Tag Archives: north

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpine Shoreline, Autumn Plants

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Shoreline plants with early autumn colors along the back of a backcountry lake.

Alpine Shoreline, Autumn Plants. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shoreline plants with early autumn colors along the back of a backcountry lake.

For all of the usual reasons, our group base-camped at a high, subalpine lake during our recent week in the Sierra Nevada backcountry. What are those reasons? Some are, of course, scenic — many lakes provide open vistas, reflections, an easy way to walk their perimeters (though not always!), meadows, and access to other nearby locations. “Our” lake had a large and convoluted shoreline. Most of it was covered with trees and mead owing areas, though one side was comprised of the base of a giant talus slope leading down from the nearby peaks.

I walked much of the lake’s perimeter, revisiting sections a number of times during our stay. On this morning I had set out to reach the farthest point of the lake, where a rocky outlet stream led to further meadows and more lakes. I had a lot of ideas about what I could photograph there, but central in my mind was to photograph a couple of bays like this one, surrounded by rocky terrain and early autumn vegetation, and with the distant peaks of the Sierra crest in the background.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Outcropping, Reflection

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Outcropping, Reflection
A shoreline granite outcropping is reflected in the still surface of a subalpine lake

Outcropping, Reflection. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A shoreline granite outcropping is reflected in the still surface of a subalpine lake

I have recently written about and shared a few images from this summer’s 9-day Sierra backcountry photographic adventure. The short story is that a group of us, as we do every year, headed into a backcountry location, set up a base camp, and photographed the surroundings for about a week. The “founders” of the group have been doing this for close to two decades — I gradually became part of the group about a decade ago or so.

One of the many advantages of working this way — setting up a base camp and working outwards from it — is that we can more thoroughly explore and photograph the surrounding area. When backpacking I would mostly pass through locations, rarely staying for more than a night. This gave me an evening and a morning, but with a base camp I can can “work” an area for a full week, often returning to a location to find better conditions. This year our camp was within a short walk of many small, intimate lakes. The daily question was often, “Which lake this time?” I visited the lake in this photograph several times, and each time learned more about it. On this occasion, in the evening, the water was still and reflected the form of the granite outcropping on the other side of the lake.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Snag and Needles

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Snag and Needles
Detail of an old snag littered with a few needles

Snag and Needles. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of an old snag littered with a few needles

High in the Sierra Nevada, as you get close to the tree line, there are more and more of these old “snags” — the skeletal remnants of trees that died some time ago. In order to survive in such an environment, these trees must be very tough, and their forms given evidence of that. They often seem stunted and are twisted into remarkable shapes as they grow on and around rocks and boulders and slabs. They may survive for a long time, even as they sacrifice branches in to the elements. When they do die their wood lasts for decades. Living or dead, they sometimes seem to me to inhabit a space midway between geology and fauna, being as close to the rock as to more familiar green things.

As I have mentioned already, our location high in the eastern Sierra Nevada backcountry was in an area where the sun was blocked for hours after sunrise and for hours before sunset. In was mid-morning before any direct sunlight reached our camp and late afternoon when it left, and I could wander in the cold, soft light for hours making photographs… and freezing! I photographed this bit of an old snag in this softly shadowed blue-toned light.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Cliff Face, Detail

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Cliff Face, Detail
Abstract forms and colors of a weathered and stained Sierra Nevada cliff

Cliff Face, Detail. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Abstract forms and colors of a weathered and stained Sierra Nevada cliff

As I do almost every summer, I headed into the Sierra Nevada backcountry with a group of friends and photographers over the past week and a half of so. The group has been doing this since about 2001, and I began to work with them nearly a decade ago, eventually moving from showing up as a solo backpacker for a few days to participating fully in the visits. Typically we get packed in to a location with lots of photographic possibilities — a pack string brings in a lot of the gear, while we typically carry in our camera equipment. Once set up we can “work” the surroundings intensively, looking more deeply into the landscape and viewing it in various conditions and light. This provides us with special opportunities to learn the nearby landscape more intimately than if we were just passing through or hiking in and out each day. Equally important, as we live and work together for a week we form a very special little photographic community.

This year we were (again) in the John Muir Wilderness of the Eastern Sierra Nevada. Every place has its own visual personality. In this location high mountains surrounded us and produced several hours of soft, shaded light in the morning and evening, with fill light reflected from surrounding peaks rising into the sunlight…