Tag Archives: recesses

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Afternoon Clouds, Reflections

Leave a comment
Afternoon Clouds, Reflections
Afternoon clouds reflect on the waters of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

Afternoon Clouds, Reflections. John Muir Wilderness, California. September 2, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Afternoon clouds reflect on the waters of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

With all of the other spectacular nearly subjects to photograph, I actually didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the lake where we were camped until near the end of our nine-day backcountry visit in late August and early September. I did walk past it regularly, sometimes with a camera and other times with a large water bucket to take back to camp. I photographed some of the nearby flowers. But mostly I departed from this area to head of to more distant locations, especially those further up the basin.

As the end of the trip approached I began to feel like I had neglected the lake, so I made time to explore it a bit more. At the upper end there was — as is typical — an extensive meadow with several meandering streams, and the meadow gradually became more marshy at the shoreline. On the far side a thin band of meadow ran between the lake the surrounding forest. The first time I went there I was too late, and light had already gone, shaded by nearby ridges. So this time I went a bit earlier in the late afternoon and arrived at the shoreline while there still was light on the trees and meadow. Even better, the air was crystal clear, impressive clouds had formed over large peaks to our south, and the wind had diminished to the point that the water’s surface was almost mirror smooth.

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

Last Light, Stormy Sky

Leave a comment
Last Light, Stormy Sky
Dark storm clouds beyond meadows and Sierra Nevada peaks and ridges.

Last Light, Stormy Sky. John Muir Wilderness, California. August 28, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dark storm clouds beyond meadows and Sierra Nevada peaks and ridges.

During our late August and early September foray into the John Muir Wilderness of the eastern Sierra Nevada we were fortunate to have “interesting” weather. While we had our share of typical Sierra blue sky days, we also had clouds, ranging from the sort that drift benignly across the sky to those that bring rain, hail, thunder and lightning. While the idea of dealing with rain, occasionally briefly heavy, in the backcountry might not sound all that appealing, from a photography point of view the weather almost always makes for more interesting conditions. It also provides a wonderful topic for camp conversations as we try to guess what will happen and when.

This evening’s conversation almost certainly involved both the beautiful light and the thunderstorm hovering beyond the ridge to our south, a storm that turned the sky dramatically darker beyond the light on the ridge. While our camp was more or less hidden in forest on top of a moraine — we try to minimize the visual intrusion of our camp on the landscape — we were repeatedly drawn to nearby open areas. Right below us was a lake and surrounding meadow, and not far above our location the trees thinned and the landscape opened up. This photograph was made from a meadow in that higher area, a place we visited repeatedly.

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, Trail, and Wildflowers

Leave a comment
Meadow, Trail, and Wildflowers
A use trail passes through a wildflower-filled meadow in the John Muir Wilderness on a late summer evening

Meadow, Trail, and Wildflowers. John Muir Wilderness, California. August 30, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A use trail passes through a wildflower-filled meadow in the John Muir Wilderness on a late summer evening

We became very familiar with this little section of unofficial “use trail” near our base camp for our recent sojourn into the John Muir Wilderness of the Sierra Nevada range. Our camp was relatively hidden among trees up on the top of a nearby moraine ridge, but these meadows became a second home to us for over a week. I first used this trail when I arrived on our first day, following behind the rest of the group who had arrived a bit earlier. Near the outlet stream of the lake seen in the distance in the photograph, I turned right and headed up along its shoreline, following this path. It was only after passing the lake and starting to climb that I began to wonder if I was now past our camp — and, yes, I had to backtrack.

There were many places worthy of exploration all around out camp. Some were further away — a higher open meadow, a rocky ridge, narrow meadows full of flowers. But the areas around “our” lake drew us back, and many of us visited them every day at some point. On this evening I set out to simply wander the meadow and see what I could find, and I decided that including the trail in the scene made a lot of sense. Also of note, the meadow was still wet and green and wildflowers were everywhere — even though it was the very end of the month of August, well past the time when the flowers typically die back and the meadow grass turns golden.

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.