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Aspen and Fern Covered Hillside, Sierra Nevada

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Aspen and Fern Covered Hillside, Sierra Nevada
Aspen and Fern Covered Hillside, Sierra Nevada

Aspen and Fern Covered Hillside, Sierra Nevada. Bishop Creek Area, California. October 2. 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful autumn aspen trees and ferns cover a rocky hillside along Bishop Creek, Sierra Nevada, California.

And the series of photographs of wild autumn aspen color from the eastern Sierra Nevada continues… This photograph was made along Bishop Creek. The colors in this area when I was there were the most intense fall colors that I can remember seeing in the Sierra. At first I thought perhaps it was just me, but others have been writing the same thing about this. Not only were the aspens “on fire,” but the overcast and light rain also served to intensify their colors and the colors of the other brown and green plants.

This hillside above the banks of Bishop Creek was covered with dense aspens and ferns, and both were well along in the seasonal color transformation that occurs between the end of summer and when the first snow falls. Speaking of “dense,” this is one of a series of photographs in which I tried to work with these very densely vegetated scenes in an attempt to try to capture the lush and almost overgrown character of these areas.

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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, Bishop Canyon

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Aspen Grove, Bishop Canyon
Aspen Grove, Bishop Canyon

Aspen Grove, Bishop Canyon. Sierra Nevada, California. October 3, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Twisted and leaning aspen trunks in a large grove in the Bishop Creek drainage, Sierra Nevada, California.

These trees are in a grove where I have stopped quite a few times with the intent of making photographs, but never quite seeing what I wanted. I’ve been there on sunny days, and early in the morning before the direct sunlight strikes these trees. This was the first time that I’ve photographed these trees and felt that it was a success – and I think that the different light conditions are the reason. As I made the photograph it was overcast and raining lightly. From moment to moment the amount of light would subtly vary, but it remained soft and diffused due to the clouds and rain.

I also took a lot of time just wandering around in this grove and looking – in fact it would probably be accurate to say that I did more looking than photographing! I actually walked out of the grove a few times, thinking I was done, only to see another potential angle and wander back in again.

The fall color season in the eastern Sierra has become more and more popular with photographers over the past few years, due perhaps to the adoption of DSLR cameras and to publicity about the subject on the web. However, while some places are extremely crowded, others are can still be fairly quiet and uncrowded. And, fortunately, while the crowds seek out the familiar shots it is possible to find less crowded places… even as scores of photographers drive past them on their way to the iconic sites where they will line up side by side to make the same photographs.

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.

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Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature

Sunset, Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake

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Sunset, Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake
Sunset, Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake

Sunset, Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake. Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington. August 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset on cloud-shrouded summit of Mt. Shuksan with Picture Lake in the foreground, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington.

Icon alert! I understand that photographing Mt. Shuksan from this locale is, in the Pacific Northwest context, perhaps almost equivalent to photographing the Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands or photographing Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View. As a brand new photographer of Cascades Range subjects, I plead guilty to succumbing to this icon and photographing it. (I’m told that the only thing that this photograph needs in order to qualify for full “yet another photo of an icon” status would be to come back in a month and shoot it when the fall colors appear.)

My brother and I had been up higher photographing the Artist Point area for most of the afternoon, and he suggested that since we were here we might stop at Picture Lake on the way back down the mountain and see what might develop. I’m glad he did since, icon status aside, this really is a stunning and beautiful location and it was a quiet and beautiful evening. Several things made it special, I think. First, while the summit of Shuksan never fully cleared, the clouds shrouding the summit gave it a more dramatic aspect than might have been the case with an unobstructed view. Second, much to our surprise, we were not joined by a throng of other photographers. At first we were the only ones there, and later we only saw a few others in the area.

This was a technically challenging scene to photograph. The lake and foreground trees were in shadow at this point, though on the scene one could still see the details of the forest along and beyond the far shore. Yet the summit of Shuksan and the clouds were in full sun, and making this even more difficult, the red sunset light was extra intense. The eye can take all of this in without a problem as you move your focus from foreground to distant peak, but the camera is not as capable – and the dynamic range of the scene dramatically exceeds the capabilities of cameras. So, again, this photograph is a composite of three exposures manually blended in post to combine the best exposures of bright and saturated highlights with the best exposure of the dark forest along the shore of the lake.

Update on 9/29/10: I recently noticed that I had misidentified the lake in the photograph! I have corrected the post to call it by its correct name, Picture Lake.

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.

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Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Morning Squall, South Tufa

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Morning Squall, South Tufa
Morning Squall, South Tufa

Morning Squall, South Tufa. Mono Lake, California. July 25, 2010. © Copyright 2010 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The shoreline of Mono Lake as a morning squall drops rain over the Sierra Crest near Lee Vining, California.

This photograph is, in a number of ways, a sort of happy accident. I had been camped in the Tuolumne Meadows area for several days, doing photography in that area of the Yosemite National Park Sierra Nevada high country. On the previous day I had been caught out on a hike in a surprise thunderstorm without rain gear, so I was very conscious of the weather. That evening it occurred to me that given the approach of some monsoonal moisture and the already wet weather, that it was possible that interesting clouds might form in the Mono Lake area the next morning. (Mono at dawn is a spectacular place, but since I’ve photographed there quite a few times I don’t necessarily shoot there at dawn every time I’m in the area unless there is a chance of special conditions.)

That night I peered out of my tent from time to time to see if any clouds were interrupting the light of the full moon, thinking that this might be enough to get me to change my plans for morning photography and make the drive to Mono Lake. At one point a few clouds did dim the moon light, and a bit later a few showers came through. At this point I was pretty certain that the cloud potential would be there in the morning so I decided to get up a bit earlier and drive to South Tufa.

I thought I was up early enough. However, as I drove down highway 395 south of Lee Vining I realized that I had miscalculated and that the sun was already hitting the clouds! I experienced the photographer’s conundrum – shoot what I see here now, or race on hoping to shoot the planned thing. I decided to stop and shoot the very first light on the Sierra crest from 395 before heading on, but now my original plan for a pre-dawn visit to Mono was out the window. Soon I headed on down the road, turned off onto eastbound 120 and made my way to South Tufa just as the first sun was striking the lake shore. I quickly made it out to the tufa area and saw (how could anyone miss it!?) this giant cloud cell blowing up over the Sierra crest just north of Lee Vining.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.