Tag Archives: ridge

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

Forest and Cliffs, Autumn

November 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft autumn light on Yosemite Valley forests and granite cliffs.

A typical day of shooting in normal weather in a place like Yosemite Valley starts early – though perhaps not as early as in some other locations, since the first light is somewhat muted by the tall cliffs and taller peaks to the east. I select subjects largely based on what the light is like and where I think it will be interesting, often focusing on places where I can get nice backlight, soft light in shadows, or perhaps atmospheric conditions such as fog. I may move around the Valley, shooting in one spot for a while and then moving on to another place where I suspect that conditions might be interesting. Depending upon the conditions and the season, this can go on for hours in the morning until eventually the light becomes “midday blah” and I’m exhausted and hungry! Time for a (very late) breakfast break and a pause in the photography on most days. After coffee and food I’ll usually take care of some business, for example breaking camp if it my final day there, and I’ll often wander around to visit familiar places – perhaps a gallery or a museum – and then it is probably time for a short nap. (Keep in mind that I’ve been up since well before dawn, and will likely shoot until dark and then possibly drive for four hours or more!)

At some point in the mid to early afternoon it feels like time to photograph some more – the angle of the light becomes less and backlight opportunities increase, afternoon haze may be increasing the sense of depth in the landscape, and I need to begin figuring where I’ll want to be at various times during the evolution of the light that will continue until after sunset. On this afternoon I went back into photography mode at about 2:30 or so, and this photograph was made at the “early” hour of around 3:00. But because it was fall, the sun angle was already low enough to backlight and highlight the cottonwood trees at the edge of the meadow and the textures and shapes of the granite cliffs rising above the Valley.

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

Rim Fire Zone, Morning

November 15, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hazy morning light filters across the burned hillsides in the area of the Rim Fire, California

In photographic terms this is perhaps not the most spectacular photograph, and the location is not quite a scenic icon – though it is a place that many stop and take a look on their way to Yosemite, the “Rim of the World” overlook along highway 120 between Groveland and the northern park entrance. However, this view is loaded with implications and connected to many stories.

Late this past summer, the state of California was tremendously dry after a second drought season. It wasn’t a question of whether there would be big wildfires, but more of where, when, and how many. Perhaps the biggest one of all started very near the Rim of the World overlook, and in the hot and dry conditions it quickly – some might say explosively – spread to the north, east, and south. While many think of it as “the Yosemite fire” – and it did burn a lot of terrain inside the park – it really was more of a “Yosemite area” fire. Because of the conditions – the long-term conditions of drought and the immediate conditions of heat and wind – the fire apparently did very serious damage to the forests in the are.

Shortly after the fire was contained, I thought that I might drive through the park on Tioga Pass Road to get to and from the eastern Sierra in early October. In fact, the roads had opened up again by that time, but snow closed Tioga Pass on my trip to the west and we ended up coming back over Sonora Pass. So the post-fire conditions of this area, which is very familiar to me after years of visits, were still an unknown when I drove to The Valley on October 30 for a few days of autumn photography. Passing into the first fringes of the burned areas along highway 120 things didn’t look all that different than they do after any wildfire – some areas badly burned, some singed, and others that mostly escaped the fire. I decided to stop at the Rim of the World overlook, which was pretty much the only place where stopping was allowed, and get out and take a look. I was floored by the scale of the fire. It had come from behind my position, burned down and across the deep canyon of the Tuolumne River, up the canyon walls on the far side, and then across a vast series of receding ridges. Some smoke and haze still seemed to be coming from the area, and early morning light glanced across the ridges, with their dead trees. In the far distance there is a low peak with a bit of early season snow.

I have seen quite a few fires in the park over the past few decades. One not far from here destroyed a large area of forest a few decades ago – and on this trip, ironically, I was noting that new evergreen trees are finally taking hold there. Later several very bad fires blew up from near Foresta, doing terrible damage to the section of Crane Flat Road descending towards The Valley. There have been others. In most of these cases – though I wondered in the case of the most recent Foresta fire, too – it seemed that I could watch the forest recover and return to something resembling what I remember. However, given the intensity and scale of this fire, I wonder if I’ll have that opportunity where the Rim Fire burned?

To end on a cheerier note, a couple of other observations. Even near badly burned areas, I did see sections where this fire only burned some of the vegetation and a few that seemed to have been completely spared. And when I got to a spot inside the park along highway 120 where I often stop to photography dogwood trees in the spring and fall, a spot that seemed like it might have been within the burn zone on the maps, I found my little spot completely intact, with the dogwoods turning to fall colors.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dawn Light, Wheeler Crest

October 31, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light on rugged Wheeler crest following an autumn Sierra Nevada snow storm.

It had snowed all day the previous day, and I knew that the eastern escarpment of the Sierra would be covered in new snow at dawn. The dawn weather conditions were a bit of an unknown, but it seemed to be worthwhile to get up very early and be in position with a view of the crest at sunrise, so we headed up into the hills above Bishop and below the mountains to see what would happen.

There were clouds. This can be a good thing or a bad thing in this situation. Without clouds the light can be less special, but if there are too many, especially to the east, they may completely block the sunrise light – and that light on the eastern face of the range is what we were there for. There was some clear sky overhead, and it seemed that the clouds to the east over the White Mountains were at least somewhat broken. These conditions bring the possibility – but not the certainty – that the dawn sun may find its way through gaps in the clouds, spotlighting areas of the mountains as the light works its way across and down their east faces. In fact, it worked out this way. We first photographed the range straight on, mostly centering compositions around Mt. Humphreys. After shooting that subject I looked around a bit more and saw bands of light starting to sweep across the face of the cloud-topped and rugged Wheeler Crest.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Autumn Snow

October 23, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large grove of golden autumn aspen trees ascends the slopes above Conway Summit toward Sierra Nevada peaks blanketed with early fall snow

On the final day of our September trip to photograph eastern Sierra fall color, we made a very long and round-about loop that finally brought us to Lee Vining for a late breakfast. The day had begun with snow flurries in the Mammoth Lakes area, then cleared as we drove a good distance to the east into high desert basin and range country and then north toward Mono Lake. Shortly after passing along the south side of Mono Lake we headed west toward highway 395, with the Sierra crest of the eastern boundary of Yosemite National Park rising front of us, enveloped in snow showers. We stopped to photograph a bit and then headed on to Lee Vining for a late breakfast.

By midday the weather was clearly in transition, with clouds and showers lingering along the crest, but clear skies (with a few clouds) to the east. After climbing to Conway Summit we found the area in this weather boundary zone, with broken sunlight and shadows moving across the lower slopes with their colorful aspens, while snow showers were still falling higher up in the peaks of the Sierra crest. This photograph looks more or less in the direction of the sun, and the strong backlit emphasizes the brilliant colors of the aspens.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: ridge

Forest and Cliffs, Autumn

Rim Fire Zone, Morning

Dawn Light, Wheeler Crest

Aspens and Autumn Snow

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