Tag Archives: rocky

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

Lakeside Trees and Rocky Slope

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Lakeside Trees and Rocky Slope
Lakeside autumn aspen trees reflected in shoreline water

Lakeside Trees and Rocky Slope. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 9, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lakeside autumn aspen trees reflected in shoreline water

This was a long and productive day. We started before dawn, waking up in darkness and heading up into the mountains to arrive at a likely spot to photograph fall color before sunrise. We began by photographing a familiar lake from a somewhat different perspective, working from an elevated position above the lake. A bit later we moved to other locations in the big east side mountain valley, generally working our way around so that we could photograph aspen color before the direct sun arrived. We stopped for breakfast at a mountain lodge before heading back down into Owens Valley and then turning north. We ended up north of Lee Vining in the late afternoon, and eventually we finished photography and began the long drive across the Sierra and back to the San Francisco Bay Area.

This is one of the early morning photographs. I had finished with a somewhat iconic Eastern Sierra subject, though photographing only parts of it that might or might not be recognizable. Soon the direct sunlight began to hit this subject, washing out the colors and ending my photography of that subject. No matter, I just pivoted a bit to my right and found lakeside trees where the direct sun had not yet arrived, and I photographed these trees in the softer shadow 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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Nevada

Wheeler Glacier and Cirque Headwall

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Wheeler Glacier and Cirque Headwall
“Wheeler Glacier and Cirque Headwall” — Wheeler glacier and the cirque headwall below Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park

On my recent first-time visit to Nevada’s Great Basin National Park I experienced the challenges and rewards of photographing a brand new (to me!) location. As I have previously noted, I usually avoid doing too much research about a new destination ahead of time, at least beyond what is necessary to successfully get there and back and locate places to stay and eat, along with the most basic known features of the place. (For anyone who hasn’t heard the message already, I’m trying to retain the potential for discovery in new places and to make it more likely that I will form my own orientation to them.) So, what I actually knew about this park in advance of my visit was somewhat limited: it is formed around the Snake Mountains, it is famous for its caves, Wheeler Peak is the second highest point in Nevada, there might be fall color at this time of year, that much of the park is not easily accessible… and there is a glacier!

From this and a few of my other photographs of the high areas of the park you might get the impression that it is largely and alpine place. It isn’t. In fact, the spots that do have that feeling are a small portion of the park and at least partially notable for being exceptions. Yet, once you arrive at such places they become your entire world. (Well, almost your entire world, since views of the surrounding “basin” terrain are rarely far away.) This glacial cirque cuts into the highest ridge, separating the two tallest summits in the park. The view straight into this glacial valley is, indeed, impressively alpine. (As I write this I have a photograph of a Pacific Northwest glacier scene from Mount Shuksan open on my computer, and it shares remarkable parallels with this photograph.) On this visit the effect was enhances by a recent dusting of early autumn snowfall that coats the mountains and the top of the huge rock glacier at the lower edge of the much smaller ice glacier.

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.

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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

Lake and Mountain, Morning

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Lake and Mountain, Morning
Dawn light comes to mountain slopes above a reflecting High Sierra backcountry lake

Lake and Mountain, Morning. Hoover Wilderness Area, California. August 7, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn light comes to mountain slopes above a reflecting High Sierra backcountry lake

I woke up early on the third and final morning of this pack trip — not early by photographic standards, but just before dawn, nonetheless. The rest of my party — perhaps because they are not photographers — continued to sleep in for another hour or more as I crawled out of my tent, gathered up my (downsized for this trip) camera equipment, and wandered off to see what I could see.

The sun had still not quite risen as I came to the top of a small hill above the lake, but very soon its light began to touch the highest peaks and stream across the shoulder of the large peak towering above the opposite shoreline of the lake. Sometimes the scale of a subject such as this mountain seems more obvious to me when I choose to not include all of it, so I chose to crop tightly enough to not show the peak — or the relatively uninteresting plain blue sky above it. (My theory is that a photograph framed so that the entire subject isn’t visible can sometimes produce an impression that the subject is so large that it cannot be contained within the frame.) As I made this exposure the first light was hitting the rocky face of the upper slopes of the mountain, and that light was reflected in the undisturbed early morning surface of the lake.

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

Shoreline Tree, Evening Light

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Shoreline Tree, Evening Light
A sturdy tree at sunset on the rocky shoreline of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

Shoreline Tree, Evening Light. Hoover Wilderness Area, California. August 6, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sturdy tree at sunset on the rocky shoreline of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

In a previous post I described how this short eastern Sierra backpacking trip transitioned from seriously challenging weather on day one to seriously lovely weather on the evening of day two. The onset of sudden, heavy, and long-lasting rain on day one created challenges for all of us, and caused me to make camp before getting to my intended destination. (Others in my group spent hours waiting out the storm under a rocky overhang, which yet other group members got quite wet trying to set up camp in the rain.) Day two started out looking like rain, but the clouds cleared and left us with pleasant, beautiful, and quite benign weather in the evening.

There is something extra peaceful about a beautiful evening following one that was distinctly not so pleasant, and we were in a relaxed frame of mind. We had a nice, spacious camp in flat, open forest, and nearby we found a flat area above the lake to sit and enjoy dinner with a view. As we ate I eyed some shoreline trees, including this one, that grew out of rocky outcroppings next to the water. Just before the final sunlight left us for the day I climbed up above this tree to position it against the evening-blue water of the lake.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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