Tag Archives: oak

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

Autumn Leaves, Winter Snow

March 3, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

New snow partially covers autumn oak leaves along a Yosemite Valley trail

Sometimes in California I can experience at least three seasons on the same day. (I’ve occasionally wondered if I could cram evidence of all four into a single photograph, but so far haven’t figure out how.) For example, it isn’t impossible to find a scene that includes brown autumn leaves, snow, and new growth. A hot autumn day might include fall colors and perhaps a recent snow flurry on high peaks. Travel less than 100 miles from an inland area to the Northern California coast and go from 100+ degree temperatures to cold and wet enough that you might want a pair of gloves. Descend from a snowy peak, through forest, and end up in desert.

By those standards, this photograph perhaps falls short, as only two seasons are represented — the winter snow flurry and the brown leaves of autumn oak trees. It was not snowing as I made the photography, but it had snowed just a few hours earlier here in Yosemite Valley, and as I hiked along the base of granite cliffs and past conifers and oaks there were still places where the snow had not melted.

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

Curving Trees, Falling Snow

March 1, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Snow falls among winter dormant trees in a Yosemite meadow

I have known for a month or so that I’d be in Yosemite for the last full week of February. That lead-in month was a very strange one for California weather. We had virtually no precipitation, and warm temperatures often made if feel more like summer than winter. These are not happy conditions for wintertime photography in the park, when a lot of the plant life is dormant and when snow and storm clouds usually provide more interesting conditions.

But immediately upon my arrival — literally the first moments I spent in the Valley — the weather changed. Not only did winter weather return, but it did so with a vengeance, and temperatures dropped much lower than would be typical for the date. On most days of my stay there were at least some clouds and on several days there was snowfall. The day I made this photograph brought the most daytime snow. In the afternoon a weak front worked its way into the Valley, and there were periodic snow showers. I headed to a tree-filled meadow when this shower arrived, and there I photographed juxtapositions of the interestedly shaped trees silhouetted against the falling snow.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Tree, Winter Light

January 16, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A bare winter tree and clearing tule fog.

On Sunday there was ground fog all over the San Francisco Bay Area, and I had a few free hours, so I headed out to see what I could find. I went to a place that is very familiar to me, a local haunt where I have hiked and photographed for decades. I had not been there in perhaps a year, so it was good to reestablish my relationship with the location and note a few changes. The little trip also reminded me that it isn’t necessary to travel long distances to find photographic subjects — quite often a closer look at nearby places will reveal worthy subjects.

The idea here was to arrive before the fog cleared, photograph in the thick fog for a while, and then be ready to photograph the brief transition period as it thinned, a time when brilliant and stunning but ephemeral light may appear. During my short drive to this location the fog remained thick, but just before reaching my destination it began to clear, likely because ground fog doesn’t stick around as long in the hills. As I parked and loaded up a light load (my lightweight trail photography setup) there were still some pockets of fog clinging to the hillsides, but in most places there was instead a sort of haze that glowed when I photographed in the direction of the sun. I’m very fond of this kind of light, so I quickly looked for subjects that I could use to advantage, and I soon found this tree standing on a grassy hillside and silhouetted against the glowing atmosphere beyond.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Autumn Leaves, Sandstone

April 6, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn leaves lie on the sandstone in a high country creek bed, Zion National Park

Every so often I decide to dig back through my older file archives from previous years, and I almost always discover photographs that I had forgotten, that perhaps didn’t resonate at the time, or were part of batches of images that I someone never quite finished reviewing. This is one of those. It comes from a lengthy autumn trip to various places in Zion with a group of friends back in 2012.

I made this photograph in Zion National Park, but it could have been made in uncounted numbers of places in Utah — it has the basic ingredients: patterned and worn sandstone plus leaves. This scene is as I found it, a small vignette of leaves, some in colors matching those of the sandstone and couple yellow enough to stand out from the background.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: oak

Autumn Leaves, Winter Snow

Curving Trees, Falling Snow

Tree, Winter Light

Autumn Leaves, Sandstone

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