Tag Archives: pass

Commentary, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Cascade in Lee Vining Canyon, Autumn Snow (black and white)

Leave a comment
Cascade in Lee Vining Canyon, Autumn Snow (black and white)

Cascade in Lee Vining Canyon, Autumn Snow (black and white). Sierra Nevada, California. October 12, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cascade on Lee Vining Creek on an autumn afternoon following an early snowfall.

I’ll make the text short this time since yesterday’s post included the same photo – and the backstory – in color. So this is a black and white version of the same photograph from Lee Vining Canyon. I thought I’d try this since a) there wasn’t really a lot of color in the scene and b) the “cold” effect of the scene seems to work fairly well either way.

keywords: lee vining, creek, canyon, cascade, water, fall, waterfall, blur, motion, forest, ice, snow, fall, autumn, fall, october, cold, tree, bush, rock, boulder, log, scenic, travel, landscape, stock, california, usa, sierra, nevada, tioga, pass, yosemite, national park, black and white

Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Cascade in Lee Vining Canyon, Autumn Snow

1 Comment
Cascade in Lee Vining Canyon, Autumn Snow

Cascade in Lee Vining Canyon, Autumn Snow. Sierra Nevada, California. October 12, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cascade on Lee Vining Creek on an autumn afternoon following an early snowfall.

On my second trip to the eastern Sierra this fall – a much less successful trip than the first one a week earlier – I visited Lee Vining Canyon in the late afternoon, after the sun had retreated behind the very high peaks around Tioga Pass, leaving the bottom of the canyon in shadow. My last stop in the canyon was at this well-known cascade near the Bend campground. I did several long exposures of the cascade so that the water would diffuse. As you can see, the fall foliage here was less spectacular than in some other years, but the recent snow on the branches and the creek bank along with the frozen water under the overhang at the upper right created a wintery quality in the scene.

keywords: lee vining, creek, canyon, cascade, water, fall, waterfall, blur, motion, forest, ice, snow, fall, autumn, fall, october, cold, tree, bush, rock, boulder, log, scenic, travel, landscape, stock, california, usa, sierra, nevada, tioga, pass, yosemite, national park

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Evening, Tenaya Lake, From Near Olmsted Point

Leave a comment
Evening, Tenaya Lake, From Near Olmsted Point

Evening, Tenaya Lake, From Near Olmsted Point. Yosemite National Park, California. September 8, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of early evening light on Tenaya Lake and surrounding valley and peaks as viewed from near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park, California.

On this late summer evening I had just hiked out from a three-day backcountry photography pack trip, driven over Tioga Pass to grab a bit at Tioga Pass Resort, and was starting my drive home from the park. I happened to pass by Olmsted Point (where I don’t stop all that often these days) just as the sun was getting read to drop behind the ridge to the west of the point. To my mind, this is just about the most beautiful time of day at this spot, especially as the low angle sun illuminates rocks in the Olmsted Point area and begins to leave the valley holding Tenaya Lake. To make a long story short, I spent 30-45 minutes photographing here before heading home, and I make a few exposures of Tenaya just as the last light was hitting some of the nearby trees in the foreground.

keywords: black and white, early, evening, afternoon, tenaya, lake, olmsted, point, yosemite, national park, california, usa, tree, rock, forest, boulder, dome, peak, mountain, ridge, cloud, conness, tioga, road, pass, tuolumne, meadows, scenic, landscape, travel, stock, shadow

Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lakes Below Duck Pass, Afternoon Showers

Leave a comment
Lakes Below Duck Pass, Afternoon Showers
Lakes Below Duck Pass, Afternoon Showers

Lakes Below Duck Pass, Afternoon Showers. Sierra Nevada, California. August 5, 2005. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sun breaks through the clouds to illuminate lakes and surrounding meadows in the valley below Duck Pass near Mammoth Lakes, California.

This is an older shot that I recently realized has not yet been posted here. There is a bit of an ironic story behind getting this shot. A few days earlier some friends and I had started on a 14-day backpacking along a good size chunk of the John Muir Trail. (Including one short section that I have yet to hike!) After about four days on the trail we arrived an Purple Lake, a bit south of Mammoth, where I began to feel a bit “under the weather.” Because the next portion of the hike would travel across a section of the JMT that doesn’t provide many quick exits in case of emergency, I decided that I would evaluate my condition the next morning before heading on.

I still didn’t feel great when I awoke so, being cautious, I regretfully left the rest of my group and backtracked towards Duck Pass with a plan to exit to Mammoth Lakes and head home. So, it was an accident that found me descending this section below Duck Pass in this wonderful weather of mixed thundershowers alternating with bursts of sunlight – and which put me in the right place at the right time to see this beautiful scene as sunlight passed across this set of lakes.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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