Tag Archives: reflection

Boulders, Trees, and Cliff – Upper Young Lake

Boulders, Trees, and Cliff - Upper Young Lake
Boulders, Trees, and Cliff - Upper Young Lake

Boulders, Trees, and Cliff – Upper Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 14, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early evening light on boulders, trees, and cliffs along the edge of Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

Seeing that this feels like about the 100th photograph in this series from Upper Young Lake, I’m half tempted to title it “Yet Another Upper Young Lake Photograph.” I won’t, but I will keep the commentary short on this one. Shot on the same mid-September evening along the shore near the lower end of the lake, I used a longer focal length for this one and composed it to include a slightly darker and steeper section of the cliffs that rise from one side of the lake.

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.

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keywords: boulder, rock, tree, grove, cliff, face, crack, meadow, grass, brush, shore, shoreline, upp

Shoreline, Upper Young Lake

Shoreline, Upper Young Lake
Shoreline, Upper Young Lake

Shoreline, Upper Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 14, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on granite slopes and the shoreline of Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

In a way this is sort of a “test shot,” since I haven’t really focused on this portion of Upper Young on previous visits. I want to return and “work” this section of the lake, along with the area between it and the middle lake, and also the upper end of this lake, which I’ve barely visited. I made this photograph during that wonderful late time in the day when the light changes from moment to moment, the colors gradually become more and more interesting, and the slight backlight partially obscures the details of the background slopes.

This particular terrain is perhaps as close as any to what I regard as “my ideal Sierra” – that magical zone just below or at timberline where there are meadows, either open or intimate and separated by rocks and trees, and the light is everywhere, uninterrupted by trees. There are enough plants to give this sort of area an almost lush appearance, especially early in the season and when the light is right. And while I like the higher and truly alpine regions of the passes and peaks, I’d rather hang out in areas like this one where there is a certain amount of greenery and the high elevation harshness is moderated a bit.

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.

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Morning, Shoreline of Lower Young Lake

Morning, Shoreline of Lower Young Lake
Morning, Shoreline of Lower Young Lake

Morning, Shoreline of Lower Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 14, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning sunlight shines through the edge of the forest along the rocky shoreline of Lower Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

When I got up on this late-summer morning at Lower Young Lake, my first goal was to walk around the end of the lake and into the forested area shown along the shoreline in this photograph – but as I reached the lake near my camp I decided to first photograph the shoreline forest and trees from a bit further back. There are, as is probably apparent, several layers to this scene: the reflecting surface of the water with logs and other things below the surface and seen through the reflections, the rocks along the shoreline, behind that the edge of the forest interspersed with a few more boulders and bits of sunlit meadow, and far beyond the rocky face of the ridge that rises behind the lake.

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.

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Tree and Rocks, Lower Young Lake

Tree and Rocks, Lower Young Lake
Tree and Rocks, Lower Young Lake

Tree and Rocks, Lower Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. September 15, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small tree growing on rocks near the shoreline of Lower Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

I first saw this small tree growing in the cracks of rocks near the shore of the lake the morning before I made this photograph. At that time the tree looked interesting but the light was not so great. So visiting this tree again was on my agenda for the following morning and I got there a bit earlier. I made a number of exposures of this scene, and I’m still not certain which one(s) I think work the best – so there is a chance that one or more additional photographs of this subject may appear before too long.

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.

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