Tag Archives: pine

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

Spring Flood, Tuolumne River

March 31, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Tuolumne River floods during the spring runoff, Yosemite National Park.

The 2010-11 winter brought above average or record snowfall to the Sierra Nevada, and the Tioga Pass Road through Yosemite National Park opened later than usual. Many of us who were feeling the pent-up need to see the high country headed up there as soon as the road opened. I spent a weekend in the Tioga Pass area and got in two days of early season high Sierra photography.

Those who have only seen this area during the more usual summer season in July and August might be very surprised by what it looks like when the road first opens. At and below the nearly 10,000′ elevation of the pass there was still a lot of snow, and lakes were frozen even down at the 8000′ level. Trail hiking, as appealing as it might sound, is quite difficult as you have to cross a lot of snow, cross very fast-moving and cold streams, and negotiate lots of flooded and muddy areas. This spot is a wonderful case in point. A few weeks later you would find people hiking and lounging about it meadow grasses where the water is seen in this photograph. The early season Tuolumne River was so full that it left its banks in many areas, finding new paths through the forests and flooding many meadows which took on more of the appearance of lakes. (Large sections of the main Tuolumne Meadow were also completely submerged at this point.) It is a wonderful time in the Sierra – still with a bit of the feeling of winter, but also with the promise of summer everywhere.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are 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: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Pine Cones and Ice, Reflected Sky

March 28, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pine cones on morning ice, blue with reflected light from the sky, Yosemite National Park.

I’m on a bit of a minor Yosemite run right now, as I’ve found a bit of extra time to get back to my review of the past ten year’s of image files. I had almost completed the task earlier this year, but the work stalled out a few months back somewhere in the spring of 2011. I’m now up to June of that year and hoping to continue the slog!

I made this photograph right about the time that Tioga Pass first opened for the season – not the first day, but very close to it. I had gotten up very early that morning to photograph in the pre-dawn cold near Tioga Pass, and from there began to work my way back to the west towards Tuolumne Meadows. I stopped at a small roadside lake to photograph a larger scene and as I was setting up for that shot I looked down and noticed the newly formed ice with its fractured texture reflecting the morning’s blue sky and supporting a variety of things that had blown down including a couple of pine cones. If you look carefully you can just make out rocks and grasses beneath the ice.

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Joshua Tree Forest

February 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Joshua tree forest in the Inyo Mountains near Eureka Valley.

At the end of my January 2012 visit to Death Valley National Park, I exited to the north, stopping for an evening and a morning at the Eureka Valley Dunes, and then heading out to the north toward Big Pine. This was my first drive across this route, so I got to see some brand new (to me) California territory. The drive began by retracing the route along the gravel road to the dunes, then rejoined the main road – still gravel – coming up from the Park. This road was in great shape, well graded and wide, as it headed out of Eureka Valley and into the Inyo Mountains.

After entering the Inyos, it wasn’t very long before pavement resumed – which is a welcome thing at this point, since I had been almost entirely on gravel roads, some badly washboarded, for something like 65 miles or more at this point. As the road climbed out of Eureka Valley and up a mountain canyon it soon passed through fairly large joshua tree forests. Since I hadn’t eaten yet today and it was now past mid-morning, I took this as an opportunity to stop for some breakfast/lunch and to photograph these fascinating trees, here stretching across waves of sage and brush covered hills backed by higher hills that were still in shadow.

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

Broken Branches

December 16, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The broken branches of a fallen tree on the ground in the back-country of Yosemite National Park.

These branches belong to what is left of a tree that fell in the area around our campsite in the north east section of the back-country of Yosemite National Park. On a couple of mornings during the time we were there doing photography, I began my morning by wandering a bit through this section of forest, meadow, and dried-up ponds, looking for whatever little miniature landscapes I might find.

Dried and broken branches of fallen and dead trees intrigue me, though they can make very difficult subjects to photograph. Light and color are tricky – too much light and it is difficult to get shadow detail without washing out the highlights; too little light and the subject can go flat and pick up blue tones. And sometimes the patterns are so complex and disorganized as to nearly defy my efforts to make any sort of compositional sense out of them.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: pine

Spring Flood, Tuolumne River

Pine Cones and Ice, Reflected Sky

Joshua Tree Forest

Broken Branches

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