Tag Archives: photography

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

Mount Morgan and Slopes of McGee Mountain, Morning

October 18, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning light on the lower slopes of McGee Mountain, the McGee Creek Canyon area and snow-capped Mount Morgan, with Owens Valley sagebrush and hills in the foreground.

I began my early morning shoot in Owens Valley near a small lake further to the east where I wanted to photograph dawn light. I had a plan to shoot a few other subjects in the valley and back toward the Sierra crest as the sun rose and the light changed, and part of this plan included driving along a gravel road I know to a spot where I had photographed before to try to combine the high desert sagebrush and rolling hills with some of the tall and rugged, snow-topped peaks along the escarpment of the eastern Sierra. I found a spot in the general area of where I wanted to photograph and then wandered off down a small dirt track to find a location that would put the foreground shadow across the lower part of the frame.

The area of the Sierra in this photograph includes the sunlit lower slopes of McGee Mountain on the right, McGee Creek Canyon beyond that, and ridges leading to the snow-capped summit of Mount Morgan. I’m not certain whether they are visible in this photograph, but beyond that lies Pioneer Basin (on the other side of the crest) and a group of four peaks named for the “Railroad Barons” of the 1800s: Crocker, Stanford, Huntington, and Hopkins.

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.

keywords: owens, valley, sage, sagebrush, hills, high, desert, mount, morgan, snow, capped, peak, ridg

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

Eastern Sierra Nevada, Alkali Lake, Dawn

October 17, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 7 Comments

Snow-dusted peaks of the eastern Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes illuminated by dawn light and reflected in the surface of an Owens Valley alkali lake.

I like to stay flexible when I photograph so even though my original reason for traveling to the eastern Sierra was to photograph fall aspen color, when it seemed that other subjects might be just as interesting I switched gears and headed out into Owens Valley to photograph this high desert region and the morning views from there of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada. I first got this idea the previous morning while driving towards some prospective aspen color before dawn when I saw the outlines of fog over Crowley Lake and other areas of the valley. I ended up shooting along Hot Creek as fog rose from the water and the Sierra crest broke through in the distance. (Photos of that scene will likely appear here later on.) On my way to Hot Creek I passed this lake and decided not to stop since it looked like photography workshop participants were already crowded along one shore.

The next morning I once again thought that I’d start my day out in Owens Valley. This time I went straight to this lake – which I believe is known as “Little Alkali Lake” – and found it completely deserted and the water totally still. It remained that way as I made my way to the far shore and set up before sunrise. In this part of Owens Valley, on cold mornings there are clouds and columns of steam rising all around, coming from the many hot springs that remind one of the volcanic forces hidden just below the surface of this area. Some of the steam sources are visible across the lake in the photograph. Soon the dawn light began to touch the highest peaks and then work its way down toward the rolling hills of the valley floor, reflected in the smooth water of this small lake. This part of the Sierra includes an impressive group of peaks including Mounts Morrison, Baldwin, and Morgan along with McGee Mountain.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, Evening, Rock Creek

October 16, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A nearly bare aspen grove in soft evening light – Rock Creek, Sierra Nevada.

I had visited this area the previous week at the end of a day of intense shooting, but by the time I arrived on that earlier date I found stunning aspen colors… and weather that had become too nasty for me to shoot in. So I filed away my memory of the place and registered my intention to come back and shoot here later when the conditions and light might be right. Since I’m not so fond, in general, of photographing aspens in full sun, my plan was to eventually return either very early in the morning or late in the day when I could work in softer and diffused light. Recognizing that tall mountains to the west would block the light fairly early in the evening, my main plan was to come back late in the day.

I had this plan in mind when I started shooting on this day, so throughout the day as I visited and photographed other locations I was aware that I eventually needed to work my way north to be up Rock Creek as the day ended. In the afternoon I investigated Pine Creek – and interesting place but nothing grabbed me – and then photographed some trees in Round Valley in the last light that washed over them as the sun started to drop behind the ridges near Mount Morrison. Then I headed north on highway 395, turned off at Tom’s Place, and headed up Rock Creek.

Much of the intense color of the previous weekend was now gone – a few days of rain and snow had taken down many of those leaves, and in many places the remaining leaves had not yet changed colors. As I worked my way up and down the road looking for subjects I noted one small grove near the road, but since I didn’t see a good place to pull over I kept going. Finally, I decided that this little grove might be my best opportunity before the light disappeared, so I returned and found a narrow place to pull off the road. While I love the brilliantly colored aspen trees that attract all of us to the eastern Sierra at this time of year, I also like the bare or nearly bare aspen trunks after the leaves have fallen, especially when they have interesting shapes or are packed together in tight groves like this one.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Aspens and Peaks Above North Lake, Morning

October 15, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Morning light on colorful autumn aspens below the alpine ridges and peaks at North Lake, Sierra Nevada, California.

This was a particularly beautiful morning at iconic North Lake in the Bishop Creek drainage of the eastern Sierra Nevada. While dozens of photographers lined up tripod-to-tripod at the lower end of the lake, I decided to look elsewhere. After spending some productive time walking the road along the shoreline of the lake and searching out some of the smaller and perhaps less-obvious subjects, I saw the conjunction of this very colorful group of aspens at the bottom of the frame, the morning light on the peaks and broken by the passing clouds, and the carpets of smaller aspen trees ascending the higher slopes of Piute Crags. Rather than doing the classic “lake with mountain shot” that we’ve seen so often from North Lake – and it is a wonderful view! – I thought I’d try to more tightly frame these portions of the scene that got my attention.

I made this photograph with what some might regard as a somewhat unusual landscape lens, the Canon EF 135mm f/2 prime. This is a really wonderful lens that is often used for other subjects such as low light photographs of people and even for portrait work. It is a wonderful lens – in many ways not all that flashy, but just a very reliable and quality performer. I’ve written before that I most often use zoom lenses to shoot landscapes – and there are a number of reasons for this that I won’t go into right now – but I also carry a small number of primes when shooting like this, and if I have the time to work more slowly and the composition works for one of the primes I’ll use it instead.

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.

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