Clouds from an autumn storm drift among trees and spires along the rim of Yosemite Valley.
This is another in the series of photographs of mist and clouds and trees and cliffs during an autumn storm in Yosemite Valley. Here the clouds float among trees and spires along the rim of the Valley. I was looking for something very much like this as shot in the Valley, and here I spotted an interesting angle in the valley rim and then waited as the clouds floated in and out of the scene for a moment during which just enough of the detail of rocks and trees would be revealed for a moment.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Evening fog drifts among forest trees of Yosemite Valley.
Yes, this was shot from Wawona Tunnel View…in the evening… while standing in a line of dozens of other photographers. Sigh. :-)
I’ve written before that I do not automatically go to Tunnel View in the evening. However, if I think something special might happen and I don’t have another subject in mind I will sometimes join the tripod line. (I also sometimes find myself there on odd evenings when almost no one else is there, but that is a different story.) On this late-October day I had been having a great time photographing the misty, cloudy, and sometimes rainy landscape – perhaps among my favorite photography conditions in the Valley. As evening approached, I was pretty certain that the wet conditions and the falling temperatures would cause fog to appear among the trees on the Valley floor close to sunset, and I have some ideas about photographs of trees in this fog that I wanted to try.
So I went to Tunnel View, put a very long lens on my camera, and queued up along the stone wall at the overlook. Because I did not plan to photograph the traditional “valley view” at all, I did not worry too much about where I was in this throng – and I ended up in a spot from which the familiar view was slightly obstructed. But that was OK since I was going to be pointing my lens down. This fog is not an unusual phenomenon, but it is different every time it occurs. Sometimes it builds up high enough to hover around the upper reaches of El Capitan. Sometimes there will just be thin wisps up the center of the Valley. Sometimes it is almost stationary and sometimes it moves quickly. On this evening it started out slowly and somewhat thin, but soon a breeze began blowing the moist air up from the west and a long ribbon of fog developed along the north side of the Valley floor, and I focused my attention along the borders near the edges of the fog.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Brief sunrise light produces a rainbow and virga over the Buttermilks in the eastern Sierra Nevada above Bishop, California.
I have a story to tell about this photograph and how it came about. I’ve been in the Buttermilks — the rounded hills between Bishop, California and the actual Sierra Nevada — on a number of previous occasions. I’ve photographed there in the early morning when the first light hits these hills and the peaks of the Sierra, and I have some potential images filed away in my mind, waiting for a time when the light is right. I also know the Sierra well enough – though certainly not completely nor perfectly! – that I can pick up on developing conditions that might not apparent to someone less familiar with the range.
On this early October morning I was camped up in the Bishop Creek drainage. The forecast was for rain and wind and, sure enough, during the night the wind picked up and it began to rain. I woke before dawn and at the first light it was apparent that it would be overcast. This is not necessarily a bad thing for photographing fall color, but it can mean that subjects that would otherwise work at dawn might need to wait. I was thinking about how to modify my aspen photography plans when I noticed a bit of incipient color in the still-dim clouds, and it occurred to me that a special set of conditions might occur. Although I couldn’t see to the east from this campground, I know that sometimes clouds above the Sierra end a ways to the east over or beyond the White Mountains, and when this happens there is a narrow band of clear sky right above the horizon — and if everything works out just right a strip of dawn light shines through this gap, first hitting the clouds and then working its way down from the peaks to the lower foothills before quickly disappearing and leaving very bland light.
No sure thing at all, but I decided to dash down the road (past the steady stream of aspen photographers streaming up the road!) and see if I could get to the Buttermilks in time. I left the main road and headed up a side road that I know, somewhat resenting a (very reasonable!) 25mph speed limit near some roadside residences as I began to see the clouds above the crest starting to light up. As I hit the last section of gravel road the sky began to glow and I sped up, heading for a specific spot where I had photographed this scene before. With seconds I saw the light pick out a band of virga (rain that does not reach the ground) and a rainbow began to form in front of the eastern escarpment as I arrived at the hilltop where I planned to shoot. I quickly set up my tripod and mounted the 70-200mm lens (which I already knew would be the right one for this shot) and literally ran up a nearby knoll which I knew would put the foreground hill in a decent place in the composition. I was ready just as the soft light hit the foreground and I made this photograph. Within a minute the rainbow as gone!
Sometimes you just get lucky…
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Yosemite Fall and Lost Arrow emerge from drifting storm clouds, Yosemite Valley.
When I traveled to Yosemite Valley this past weekend I knew that rain was coming on Saturday – and I was happy about this since I love photographing the Valley in rainy and misty weather. I made a plan to photograph, among other things, what I expected would be cloud and mist floating among the cliffs, trees, and waterfalls of the Valley – and I wasn’t disappointed!
This is a photograph of a Yosemite icon, Upper Yosemite Fall. As clouds drifted across the face near the fall and into the valleys above, from time to time there would be a bit of clearing. Occasionally a clear view of the waterfall would even appear for a moment. At this moment in time, the spire of “Lost Arrow” also appeared along the side of the cliff at the upper right.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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