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Oak Tree and Cliff, Autumn – Yosemite Valley

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Oak Tree and Cliff, Autumn - Yosemite Valley

Oak Tree and Cliff, Autumn – Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. November 2. 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An oak tree with autumn color against a cliff face, Yosemite Valley, California.

I found two interesting trees to photograph against the north Yosemite Valley cliffs near Ahwahnee Meadow and the Ahwahnee Lodge on this rainy November day. (The other one was located only a few feet from this tree, and I posted the photo earlier at my blog.) The tree was in the final stages of losing its leaves and the cliff face was wet from two days of rain.

This photograph is, for me, another example of why it is good to return to the same place again… and again. I’ve photographed in this very area quite a few times, making photographs of Ahwahnee Meadow in just about every season, photographing a nearby oak grove on the edge of the meadow, and photographing dogwood trees in fall. Every other time I’ve been there I’ve looked back at the spot where this tree is located without seeing anything – but this time I think I got the timing right and found different lighting conditions that make it possible to see this shot that I had never noticed before.

keywords: oak, tree, bush, moss, lichen, green, yellow, gold, trunk, branch, gray, rock, boulder, nature, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, landscape, travel, scenic, stock, sierra, nevada, mountains, crack, diagonal

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Autumn Oaks in Rain, El Capitan Meadow

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Autumn Oaks in Rain, El Capitan Meadow

Autumn Oaks in Rain, El Capitan Meadow. Yosemite Valley, California. November 1, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brightly colored autumn oak trees in El Capitan Meadow with fog shrouded cliff face of Cathedral Rocks beyond – Yosemite Valley, California.

El Capitan Meadow, beneath the face of El Capitan and across the Valley from Cathedral Rocks (see in beyond the trees in this photo) is one of my favorite spots in the Valley. The meadow itself is beautiful in almost any season – green and lush in spring, colorful in fall, and sometimes snow covered in winter – and the backdrop formed by any of several large nearby rock faces is impressive. I shoot here every time I’m in the Valley – even last winter when I had to hike across this narrow section of the Valley in snow to get there.

In this early November photograph the trees are in full fall color and the meadow grasses and plants have gone dormant – and fog hugs the face of Cathedral Rocks in light rain.

keywords: oak, black, tree, fall, autumn, color, leaf, leaves, gold, yellow, fog, mist, rain, el, capitan, meadow, grass, plant, branch, forest, grove, nature, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, stock, scenic, travel, landscape, cliff, mountain, cathedral, rocks

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

El Capitan Meadow, Autumn

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El Capitan Meadow, Autumn

El Capitan Meadow, Autumn. Yosemite Valley, California. November 2, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Photograph of El Capitan Meadow in autumn with plants and trees in fall colors.

I wish I knew the identity of the leafy plants carpeting this section of the meadow under the oak trees (hint, hint… :-), but every year I’m attracted to the splash of red color they provide beneath these oak trees in the meadow near the base of El Capitan. During my otherwise very rainy early November visit to the Valley, there was a bit of brief clearing as I stopped to photograph this scene. (Actually, that was true this time – I had stopped here earlier during the weekend, contemplated carting my camera equipment into the meadow during the rain, and simply stayed in the car.)

Update: Some people asked about the equipment used for this photograph. It was photographed with a Canon 5D full frame DSLR using the excellent ultra wide EF 17-40mm zoom at the wide end of its range. A small aperture helped produce relatively deep depth of field. One complexity in this photograph was the extreme dynamic range between the shadows among the foreground plants and the sunlit clouds above. Two exposures were combined to deal with this, one exposed for the sky and the other for the shaded areas.

keywords: el capitan, meadow, autumn, fall, season, color, yellow, gold, brown, orange, oak, tree, leaf, leaves, sky, clouds, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, scenic, landscape, travel, stock, sierra, nevada, mountains

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

Merced River Fall Color, El Capitan Bridge

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Merced River Fall Color, El Capitan Bridge

Merced River Fall Color, El Capitan Bridge. Yosemite Valley, California. November 1, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fall color along the banks of the Merced River at the El Capitan Bridge, Yosemite Valley.

This is a second photograph that I made of this scene last weekend. (I posted the other one here a few days ago.) The first major winter storm of the season was just coming in, and it had already rained enough to cause the Merced River to begin to rise – which explains the debris floating on the surface in this photo.

I decided to work this scene with prime lenses rather than my zooms, so I made the previous photograph using the somewhat wider view of my 35mm lens and made this one using a 50mm prime. Frankly, I’m still going back and forth on which I like best. I like the way that this tighter crop fills the frame with the fall colors, but I like the composition of the wider view, too.

keywords: fall, autumn, color, foliage, leaves, gold, yellow, green, tree, oak, leaves, plants, nature, water, merced, river, bend, el capitan, meadow, bridge, mountain, cliff, face, reflection, yosemite, valley, national park, seaon, fog, cloud, california, usa, log, landscape, scenic, travel, stock