Reflections, Trees and Rocks, Morning Light. Yosemite National Park, California. September 19, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on shoreline trees and rocks at a back-country sub-alpine lake, Yosemite National Park.

I had the chance to shoot around this lake on three successive mornings. The first morning was, to some extent, more about wandering around and getting the feel of the place – though I did make photographs, too. But on the second and third mornings I had figured out what and when I wanted to photograph and I was able to more or less get right to work. Up before dawn, I walked to the far shore before the sun rose, where there was still frost on the shoreline meadows and I could shoot in the soft, early light. Soon, as the sun rose above the ridge to our east, the sun light began to make its way down to the lake, first hitting the tops of trees along the west shore, then lighting the shoreline itself, and eventually moving up the lake and lighting up trees, water, rocky islands, shoreline boulders, and the forest.

In situations like this there are several specific things that I look for and like to shoot. I love to photograph the backlit trees, pointing my camera almost directly toward the sun. The trees light up and their colors intensify. I also watch for forested slopes that climb to the east, like the one on the far side of the lake in this photograph. As the sun rises higher, the slanting beams of light begin to pick off the tops of the forest trees, and can still leave a darker background for those other backlit trees. Of course, such shooting does present a few challenges. Obviously, shooting straight into the light creates some serious flare issues, and I improvise all sorts of interesting ways to shield the lens from direct light: my hat, hands and arms held in the air, you name it. When shooting over the water it can be even trickier since you have “two suns” producing flare – the real sun in the sky, and the very intense reflected sun coming up from the water. Bugs can also be a problem! Just like the trees, shoreline mosquitos and flies also pick up that wonderful backlight… and when they are thick enough they can create little blurry stripes all over the frame. (This leads to loads of oh-so-fun work with the clone tool in post!)

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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