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Michael Frye on fall photography in Yosemite and the Sierra

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Michael Frye has just posted a very useful guide to fall photography in Yosemite and the Sierra at his blog. Frye has a great deal of experience here, especially with The Valley itself – you may know him as the author of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

I was interested to read that he really loves November photography in The Valley – as it is also at the top of my list of great times for photography there. Right at the beginning of the month I love to shoot the fall colors – wonderful big leaf maples, red leaves of dogwood trees, and the brown to golden colors of the oaks and the dry meadows. I find the weather during this month to be some of the most conducive to photography… basically you can run into almost anything: the first real snows of the season, arriving and clearing storms ringing the Valley walls with clouds, beautiful golden light of autumn, waterfalls that may come back to life after autumn rain, and much more.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Shoot

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Redwood Shoot

Redwood Shoot. Muir Woods National Monument, California. August 19, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A new redwood tree shoot emerges from the base of a mature tree, Muir Woods National Monument, California.

This small, green shoot is the potential start of a new redwood tree at Muir Woods National Monument. Its bright green color contrasts with the browns and reds of the dark forest floor and the shaded bark of the tree.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Trees and Ferns

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Redwood Trees and Ferns

Redwood Trees and Ferns. Muir Woods National Monument, California. August 19, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of closely-spaced redwood trees grows above ground-hugging ferns with green trees behind, Muir Woods National Monument, California.

In mid-August I visited Muir Woods (only a 90 minute drive from my home) to drop off some photographs and spend some time making new ones. I always arrive there very early – the crowds are otherwise overwhelming, especially in the summer – and when I got there almost no one else had yet entered the park. Because it was a morning with high fog, I was looking forward to shooting plants in the diffuse light that creates such wonderful saturated colors.

I wandered up and around the usual short loop that would be very busy in a few hours, but there were only a few other people there. Near the end of my wandering, as I was almost ready to exit, the fog began to thin just a bit and as I passed this group of trees there was enough light to better define their forms and texture.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gdanmitchell
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake

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Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake

Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. July 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mount Conness and the shoreline meadow of Lower Young Lake at sunset.

The thin smoke from a wildfire some miles away along the Tuolumne River added some color to the sunset light on the distant ridge whose highest point is Mt. Conness, the tallest peak in along the Yosemite Park border north and west of Tioga Pass. I’ve shot from this spot along the upper shoreline of Lower Young Lake before, in fact the rock along the shoreline was the center point of another photograph I made one misty autumn evening. But this was a different evening; not only because of the somewhat unusual color of the light but also because the small inlet stream was still flowing through the shoreline meadows that still held wildflowers.

On my way back to my tent as darkness fell, I had one of those wonderful serendipitous experiences that happens with surprising frequency in the Sierra. Walking back I happened to take a different route further from the shoreline since that area was quite marshy. As I wandered through a more forested section that I had not been in for a couple years I passed very close to someone’s campsite, and I soon saw two people ahead sitting on a large boulder. I stopped to say “hi” and the older of the two asked, “Are you a photographer?” I offered one of my all-too-frequent wise guy responses, something along the lines of “No, I just like to carry this stuff around so that I look like one.” He looked a bit perplexed, at which point the younger of the two spoke up and said, “Well, he is.”

Turns out that he was photographer Leonard Sussman, and we ended up talking for a good amount of time as the light continued to fade. Leonard is a really interesting fellow, and I was surprised to find out that a “New York photographer” actually came more or less from my stomping grounds in northern California.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: mount, conness, mountain, peak, ridge, young, lake, lower, sierra, nevada, range, evening, dusk, sunset, high, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, landscape, nature, rock, tree, stream, reflection, forest, boulder, shoreline