Tag Archives: recess

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Trees, Tarn, Mountains

Leave a comment
Trees, Tarn, Mountains
Late afternoon skies darken above alpine peaks and a meadow holding a small reflecting tarn

Trees, Tarn, Mountains. John Muir Wilderness, California. August 28, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late afternoon skies darken above alpine peaks and a meadow holding a small reflecting tarn

No, I’m still not finished with the photographs from our nine-day photographic sojourn into the John Muir Wilderness, on which a group of us base camped in a stunning backcountry location and wandered off daily to photograph the area. Today, on a morning that is the first one of the season to feel winter-like here, it seems both odd and pleasant to think back on these summer days of photography, friends, sun, thunder showers, green meadows and flowers, cross-country hikes into high places, and more.

This meadow and its tarn were located perhaps 10-15 minutes above the location of our camp, and once we “discovered” the place we visited almost daily. It was a stunning place, filled with green meadow plants and wildflowers and surrounded by alpine scenery. The mountains to our south were a daily presence as they rose on the other side of a deep river canyon, and I had wanted to photograph this small tarn since I first saw it. That became my focus on this visit, and this photograph is one of several in which I tried to combine the meadow, tarn, small trees, and the distant view.

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 | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Paintbrush Flowers, Meadow

Leave a comment

Paintbrush Flowers, Meadow
Late-August paintbrush flowers blooming in a Sierra Nevada meadow

Paintbrush Flowers, Meadow. John Muir Wilderness, California. August 29, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late-August paintbrush flowers blooming in a Sierra Nevada meadow

This photograph takes me back a couple of months, and now that autumn is here and aspen season has mostly come and gone, that late summer time seems a long ways off. We were part of a group of photographers and friends who made our way to this backcountry location, where we base-camped and photographed the nearby mountains for nine glorious days. In a more typical summer this part of the Sierra would likely be rather dry by late August, but in this year of record precipitation the meadows were still green and wildflowers were abundant.

We camped on a glacial moraine above this meadow and lake. Despite the size of our group and our presence here for more than a week, I’m confident that most other visitors to the lake would not have even seen our camp. (If they came through in the early morning or evening hours they probably would have found us out making photographs.) Although we stayed here, it wasn’t until rather late in the trip that I finally got around to photographing this meadow. I guess it was too close that I focused more on subjects that were a bit further away. The photograph focuses on the multi-colored paintbrush flowers growing in the meadow, and it includes the mountains across the valley that were “in our sights” for the whole time we were there.

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 | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Edge of the Meadow

Leave a comment

Edge of the Meadow
High elevation trees at the edge of a subalpine meadow, with alpine peaks beyond

Edge of the Meadow. John Muir Wilderness, California. September 1, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

High elevation trees at the edge of a subalpine meadow, with alpine peaks beyond

As often happens at busy photographic times of the year, I have a set of projects that I’m working on simultaneously right now. Some come from photography I have done as recently as the current week, while other come from work that I did as long as a couple of months ago. Along those lines, I still am working on photographs from our late-August and early September visit to a special Sierra Nevada backcountry location, where a group of us spent more than a week base-camped near a region with an unbelievable wealth of photographic subjects to explore. Today’s photograph comes from that trip.

We were camped for more than a week at a lake just a bit lower in elevation than the location of this photograph. On almost every day we visiting this general area, either focusing on it as the subject or passing by it on our way to other higher places. On this day I had gotten up rather early and explored the area as the first sunlight began to fall on the distant peaks, the meadow, and the trees surrounding it. My recollection is that this was probably one of the last photographs of the morning before I headed back to base-camp, and I’m certain that we were close to the conclusion of our trip. The foreground meadow was typically our main subject here. When we arrived a week from the end of August we were surprised to find it still completely green and filled with wildflowers. The flowers were still there when I made this photograph, but already the late-summer brown meadow color was appearing.

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 | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Meadow, Peaks, and Storm

Leave a comment

Meadow, Peaks, and Storm
A storm gathers above an alpine meadow and beyond snow-capped peaks

Meadow, Peaks, and Storm. John Muir Wilderness, California. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A storm gathers above an alpine meadow and beyond snow-capped peaks

Not too long ago I posted another photograph made on this same afternoon, from roughly the same place, and featuring very similar subject. In that post I noted that I had made several photographs of this subject on this afternoon, and that I planned to share all of them eventually, perhaps with a bit of commentary concerning how each represented this subject in its own way. The general setting was a large, subalpine meadow surrounded by mountains and forest, and with expansive views across a nearby canyon to the high, rocky country on the far side. A large afternoon thunderstorm was building beyond the high ridge, but meanwhile the sun was bright at my locations. The primary elements of the scene included meadow, mountains, dark clouds, the small pond or tarn, and the nearby trees. There are many ways to “see” a subject photographically, and I tried several variations with this one.

I wanted to include the pond in the portion of the meadow in the photograph, but in this interpretation I decide not to put it in the center of the frame, but instead to have it off to the side, perhaps giving it a bit less presence in the scene. I wanted to include the small foreground trees to increase the sense of depth in the image and to ensure that there wasn’t empty space in the foreground. I framed the mountains this way so that I could place the dark peak in the middle, and envelop it in the higher peaks stretching back behind it. A remaining question was about how much sky in include. In another interpretation I included a lot of sky, placing the horizon near the center of the frame. Here I did what I more typically do, placing the horizon very high and including only a small strip of sky at the top. This draws attention to the landscape itself, and I was still able to include enough sky to make the dark thunder-storm clouds visible.

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 | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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