Tag Archives: rocks

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Shower, Sierra Pond

October 4, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Raindrops from a late afternoon shower mark the surface of a small Sierra Nevada pond reflecting the sky

During our mid-September photographic sojourn to the back-country of Kings Canyon National Park, the four photographers in my group were blessed with a wide range of weather conditions. The weather was never difficult or bad, but we did get precipitation on something like five of the 9 days we were on the trail. This constitutes what I might describe as “interesting” weather – clouds, some showers, a bit of wind, occasional mist around the peaks, but nothing dangerous or wild enough to interfere with photography and confine us to tents. (Although we missed it, if we had stayed a couple of days longer we might well have added snow to the experience!) From my perspective, and I’m sure that I share this view with most Sierra photographers, the thing we perhaps dread most is encountering one of those weeks-long bouts of perfect blue sky boring weather. Give us some clouds and a bit of rain!

While it is possible to encounter the first Pacific weather fronts of the season at about the time we were there, with their potential for many hours or even days of “weather,” what we encountered was more like the typical summer monsoon weather. Most days started clear or nearly so, and by midday we started to see a build-up of clouds. By sometime in the late afternoon it became apparent that showers were possible, so we went out with appropriate rain gear and protection for camera equipment. As familiar as I am with this weather and even though I’m attentive to the changing conditions, it always seems that the actual onset of rain – typically a few drops seen in the surface of a lake like this one, followed by increasing showers – catches me by surprise. On the afternoon when I made this photograph, as on several other afternoons, there were patches of open sky around and I wasn’t actually expecting rain at the moment it arrived. I made this photograph at one of those moments when the rain was barely enough to feel, but when the pattern of drops on the reflecting surface of the water provided undeniable evidence of precipitation.

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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake, Trees, and Granite – Afternoon Light

October 3, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Afternoon light slants across a Sierra Nevada landscape of water, trees, and ascending granite ridges

This lake, and the rocky meadows and forest and other small lakes and ponds surrounding it quickly became one of our favorite locations to photograph during our mid-September time photographing in the Sierra Nevada range of eastern Kings Canyon National Park. This spot was a very short ten minute hike away from our camp site, and it drew us back many times over the course of our six night stay – morning and evening, fair weather and stormy. The location was so varied and detailed that there was no end of things to see and photograph.

On this day several of us headed over there in the late afternoon, and once we arrived we headed off in various directions to find photographs. By this point we were clued in to the evening pattern of light, one that suddenly and a bit unexpectedly “turned out the lights” a bit earlier than we might have expected, with the shadow of a large ridge to the west quickly sweeping from north to south across the lake. We figured out that we had to start earlier than we might typically start for evening shooting, and that we then had to watch the change carefully so as to be ready for it when it happened. By the time I made this photograph, the wind had come up and what had been smooth waters began to take on a different appearance as the wind created some surface waves. A bit of haze accentuates the difference in distance between the closest trees and the more distant trees leading up the base of the rockier slopes.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake and Rain, Dusk

October 1, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

A late-evening rain shower above the smooth surface of a rocky Sierra Nevada lake

From our camp site at a narrow point in the canyon among all of these lakes, we more or less had the option of going upstream to a group of several nearby lakes that were visible from our camp, or of going downstream and around a bend to an equally large group of lakes that were about 10 minutes away. The choice was often difficult – we didn’t always go the same direction, sometimes we might go upstream in the morning and downstream in the evening, or vice versa as the mood would take us. This, again, is an advantage of remaining in one area for an extended time – in our case we camped here for six nights with the primary goal of exploring and photographing.

On this evening I decided to go up-stream. Early on the trip I had made a very brief visit to what we regarded as the “upper lake” – though, in truth, there was one more further up the drainage that was likely inaccessible to us. On that first visit I had taken a direct route to the outlet stream of the lake and had then looked around a bit at this lower end before the light faded and I headed back to camp. On the evening when I made this photograph I started earlier, and instead of taking the direct route I went more slowly and wandered a bit, exploring the very interesting terrain among the lakes. Somewhat to our surprise, light rain cropped up again late in the day, and by the time I was approaching the upper lake there were showers here and stronger showers further down the canyon. Just before actual sunset, the sky turned intense pink as a bit of rain fell on the lake, imparting purple and pink tones to the landscape, and far down the canyon there was a faint glow from an area where the clouds cleared and a bit of blue sky shone through.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Peak and Tarn, Sunrise

September 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

This month a group of us spent nine days in the Sierra Nevada back-country in Kings Canyon National Park, remaining in a single location for six nights. For a photographer, this is a special opportunity to really begin to “get inside” a small area, with time to wander thoughtfully among the features of the landscape at all hours of the day and in a range of conditions, returning more than once to revisit subjects in varying conditions. Up each morning before dawn, we would wander off in different directions to pursue whatever interested us and to find whatever we could find, return to camp during midday hours, and then wander off again in the late afternoon, usually not returning until dark. So often when we visit such places we either look from a distance or hurry through trying “not to miss anything” – but on this visit we had time to get to know individual lakes, rocks, trees, ledges, you name it.

Perhaps 10 minutes away from our camp was a broad valley filled with lakes and tarns and rocky meadows. I think I visited here at least four times, morning and evening. I had already explored the area a bit on an earlier evening when I arrived on this morning before the first light hit the peaks on the divide between the 60 Lakes Basin and Gardiner Basin, so I knew that there were many opportunities to juxtapose the waters of the quiet, cold, rock-filled tarns with the high peaks and first light.

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” from Heyday Books, is available directly from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: rocks

Evening Shower, Sierra Pond

Lake, Trees, and Granite – Afternoon Light

Peak and Tarn, Sunrise

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