Tag Archives: range

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

Small Tree and Pothole

Image October 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The more time I spend wandering around and photographing on granite domes and slabs, the more astonished I am at the trees and other plants that find ways to survive in the most marginal of conditions. Often we look at the trees growing on these domes and perhaps fail to consider how old they are — a three-foot tree here may be a mature tree — or how tenuously they seem to find sustenance in small cracks, potholes, and low spots where a bit of soil collects. In fact, as the trees and other plants take hold they seem to create their own soil as needles and old growth decay in these places.

Somehow this little tree managed to take root and survive in a small pothole in otherwise smooth granite, no doubt taking advantage of the fact that the bit of soil in the pothole holds some moisture. In typical form, the tree appears twisted and stunted, being perhaps only a couple of feet long and with a trunk that seems to have had a hard time making up its mind about which way to grow. The tree does not stand up from the rock at all, instead lying flat on its reddish surface.

Note: Edited slightly in 2024.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Shoreline Boulder and Meadow, Subalpine Lake

September 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Boulders, grasses, and trees along the shoreline of a subalpine lake, Yosemite National Park

Some aspects of landscape photography remind me, perhaps in a strange way, of spring skiing. In the spring there is still often plenty of snow, but the temperature swings between sub-freezing nights and warm days have some big effects on the snow. In the morning the re-frozen snow can be so hard that it is almost like trying to ski on a tilting ice rink, and you can easily find yourself skittering across the surface out of control. By late afternoon the warm temperatures melt the snow and can turn it into a slippery slush, and it can be like skiing on oatmeal. But at just the right moment, as the surface of the snow begins to soften but the lower layers are still firm, some of the best skiing possible can occur for a short period each day.

When photography in early or late light, I encounter something very similar — though with a bit of creativity it is possible to stretch things just a bit. Let’s take the afternoon, the time of day when I made this photograph of a simple scene near the outlet stream of a subalpine lake. I began my work a couple of hours before sunset, when the light was still clearly “daytime light.” The sun’s angle is higher, the shadows are more start, the light has a blue quality. As the evening approaches, there is a point at which the light seems to mellow and warm, the shadows lengthen and fill with a bit of reflected light… and almost everything begins to look beautiful. But at this point things change very quickly. I might find myself spotting a bit of light on a branch or a rock, and by the time I’m set up it has moved. While this time seems conducive to looking and contemplating, it is actually a time when I often have to work quickly before the “good light” is gone. This little scene, which is nothing all that special in objective term, was such a scene — a brief moment of warm light slanting through shoreline trees and across meadow grasses, and a few moments later the day ended.

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

Lake, Ridges, Evening Light

September 16, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mountaintop trees stand above a sub-alpine lake, dome, and ridge in evening light, Yosemite National Park

In early September — before the big fire not far from here — I was among a group of photographers who spent a bit more than a week in the Yosemite back-country chasing late summer subjects in the Range of Light. The rough outline of the adventure was that the group packed in to a remote lake with expansive views, stayed there for about five days, then adjourned to a nearby area at a lower elevation for a few more days before heading back out. The “Meadow Fire” between Clouds Rest and Mount Starr King started late in our trip, but this photograph was made a few days earlier when skies were still beautifully clear.

Days on this kind of trip revolve almost completely around photographic opportunities. By staying on one place for a few days we are able to explore our surroundings more extensively and get a better idea of the prospects for photographs and the best times to make them. A typical day begins very early in the morning, when we arise quietly before sunrise and head out in various directions, goals in mind. After a few hours of photography the light becomes a bit less interesting and we reassemble in camp for breakfast. After that we have a few hours of mostly non-photographic time — for lunch, for camp chores, reading, and even a nap. Dinner comes early, with preparations starting around 3:00, and a few hours before sunset we head out once again. On this evening I chose to climb a nearby ridge of granite slabs and glacial erratics where stubborn trees find a living in cracks in the rock overlooking a nearby lake and one of the main ridges of the Yosemite back-country.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Nevada

Nevada Sky

September 4, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cloud-filled evening sky above the basin and range country of Nevada

Speeding across northern Nevada on the California Zephyr, bound for Chicago and then New York City, the first day of our trip was coming to an end as evening arrived somewhere between Winnemuca and Elko Nevada. We began the day at the western terminus of the rail line in Emeryville, California, then crossed the Sierra in thunderstorm weather, passed through Reno, and then headed northeast into the basin and range country and the Humboldt Basin. The sky continued to be filled with monsoon clouds — showers were visible in the distance and there were periodic dust clouds raised by the wind.

During most of this traverse between Reno and Winnemuca it was difficult to see how to make a photograph from the train. Shooting through train windows is, to say the least, a challenge — reflections, spots on the windows, and the close by landscape speeding past an image-blurring speeds. But as we got to Winnemuca the light began to change, and what had been low contrast and gray began to acquire the warmer late day colors, and the clouds began to thin enough that there was now a mixture of sky and towering clouds. This is one of several photographs that I made during the last few minutes of decent light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: range

Small Tree and Pothole

Shoreline Boulder and Meadow, Subalpine Lake

Lake, Ridges, Evening Light

Nevada Sky

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