Tag Archives: nevada

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

Forest And Meadow, Evening Haze

August 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Evening haze settles on the Sierra Nevada above forest and meadow near Lee Vining Creek.

Atmospheric haze and I have a special relationship. ;-) While I love crystal clear alpine air, I’m far more fond of “interesting” atmospheric conditions that involve haze that may partially obscure certain details, accentuate distance contrasts between close and far objects, take on interesting colorations, and even glow when lit from behind. During this early August visit to the Sierra on both sides of Tioga Pass, I encountered some significant haze from a serious wildfire in the Mammoth Lakes area. One one hand, this complicated (or rendered nearly impossible!) certain types of “grand landscape” photographs since the constant brown, smoggy haze isn’t quite what we typically are looking for. However, to me this most certainly does not mean that photography and even landscape photography cannot be done. Not only can it be done, but these conditions can create possibilities that are difficult or impossible to find in more typical conditions. (However, in reality, wildfire smoke is “typical” in the Sierra and many other places during certain times of the year.)

There are a number of ways to use smoke and haze in photographs. In this case I found primary foreground subjects that were close enough that they were not obscured. The haze, however, quickly muted the contrast and color of parts of the scene that were even a short distance away on the other side of the valley. The dark, backlit forms of the near trees stand out against this muted background rather than disappearing into the complex patterns and textures of the more distant forest. The backlight had a few other beneficial effects. It intensifies the colors of the low plants growing beneath and between the trees. It creates a sort of highlighting effect on near and far trees, giving a bit more relief to their textures. And it adds a bit of a glow to that smoke and haze, to the point the further alpine slopes in the upper left show only the barest details.

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

Granite Towers, Storm Clouds

August 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Storm clouds begin to clear about granite towers and spires, Yosemite Valley, California

These towers stand close to Sentinel Rocks in Yosemite Valley. The day had started out very cloudy, with light rain on the Valley floor and snow flurries around the rim of the Valley. As the day wore on the rain mostly stopped and there were breaks in the clouds, although the atmosphere stayed a bit on the murky side overall. That “murkiness” was not very conducive to a color photograph so I felt that this was more likely to end up in monochrome, as indeed it did. Because the sun is slightly behind the large towers and because the atmosphere was not completely clear, the towers took on a sort of ominous quality.

On a winter day when clouds ring the Valley I could easily spend hours with a long lens pointed up toward the rim, isolating little vignettes of clouds and trees and rock. For a place whose landscape seems to be so familiar, this provides an ephemeral alternate landscape that forms and disappears in moments. When I’m in the Valley, give me clouds!

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

Spring, Oaks, El Capitan Meadow

July 25, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Green grass and new oak leaves, El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite Valley

Probably almost anyone who has photographed in Yosemite Valley much can recognize this sort of scene and perhaps even think of some favorite spots to find black oak trees with new spring growth, set in meadows and backed by forest. Even though this is a very dry year in The Valley – and in almost all of California – around the beginning of May the annual “greening” of the Valley did take place, and this photograph was made during that period.

When lit from behind and above, the light coming through the new oak leaves is luminous and the colors can take on an intensity that sometimes cause me to describe this as the “impossibly green season” in California. Perhaps it is because the state is brown, tan, or gray during so much of the year that the spring green seems so intense.

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

Trees, Granite, and Sky Near Olmsted Point

July 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunset light on a trees and weathered granite slabs above Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

This is another “opportunistic photograph” made on my way back home from a three-day mid-September backpacking trip in the eastern Sierra. We had finished up at the McGee Creek trailhead around 3:00, gotten cleaned up, headed into Mammoth Lakes for a celebratory post-trip Mexican dinner, and I found myself on the road back toward the Bay Area close to 5:00 p.m. I figured that this might well get me over Tioga Pass close to 6:00 p.m. and allow me to find some place with suitably interesting subjects and light before the sun went down. I crossed the pass on schedule, then passed through Tuolumne Meadows (where I had photographed a few days earlier), and decided that it would be a good idea to go a bit further west – and a bit closer to home! – before stopping to shoot.

Most of the interesting light was gone when I got to Tenaya Lake, so I figured I might as well head up to Olmsted Point and see what I could find. Obviously, the classic “back side” view of Half Dome is there, as well as the view back toward Tenaya Lake and Mount Conness. I stopped and picked out an “insurance” shot of Half Dome, though the light initially didn’t look all that spectacular. While talking to some other visitors I missed a bit of lovely light on Conness, though I probably didn’t have a long enough lens anyway. (I was traveling light, with only the limited set of equipment that I take backpacking.) However, besides the obvious there is quite a bit of other interesting stuff to see right around Olmsted, especially late in the day when the last light slants across low ridges to the west and picks up bits and pieces of the landscape – a tree here, a rock there. This little vignette was high on the granite slabs above Olmsted, and as a bit of late light glanced across the rocks and trees, an angled bit of cloud passed by, mirroring the angle of the ridge.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: nevada

Forest And Meadow, Evening Haze

Granite Towers, Storm Clouds

Spring, Oaks, El Capitan Meadow

Trees, Granite, and Sky Near Olmsted Point

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