Tag Archives: pasture

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Mount Tom, Late Afternoon Light in Round Valley

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Mount Tom, Late Afternoon Light in Round Valley
Mount Tom, Late Afternoon Light in Round Valley

Mount Tom, Late Afternoon Light in Round Valley. Owens Valley, California. October 9, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mount Tom rises above Round Valley as afternoon autumn light falls on trees and pastures.

I drive past this spot every time I pass through the Bishop area in the eastern Sierra. Descending toward Bishop, Highway 395 passes through Round Valley, and I am always intrigued by the rangeland in this area, the trees that grow in the pastures, and the steep eastern slopes of the Sierra beyond. I have an image of these trees with fall colors backed by the lower slopes of the mountains… but that is a photograph that so far only exists in my mind! At some point I want to find time to really photograph this spot, but in the meantime I often stop and occasionally explore here a bit as I pass through.

My early October visit was a bit too early for real fall color in Round Valley, though a few trees were starting to turn here and there. As I drove north from the Bishop area I wasn’t expecting really spectacular color, but as I started up the grade that leaves this valley I caught a glimpse of warm light on these trees as the sun was about to drop behind the ridge. I didn’t quite have time to pull over and turn around so I continued up the road a distance and finally located a turn-around, reversed direction, and headed back down to the spot where I had seen this light. It was almost gone when I arrived, even though it had only been a few minutes. Using the lens that was already on the camera I quickly set up my tripod and managed a few exposures as the light left the groves of trees in the foreground.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Grazing Cattle and Aspen Groves, Conway Summit

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Grazing Cattle and Aspen Groves, Conway Summit
Grazing Cattle and Aspen Groves, Conway Summit

Grazing Cattle and Aspen Groves, Conway Summit. Sierra Nevada, California. October 10, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cattle graze in front of large aspen groves near Conway Summit, California.

Just about anyone who has every photographed aspens in the area around Lee Vining is probably familiar with this location – and I’ve certainly shot there quite a few times. From highway 395 the aspens extend west and up toward the peaks of the Sierra crest, and the at the right hour in the late afternoon the backlight can light up the leaves of the trees. When I visited this time the trees were in transition with some still green, others very colorful, and some almost leafless already. I was also lucky to have some clouds at the end of several cloudless days of photography. (Normal people like perfect blue sky, but photographers are not normal – we tend to like weather!) When I saw the clouds starting to form above the crest early in the afternoon I thought that something interesting might happen later near Conway so I made a point of heading that direction.

This photograph features, of all things, cattle – not my usual subject, perhaps! The area where these aspens grow seems to be at least as much a pasture as it is aspen groves, and I’ve seen cattle grazing in this spot before. (See comments for a note from a member of the family that owns the land.) As the clouds created shadows over the higher slopes in the background, for a moment the sun still hit the foreground trees and these cattle.

This shot also ties in with my recent post on using various focal lengths for landscape photography, in that this photograph was made with what some might regard as an unlikely landscape lens, a 100-400mm zoom! But in this case, this lens at 250mm was just what I needed to more tightly frame the bit of foreground pasture and sunlit trees and compress the distance between them and the shadowed hills beyond.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Meadow, Hills, and Fence

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Meadow, Hills, and Fence

Meadow, Hills, and Fence. Calero Hills, California. April 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft morning light on spring meadow and pasture as fog burns off in the Calero Hills.

I made this photograph on my Saturday morning hike as the fog began to break up over these rolling hills in the Calero Park of southern Santa Clara County. I walk past this scene frequently as it is on a trail that I hike quite often – but this soft light on spring plants is special since it only lasts a few weeks each year.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: calero, hills, park, county, santa clara, morning, light, fog, mist, cloud, fold, rolling, flower, grass, fence, meadow, pasture, tree, oak, ridge, mountain, gully, creek, bottom, california, usa, scenic, landscape, nature, stock, spring

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

July Sky and Fence

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July Sky and Fence
July Sky and Fence. Central California. July 4, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cloudy July sky over a hilltop fence line in Central California. While it might make a better story if I had made this photograph is some exotic place, I’m afraid that I saw this scene on an afternoon at a nearby place where I frequently hike. This is why I always carry my camera when I hike…

keywords: california, usa, santa clara county, grassland, grass, meadow, sky, cloud, hill, pasture, fence, skyline, ridge, range, landscape, scenic, stock, nature, west, quicksilver, park