Tag Archives: pass

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees and Boulder, Morning

September 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Morning light on a boulder and a small group of trees growing on a granite slab in the Yosemite high country.

I suppose this sort of shot is turning up with a great deal of frequency among my photographs. I can’t help myself – I’m crazy about the combination of back (or side) lit trees, granite slabs and boulders, and haze obscured mountains, forests, and domes. I suppose this may be because such views, especially early and late in the day, seem to me to characterize the high country of Yosemite as much as just about any other feature.

This group of trees grows in a well-known location, and I drove to it before sunrise so that I could be out and about and looking for light from the get-go. This is a location that I have shot quite a few times in the past, so I feel like I’m getting more of a handle on what some of the possibilities and potentials are. On this morning I began nearby in a spot where there were lots of long shadows still, and after the sun rose a bit higher I moved on to this area of granite slabs and glacial erratic boulders, looking for trees that could stand against the more distant background of the glaciated granite forms with sparse trees growing here and there – in fact, on that far ridge they grow much the same way as the trees that are the central focus of this image.. There is almost always some haze here at this time of day, but it may have been just a bit thicker than usual due to a fire on the east side of the Sierra.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Forest And Meadow, Evening Haze

August 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Evening haze settles on the Sierra Nevada above forest and meadow near Lee Vining Creek.

Atmospheric haze and I have a special relationship. ;-) While I love crystal clear alpine air, I’m far more fond of “interesting” atmospheric conditions that involve haze that may partially obscure certain details, accentuate distance contrasts between close and far objects, take on interesting colorations, and even glow when lit from behind. During this early August visit to the Sierra on both sides of Tioga Pass, I encountered some significant haze from a serious wildfire in the Mammoth Lakes area. One one hand, this complicated (or rendered nearly impossible!) certain types of “grand landscape” photographs since the constant brown, smoggy haze isn’t quite what we typically are looking for. However, to me this most certainly does not mean that photography and even landscape photography cannot be done. Not only can it be done, but these conditions can create possibilities that are difficult or impossible to find in more typical conditions. (However, in reality, wildfire smoke is “typical” in the Sierra and many other places during certain times of the year.)

There are a number of ways to use smoke and haze in photographs. In this case I found primary foreground subjects that were close enough that they were not obscured. The haze, however, quickly muted the contrast and color of parts of the scene that were even a short distance away on the other side of the valley. The dark, backlit forms of the near trees stand out against this muted background rather than disappearing into the complex patterns and textures of the more distant forest. The backlight had a few other beneficial effects. It intensifies the colors of the low plants growing beneath and between the trees. It creates a sort of highlighting effect on near and far trees, giving a bit more relief to their textures. And it adds a bit of a glow to that smoke and haze, to the point the further alpine slopes in the upper left show only the barest details.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Granite, and Sky Near Olmsted Point

July 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunset light on a trees and weathered granite slabs above Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

This is another “opportunistic photograph” made on my way back home from a three-day mid-September backpacking trip in the eastern Sierra. We had finished up at the McGee Creek trailhead around 3:00, gotten cleaned up, headed into Mammoth Lakes for a celebratory post-trip Mexican dinner, and I found myself on the road back toward the Bay Area close to 5:00 p.m. I figured that this might well get me over Tioga Pass close to 6:00 p.m. and allow me to find some place with suitably interesting subjects and light before the sun went down. I crossed the pass on schedule, then passed through Tuolumne Meadows (where I had photographed a few days earlier), and decided that it would be a good idea to go a bit further west – and a bit closer to home! – before stopping to shoot.

Most of the interesting light was gone when I got to Tenaya Lake, so I figured I might as well head up to Olmsted Point and see what I could find. Obviously, the classic “back side” view of Half Dome is there, as well as the view back toward Tenaya Lake and Mount Conness. I stopped and picked out an “insurance” shot of Half Dome, though the light initially didn’t look all that spectacular. While talking to some other visitors I missed a bit of lovely light on Conness, though I probably didn’t have a long enough lens anyway. (I was traveling light, with only the limited set of equipment that I take backpacking.) However, besides the obvious there is quite a bit of other interesting stuff to see right around Olmsted, especially late in the day when the last light slants across low ridges to the west and picks up bits and pieces of the landscape – a tree here, a rock there. This little vignette was high on the granite slabs above Olmsted, and as a bit of late light glanced across the rocks and trees, an angled bit of cloud passed by, mirroring the angle of the ridge.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Wildfire Survivors, Morning

July 18, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on tall trees spared by a wildfire, Yosemite National Park

This is a sort of sad but hopeful portion of Yosemite. This valley, along the Tioga Pass Road, was badly burned back in the 1990s in a fire that burned upslope from the Foresta area and through old forest than had not burned in a long time. Back in the days of fire suppression, during the decades without fire a lot of undergrowth grew up and many fallen trees and other sorts of flammable debris collected. The result of Smokey Bear’s call to “prevent forest fires” was the creation of a very fuel rich forest environment and produced super-fires that were so hot that they not only consumed undergrowth but killed mature trees. This fire was one of those, and the forest in this valley near the upper reaches of the fire, just before it was halted at Tioga Pass Road, was almost completely decimated.

At first I found the sight to be depressing. Gradually I have come to regard fire as a normal part of forest ecology and can now see some stark beauty in its aftermath. However, this valley has remained a scar and a blunt reminder of why managing natural fires, along with other measures, makes for a better strategy. After a few years I began to think that there might be a photograph in this valley, though I stopped for several years without seeing anything that would work. I began to think that it might be good to try to photograph late in the day when area is open to the evening sky in the west – but I stopped a number of times and it just wasn’t right. However, on this trip I passed by early in the morning, just as the sun was topping a ridge to the east (left) and lighting up this small group of older trees that survived the original fire and now form a little outpost of forest against the desolate face of the far hillside.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: pass

Trees and Boulder, Morning

Forest And Meadow, Evening Haze

Trees, Granite, and Sky Near Olmsted Point

Wildfire Survivors, Morning

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