Tag Archives: ridge

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Reflection, Morning Shadows

July 9, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shadows on lakeside meadow as morning light hits Sierra Nevada peaks

This is a scene of what I regard as classic Sierra Nevada scenery. It also has the three main ingredients of many mountain photographs: rocks, trees, water. I made the photograph in the morning, probably most of the way through this morning’s photographic work. A typical morning in such a place begins with an alarm going off (quietly!) well before sunrise, followed by rolling out of the tent, grabbing camera pack and tripod, and heading off to some likely location to find morning light. Photography begins before sunrise, often moves quickly as the first direct light hits the landscape, and then evolves with the changing morning light… until, several hours later, it is time to wander back to camp and fix coffee and breakfast.

We were camped very close to this lake — though you could have easily walked past it and completely missed our camp, which was hidden away in the trees. We remained here for the better part of a week, allowing plenty of time to become familiar with the local landscape, photograph in a range of conditions, and make longer excursions away from camp. I actually did not photograph this closest lake much until near the end of our stay, when I realized that it was now or never. I made this particular photograph in the morning, well after sunrise but a few minutes before the sun peeked over nearby peaks to illuminate the shoreline meadow.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Sentinel Dome, Sunrise And Clouds

May 10, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Rays of morning sun above Sentinel Dome cross a ridge and illuminate forest and clouds

You can spend quite a few photography days without finding special light, and then unexpectedly run headfirst into something remarkable. That was the story on this late April visit to Yosemite Valley to photograph the transition from winter to spring. (I had photographed in cold and snow there a week prior, but now the snow was gone and the weather was warming.) The first two days were fine — typical spring days in the Valley — but it was challenging to find special light. Then on my final morning luck was with me. When I started for the Valley well before sunrise I could see that the sky was clouded over, and it promised to be a gray morning. But as I drove I started to see some light sneaking in under the clouds, and I guessed that the cover might be breaking up by the time I got to the Valley.

I arrived at the first good view of the Valley just as the sun was coming up. The Valley was still mostly gray and cloud-shrouded, but the clouds to the east were thinner and breaking up. Before long the clouds thinned even more and the sunlight began to break through. The big view was still too gray for my taste at this point, so I put a long lens on the camera and began to look for small sections of the scene with dramatic light. Beyond Bridal Veil Fall the sun had just risen above the top of Sentinel Dome, and its light was streaming down across ridges and through trees.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Wildfire, Forest, and Ridge

November 9, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning wildfire smoke settles among forest trees below a burned ridge

Yes, another photograph of wildfire smoke, made on a late October morning along the Glacier Point road, where a fire had been smoldering for weeks just to the east and south of the road.I arrived well after dawn, but still at a reasonably early hour when the winds had not yet stirred the fog that had settled into valleys and among the forest trees. The fog stretched a good distance across the low valley east of my vantage point, and the combination of the foreground trees and the thinner trees running up the ridge caught my attention.

This photographic subject is a bit magical. At this early hour, when the smoke is backlit, everything seems to glow. Although the still air permitted the smoke to pool in low places and among the trees overnight, by this time of the morning the air begins to move and the smoke drifts among the forest trees. And this ephemeral landscape of smoke is in constant motion, changing as a bit of wind passes through, as the angle of the sun changes throughout the day, and as it drifts among these trees. I made a small number of exposures of this precise composition, and when I look at them know I can see that each differs from the others in important ways.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

First Snow At First Light

October 7, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light and shadows on an eastern Sierra ridge with dusting of early autumn snow.

On this early October morning I had a bit of time for photography before I had to start my drive back to the Bay Area. I had a plan to visit a somewhat lonely high spot from which I might have a view of aspen groves lit by dawn light, so I was up way before sunrise. I broke camp and headed out, driving some gravel roads to get to my destination and arriving before dawn. It was cold! This was the sort of autumn morning that makes it clear the summer is over and winter is coming. When I got up it was 27 degrees, but when I arrived at my destination it was 23. I put on lots of layers, got out of my vehicle, and set up my tripod and camera.

My initial subject was to be the aspens, and I began photographing them in the soft predawn light. A few minutes later the first direct sun hit the tall ridge of the Sierra crest above me and I turned my camera in that direction. As the light swept across ridges and gullies, there was a big contrast between the extremely warm colors of the rock lit by dawn sun and the deep blue light on the snow in the ravines. A day and a half earlier the first snow of October had dusted the Sierra crest. Looked at in a particular way, this photograph appears to me as an almost abstract pattern out of which the forms of the mountain resolve themselves only when I look more closely.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: ridge

Reflection, Morning Shadows

Sentinel Dome, Sunrise And Clouds

Wildfire, Forest, and Ridge

First Snow At First Light

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