some sort of stairway, and so forth.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Rocky Terrain, Subalpine Lake

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Rocky Terrain, Subalpine Lake
Rocky terrain and its reflection along the shoreline of a backcountry subalpine lake, Kings Canyon National Park.

Rocky Terrain, Subalpine Lake. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rocky terrain and its reflection along the shoreline of a backcountry subalpine lake, Kings Canyon National Park.

As I do from time to time, recently I was reminiscing about the Before Times when I headed into the Sierra backcountry for a week or more every summer with a wonderful group of fellow photographers — among whom are several who have been doing these trips for two decades. (Although I’ve visited the Sierra backcountry for what I vaguely refer to as “decades,” I only began to join this group in 2008.) All of us miss these trips, especially what would have been the one celebrating the second decade of the work, but it turns out that there are still discoveries to be made among the photographs we brought back.

On this trip we visited a fairly remote location in the Sequoia-Kings Canyon backcountry, one that took us a couple of days to get to. Once there we spent close to a week photographing the heck out of the place and surrounding wilderness, a high elevation place full of lakes and rocky terrain. We mixed photograph in our immediate “backyard” (sometimes only steps from out tents) with somewhat longer explorations. This photograph comes from a lake rather close to our camp. My weak knowledge of Sierra geology suggests to me that this monumental chunk of rock was probably overrun and sculpted by glaciers in the past.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Forest, White Trunks

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Forest, White Trunks
White trunks in a dense forest of deciduous trees, Redwood National Park.

Forest, White Trunks. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

White trunks in a dense forest of deciduous trees, Redwood National Park.

It turns out that I have yet one more photograph from our early June visit to the far northern reaches of coastal California and the Redwood National and State parks. I am embarrassed to admit how long it was before I finally went up there to photograph, but since my first visit a few years ago I have been back every spring, usually trying to time my trips to coincide with the blooming of the rhododendrons. We were less than successful in that regard this year, but there is much else to see there, too. And because this was back in the early “maybe the pandemic is about over” period, it felt great to travel a bit more freely once again.

When it comes to trees, the redwood forests are obviously the mail attraction up there. But they are not the only attractions, and in many places all sorts of trees and plant life grow abundantly in this relatively wet climate. I stop at this particular forest of densely-spaced trees with light colored trunks on every visit — I like the challenge of looking for compositions that somehow bring some kind of order to the wild density of this vegetation.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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