Tag Archives: nevada

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Upper Yosemite Falls in Mist

November 13, 2008 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Upper Yosemite Fall in Mist — The mist of an autumn rainstorm shrouds upper Yosemite Falls.

The mist of an autumn rainstorm shrouds upper Yosemite Falls.

This photograph was made on a very rainy early November morning, when the previously-dormant Yosemite Falls had sprung dramatically back to life following two days of rain.

This was a very difficult photo to take and it has been a difficult photo to work with in post-processing. I shot it with a very long lens (400mm on full-frame) as mist and rain swirled around the top of the upper falls, most of the time almost completely obscuring the waterfall. Occasionally the clouds and rain would thin a bit and I would make a few shots. The complexity of the post processing has several parts. First, the dynamic range of the photograph is very small. (Usually we struggle with the opposite problem – a dynamic range that is too big!) For this reason I had to make some decisions about whether and how much to expand this range in post, and also about just where the “normal” brightness should be. Second, the color saturation is so weak that the photograph almost appears to be a black and white image, but it is indeed a color photograph… with extremely muted colors.

I’m looking forward to working on making a print of this one. I’m certain that it will be a challenge, but I think that it may work well as a print.

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.

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

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

Autumn Foliage and Rain, Merced River Near Cathedral Rocks

November 12, 2008 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn foliage lines the riverbanks as rain falls on the Merced River near Cathedral Rocks – Yosemite Valley.

One more – probably the last – in the series of photographs* of this scene made from the bridge near El Capitan Meadow. In this one the rain, which had diminished to mere sprinkles when I began to shoot from this location, began to return in earnest. The surface of the river has lost is reflectivity and is cloudy in this photo. If you look closely (or inspect the print) you can see the raindrops on the surface of the water. This was pretty much the story of this entire weekend of photography. It rained most of the time, occasionally hard. I did quite a bit of my photography between showers and under improvised rain protection.

Although this was photographed near El Capitan Meadow, the rock face beyond the river and the trees is not El Capitan. It is Cathedral Rocks, a large formation that is almost directly across the Valley from El Capitan and a bit east of Bridalveil Fall. If it were located anywhere else where it was not dwarfed by El Capitan, it would be regarded as a very imposing face it its own right.

* The previous two related photographs are here and here

keywords: fall, autumn, foliage, leaves, trees, forest, grove, bank, river, bank, merced, cathedral, rocks, cliff, face, rain, precipitation, drops, grass, el capitan, meadow, float, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, sierra, nevada, mountains, nature, scenic, travel, landscape, stock, mist, cloud

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

El Capitan Meadow, Autumn

November 10, 2008 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Photograph of El Capitan Meadow in autumn with plants and trees in fall colors.

I wish I knew the identity of the leafy plants carpeting this section of the meadow under the oak trees (hint, hint… :-), but every year I’m attracted to the splash of red color they provide beneath these oak trees in the meadow near the base of El Capitan. During my otherwise very rainy early November visit to the Valley, there was a bit of brief clearing as I stopped to photograph this scene. (Actually, that was true this time – I had stopped here earlier during the weekend, contemplated carting my camera equipment into the meadow during the rain, and simply stayed in the car.)

Update: Some people asked about the equipment used for this photograph. It was photographed with a Canon 5D full frame DSLR using the excellent ultra wide EF 17-40mm zoom at the wide end of its range. A small aperture helped produce relatively deep depth of field. One complexity in this photograph was the extreme dynamic range between the shadows among the foreground plants and the sunlit clouds above. Two exposures were combined to deal with this, one exposed for the sky and the other for the shaded areas.

keywords: el capitan, meadow, autumn, fall, season, color, yellow, gold, brown, orange, oak, tree, leaf, leaves, sky, clouds, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, scenic, landscape, travel, stock, sierra, nevada, mountains

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Yosemite Falls and Mist, Autumn

November 7, 2008 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Yosemite Falls in mist following an autumn rain storm.

In almost every way last weekend was a special one for photographers in Yosemite Valley. Not only were the fall colors intensified by the rain, but the good sized storm restarted creeks, rivers, and waterfalls that in many cases had gone more or less dormant for the season. When I arrived on Saturday morning there was just a trickle of water coming over Yosemite Falls. But that afternoon the flow was approaching typical early summer levels, and many small seasonal falls had come to life all over the valley – water was running everywhere.

When I stopped in this meadow to admire Yosemite Falls I first only thought of photographing the interesting nearly leafless trees near the Merced River – partly because I usually don’t bother to photograph the view of the falls from this spot and partly because the upper fall was obscured by thick fog anyway. But soon it became apparent that the fog was in motion and the sun was occasionally getting through and striking the cliff faces around and below the fall. I started to think something special might happen and in the end I spend a good hour in this spot waiting for the right combination of light and fog.

keywords: yosemite, falls, valley, national park, waterfall, mist, fog, cloud, sky, ridge, cliff, mountain, forest, grove, tree, meadow, grass, autumn, season, california, usa, landscape, scenic, travel, stock, trunk, branch, sierra, nevada

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: nevada

El Capitan Meadow, Autumn

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