Tag Archives: orange

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetlands Sunrise

Image Leave a comment
“Wetlands Sunrise” — Tule fog clears above Central Valley wetlands at dawn.

Despite experiencing a couple of brilliant sunrises on our New Year’s photo jaunt, I had not shared any intensely colorful sunrise photographs. It is time. We arrived here in foggy pre-dawn darkness on New Year’s Day, assembled our gear, and headed out on a network of levee roads through wetlands terrain. Before long we came to a spot where the fog had thinned and we had a clearer view to the east. We stopped and photographed the landscape and the intense pre-sunrise sky.

The experience of being out here before sunrise is profoundly removed from our day-to-day experience. Here time moves slowly or even seems to stop. The tule fog thins, leaving behind a faint, soft mist. Flocks of geese and cranes rise and circle, their cries echoing across the landscape. The light gradually increases in the eastern sky and here the outline of the distant Sierra Nevada is visible along the horizon.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | BlueSky | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Sunset Storm, Mono Lake

Image Leave a comment
Sunset Storm, Mono Lake
“Sunset Storm, Mono Lake” — An evening storm moves over Mono Lake at sunset.

Occasionally nature throws some light at me that seems just plain unreal — effects so unusual that even I start to doubt what I saw. Often this happens at sunset or sunrise when the conditions align just right, as they did on this evening. It had been cloudy and raining, and there was still moisture in the air as the clouds began to break up in the north and west. As that happened, colorful sunset light came in over the Sierra crest and illuminated the clouds from within.

I had anticipated that something interesting might happen on this evening, but this intensely colorful light took me by surprise. In the photograph we look at and across Mono Lake from a high point to the southwest of the lake, right into the brilliantly colored clouds to the north.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

High Desert Autumn Aspens

Image Leave a comment
High Desert Autumn Aspens
“High Desert Autumn Aspens” — Autumn aspen trees along a high desert creek descending from the Sierra Nevada.

This is a bit of a different sort of aspen photograph from me — not the first one like it but there aren’t many others. After photographing at another location at sunrise I packed up and went exploring in the foothills below the eastern escarpment of the range. (The base of the range is visible at the top of the frame.) This area feels less like “the mountains” and more like high desert. It is less steep, drier, and covered with what we sometimes refer to as sagebrush country.

I made this photograph in direct sunlight and the trees are not even backlit. The light comes from the side, and that does highlight the color of the leaves a bit, but this is closer to what aspen trees look like in “normal” light. This little line of trees grows along the course of a small stream that comes from much higher up in the mountains. The little stream brings just enough moisture to this dry area to support the trees and other plants.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Berry Plants

Image Leave a comment
Autumn Berry Plants
“Autumn Berry Plants” — A vining berry plant with autumn colors, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This is a sort of accidental photograph. I had stopped along an Eastern Sierra road to photograph a grove of autumn aspen trees that were in soft light, shaded by a nearby hill. The subject initially looked promising — colorful trees, nice light, a creek flowing nearby. However, despite wandering slowly for some time I could not find an aspen subject that interested me. (Oddly, this happens sometimes with aspen trees — they can look great from a distance, but once I’m up close it can be very challenging to find interesting compositions.)

In any case, giving up on aspens I started looking around for other subjects. As I walked out of the grove and was ready to depart, I saw these berry vines growing close to the ground and winding around the trunks of trees. Taking care to avoid the thorns — yes, I’ve been “bitten” before — I moved in close and worked with the interesting colors and textures of the leaves in the soft light.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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