Tag Archives: rock

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

Backcountry Lake, Dawn

November 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn sky reflected in the surface of a Yosemite backcountry lake

Another morning from a week of such mornings at this Yosemite backcountry lake. My tent was at the end of a granite slab leading back up from the shore of the lake, so it became typical to arise each morning, crawl out of the tent, grab camera and tripod, and walk the slab and then the meadow beyond to the shoreline for morning photography. In this strange weather year in the Sierra every morning was different. One morning it might be clear, another was filled with thick wildfire smoke, and on yet another it was raining.

This was an in-between morning. There was a bit of wildfire smoke — it never went away completely during our stay — and high clouds muted the morning light on the lake itself. The air was not moving, and was September-cold. First light brought a bit of color to the clouds, reflected in the early morning stillness of the lake.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Basalt Columns, Lichen, Autumn Plants

October 12, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn plants and lichen lend color to basalt columns, Devils Postpile National Monument

Quite honestly, this photograph was at least partially the product of laziness! We were recently in the eastern Sierra Nevada for a few (more) days of autumn color photography. We had driven up late the previous day, and by the time we got settled in to our lodgings the idea of getting up again at “oh-dark-thirty” to head out and make dawn photographs was not appealing. Rather than overtly cop out, we sort of agreed to maybe not set alarms and instead just sort of see when we might wake up. Needless to say, on the morning after a very long drive that ended late at night… we did not get up at the crack of dawn! In fact, we wandered out for breakfast at perhaps 7:30 or so, and only then returned to our room to get ready for photography.

With no prior planning at all, we made a more or less spontaneous decision to visit Devils Postpile National Monument, which was convenient to our lodgings at Mammoth Lakes. I’ve been in that area many times, but always in conjunction with backpacking trips, and most of those simply headed out from Agnew Meadow. We finally got down there in the middle of the morning. It turns out that this is actually a very good time to photograph this geological structure, as the sun is behind it, producing beautiful soft shaded light on the details of the basalt columns. To make a series of photographs from which this image comes, I used a very long lens, which allowed me to isolate and compose photographs out of small areas of the much larger wall of basalt columns. (Update — December 2015: Patty Emerson Mitchell reminds me that I almost left my camera in the car on this morning, claiming that I was really just there to let her see this location!)

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

Morning Light on Granite Ridge

September 14, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light strikes trees on the ridge of a glaciated dome above Tenaya Canyon, Yosemite National Park

Yosemite is known for many things — the Valley, waterfalls, and other familiar sights — but above all it should probably be known simply for granite. (Apologies to geologists ,who know that “granite” is a simplification, but I’m going with it.) The cliffs and domes of Yosemite Valley are well known, but I’m especially thinking of the higher regions of the park, where one is hardly ever far from granite slabs, granite boulders moved about by ancient glaciers, granite stream beds, granite faces, granite ground into sand…

This is one of those locations where it is possible to look in the right direction and focus your attention on a particular area… and see almost nothing but granite. Here a glaciated granite ridge, topped by sunlit trees, is backed by a glaciated granite wall in shadow, with a glacial granite canyon lying between the two. The surfaces of such places are fascinating. A close look at the sunlit ridge reveals large granite boulders, with trees and small strips of meadow. Below that ridge is a large expanse of exfoliating granite slabs with trees eking out a living on little more than bare rock.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

The Landing

August 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This photograph has appeared here at my website and in subsequent social media posts already, but merely as an example in a post I shared about some slightly technical matters related to a camera I use. (More on that in a moment.) Since I feel like the photograph stands not only as an example of how a lens and a camera work, but also as a photograph, this time I’m sharing it for the latter reason. We had spent a couple of days in the Monterey and Big Sur area, photographing along that spectacular coastline, and now we were headed home. We decided to work our say north along the coast, eventually turning inland just south of San Francisco.

Just before that homeward turn we passed a small, rocky island just a few yards off the actual coast, and I realized that it was covered with many scores of brown pelicans. I love photographing these birds, and it is somewhat unusual to see so many in one place, so we stopped and walked out to the bluff to make some photographs. The light was challenging since it was coming from almost directly behind the birds — but in this case that worked well as there is a light fringe around the bird, some light comes through its wing feathers, and additional light reflects back up from surf and rocks as this pelican lands. Oh, and that technical article? I made this photograph with a pretty unusual “birding” setup — the 50.6MP Canon EOS 5Ds R with a 100-400mm zoom lens with a 1.4x teleconverter attached!

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: rock

Backcountry Lake, Dawn

Basalt Columns, Lichen, Autumn Plants

Morning Light on Granite Ridge

The Landing

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