Tag Archives: nevada

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake Moonrise

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Mono Lake Moonrise
Early autumn full moon rising over Mono Lake, California.

Mono Lake Moonrise. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn full moon rising over Mono Lake, California.

This is a photograph of that magical moment when an early-autumn full moon rises above the mountains to the east of Mono Lake while there is still a bit of sunset or early twilight light in the sky. I’ve experienced this here quite a few times, and I often time my arrival at this point for this hour when it is full moon time. On this evening it all worked out perfectly: intense color in the sky as the moon appeared, plus sky color reflected on the surface of the lake, interspersed with blue areas where surface turbulence broke up the reflection.

Photographing a full moon is a bit trickier than it might appear at first glance, especially if you want to include the landscape in the scene, too. Once it is dark or close to it, the difference between the light on the landscape and light of the moon is huge — the moon is essentially a daylight exposure, while that landscape is much darker. Even with a camera that had enough dynamic range to capture both of those extremes, you would either end up with a well-exposed moon and a nearly invisible landscape or a nicely exposed landscape and featureless white disk of a moon. One approach is to time the photograph so that the moon in in the sky before it is fully dark. Ideally, this means photographing the moon a bit before it is truly “full” — or photographing at a time of year when there is still light on the landscape when a truly full moon rises.

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: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sierra Foothills, White Mountains

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Sierra Foothills, White Mountains
A long view from the Buttermilks in the Sierra Nevada eastern foothills to the crest of the distant White Mountains.

Sierra Foothills, White Mountains. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A long view from the Buttermilks in the Sierra Nevada eastern foothills to the crest of the distant White Mountains.

Recently I was once again pondering how the way we approached the Sierra Nevada at first affected our overall perceptions of the character of the Range of Light. As I have noted before, during the first decades of my relationship with these mountains I approached from the west, crossing semi-coastal mountains, crossing the agricultural Central Valley, rising gradually into oak-grasslands and eventually to conifer forest, and only much later finally arriving in the “High Sierra” world of open meadows and alpine peaks. Contrast this with the experience of those approaching from the east, where the range presents a very long “wall” of peaks that towers above high desert, in places rising by as much as 10,000 feet above that dry landscape.

This photograph is, probably obviously, one that focuses on that eastern part of the Sierra. But here I look away from the Sierra Nevada, past the rugged and “barren” terrain of dry hills at the base of the range, across the expanse of Owens Valley, and toward the (also dry) peaks of the White Mountains. To put it plainly, you won’t see anything like this on the west side!

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Color and Sierra Crest

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Autumn Color and Sierra Crest
Early autumn color in a landscape of rock and forest below the east side of the Sierra Nevada crest.

Autumn Color and Sierra Crest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn color in a landscape of rock and forest below the east side of the Sierra Nevada crest.

Thoughts of autumn have begun over the past few weeks. I can imagine all sorts of reasons. As I have written, that mysterious “something” that indicates that the seasons are changing appeared recently, right on schedule. (I attribute it to changes in light, the angle of the sun, the time of sunset and sunrise, and perhaps a few other things.) Here in the West, it may also be triggered by an intense desire to see the end of the hot, dry conditions that plague us during this time of global climate change. I miss cooler weather!

This, of course, gives rise not only to ideas about where to go to photograph this year’s color, but also to reexamination of autumn photography from prior years. This photograph comes from a few years back, during the relatively wet interval between the previous five-year drought and the current drought. I made my first fall color visit in very early October that year, hitting a few of my favorite places and checking out a few new ones that are less known. This location is more the former than the latter, a very large system of canyons draining the eastern Sierra above Bishop, full of rivers, forests, and plenty of rocky terrain leading to the crest of the range.

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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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.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Autumn Snow

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Aspens and Autumn Snow
Early autumn snow and aspens changing color in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Aspens and Autumn Snow. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn snow and aspens changing color in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Yesterday I was out on one of my regular urban walks, and as I crossed over a local creek on a bridge I noticed a significant number of yellow leaves on trees and on the ground. To be sure, there are still far more green leaves, and the actual full-on arrival of autumn color is many weeks away. (Here in California it is common to raise our expectations of fall’s imminent arrival in early September… only to realize once again that we have a month and a half of mostly warm weather ahead of us.) But it is clear that the seasons are in transition and that autumn is coming.

Scenes like the one on this photograph are still a good month away at best. This small grove of aspens grows in an area of what is more or less high desert along the eastern edge of the range. I fondly recall this day and many others like it, traveling along the base of these mountains, looking for aspen color, and seeing snow showers above the crest and signifying the approach of winter.

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.