Tag Archives: peak

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sierra Light, Reflection

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Sierra Light, Reflection
First light on a backcountry Sierra Nevada lake and ridge

Sierra Light, Reflection. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First light on a backcountry Sierra Nevada lake and ridge

This is an older photograph that I recently came across as I went back through old image files. (I do this from time to time, and I invariably find something that I missed the first time around. ) We were on a pack trip out of the Mammoth Lakes area and on the trail for perhaps five days, moving among a series of lakes that all were under the watchful eye of the peaks in the photograph.

I was up early and perhaps a bit disappointed in the perfectly blue sky. However, as the first dawn light struck the peaks, it produced a perfect reflection in the surface of the lake, broken only by the pair of boulders, placed here in the composition to break up the mirror-image symmetry. While clouds in the sky might have been interesting, the smooth blue gradients reflected in the water make the peaks seem to float.

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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.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Mount Dana, Stormy Sky

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Mount Dana, Stormy Sky
Thunderstorm clouds begin to assemble above Mount Dana, Yosemite National Park

Mount Dana, Stormy Sky. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thunderstorm clouds begin to assemble above Mount Dana, Yosemite National Park

In this case I’ll make a bit of an exception to my usual rule and identify this peak by name. It is Mount Dana, a mountain well-known to folks who pass over Tioga Pass on the eastern boundary of Yosemite National Park, as it towers directly above the pass and is automatically the dominant feature of the landscape here. I climbed it once, many years ago, and have never been up it again, with the exception of one aborted attempt with one of my sons quite a few years ago. (We got up to the edge of the first plateau, only to discover a problem with his shoes.) My single ascent was a formative moment for me in the mountains. I can’t have been much older than 12-14 years old, and I was there with my parents and siblings. There was a ranger-led ascent, and my younger siblings weren’t ready for a 3,000′ climb to slightly over 13,000′, so they sent me alone with the group. (My memory is understandably hazy, but it may have been led by Carl Sharsmith.) I barely recall the summit, but I surely recall the climb, and I have a distinct memory of being at the top and looking down to see some hearty mountaineer type striding straight up the talus slopes across which we had just dragged our non-acclimatized bodies. I was impressed, and that image remains with me.

For such an important peak, it isn’t one I photograph a lot, with the exception of some long-lens photographs from the Tuolumne Meadows area. However, I’m aware of a view alternate views of the mountain, including this one that appeared as I returned from a hike just outside the park. The view from this spot is often a bit bland, frequently in full sun with blue sky. But on this day I was blessed with building clouds that still were broken just enough to let light and shadow move across the face of the peak.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Wildflowers, Lake, Peak

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Wildflowers, Lake, Peak
Paintbrush flowers in the lakeshore meadow of a subalpine lake below the Sierra Nevada crest

Wildflowers, Lake, Peak. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Paintbrush flowers in the lakeshore meadow of a subalpine lake below the Sierra Nevada crest

This is pretty much a classic Sierra Nevada high country scene, from the zone this is my favorite — the region just below the tree line, where there the landscape is usually open and filled with rocky meadows and lakes and towering peaks. The intimate shorelines of the small high-country lakes and tarns are special, and more than once I’ve managed to spend a significant amount of time simply lounging by them in the middle of the day.

I reached this spot by way of a longer hike around a large lake, starting my walk close to sunrise. One side of the upper end of this lake features open forests, while the other side is an area of meadows and boulders, though which flows the outlet of the smaller lake in this photograph. I arrived by myself and went to work making photographs, mostly of the lake itself and the surrounding alpine scenery. After a while I finishing that work and commenced the serious business of sitting on a large rock and staring for a while. Finally, it was time to start thinking about my return hike, but before I departed I wandered over to this shoreline where these brilliant red flowers had caught my attention.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Forest, Peaks, And Snow

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Forest, Peaks, And Snow
Storm clears above snow-dusted peaks near Tuolumne Meadows.

Forest, Peaks, And Snow. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Storm clears above snow-dusted peaks near Tuolumne Meadows.

I suspect that most Sierra visitors and residents have certain special places that have long-time associations, certain views that we almost always must stop for, no matter how many times we have seen them. Since the first high country experiences I can recall were in and around Tuolumne Meadows, it is probably no surprise that it is the location of several of those places for me. I have collected these spots for years — decades, actually — and they range from a particular rock outcropping — I stop to visit at the beginning and end of every season — to bigger and more familiar views. I understand that I’m not the only person who counts the first view of Tuolumne Meadows and surrounding peaks, seen along the road at the west end, as one of these places.

Tioga Pass Road opened for the season this past week. I missed opening day, but I did manage a long up-and-back one-day drive a couple of days later. Tuolumne looks quite different at this time of the season, especially if your main experience is limited to the short alpine summer when the snow is mostly gone and the meadow is mostly green. At this early date the meadow is brown (though you can see first shoots of new growth if you look closely), the river is flooding over its banks, and a lot of snow is still on the high peaks. In fact, new snow had just fallen above 11,000′ or so. This photograph does not show the whole view, instead focusing on a bit of meadow, a lot of forest, snow-capped peaks, and the clouds at the tail end of a spring storm

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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