Tag Archives: sailor

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Waterfall And Late-Season Lupine

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Waterfall And Late-Season Lupine
Late-season lupines bloom in rocky terrain below a high country Sierra Nevada waterfall.

Waterfall And Late-Season Lupine. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late-season lupines bloom in rocky terrain below a high country Sierra Nevada waterfall.

Our visit to this location, at 11,000′ in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, took place during the last few days of August and the first two days of September. Yes, we were there on Labor Day — and we watched lots more people show up on that last weekend! Most people regard this as the end of the backcountry season. The daylight hours decrease noticeably, and while the weather remains generally beautiful there may be a chill in the air a bit more frequently.

In a typical year the Sierra Nevada high country often becomes rather dry by this time. During August the meadows usually turn golden brown, stream flows diminish, and most wildflowers are just a memory. But in wet years – and this was one of those — there can be a colorful surprise for late-season visitors. We arrived to find lots of flowing water, meadows that still were green in many places, and even copious wildflowers. Here we found huge beds of blooming lupines, an unusual site for the start of September!

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

First Light, Sierra High Country

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First Light, Sierra High Country
First light touches Sierra Nevada peaks and reflects in the surface of an alpine lake.

First Light, Sierra High Country. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First light touches Sierra Nevada peaks and reflects in the surface of an alpine lake.

The photography, of course, is the main excuse for our trips to places like these. We go to some lengths to put ourselves in locations like this for days or longer — lots of advanced planning, solid backcountry travel to get there, and then a week or more of living in tents. But the advantages are many. Obviously the “scenery” is often right outside our tent doors, and when great light happens we are essentially right there. Because we are there for a significant period for time we can more carefully and completely explore our surroundings, finding hidden gems, figuring out best times for various subjects, and returning to them as necessary. We also have the time to slow into the natural backcountry rhythms, where it seems that we have much more time to do all of the important things — photography, of course, but also sitting a looking or having a look discussion with colleagues/friends.

This view was literally steps from my tend, set on what seemed almost like a large peninsula nestled within the curve of the lake. After our first sunrise here it became apparent that the intensely colorful first light would be a fleeting subject. Due to the surrounding geography, this first color would initially spread across the summit of this ridge… but then quickly lose its color. This was a quiet morning, with little wind, so I decided it was time to stake out a camera location and photograph the first light reflected in 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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Timberline Lake, Soft Light

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Timberline Lake, Soft Light
Quiet morning light at a Sierra Nevada timberline lake.

Timberline Lake, Soft Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An alpine stream descends through a boulder-strewn, meadow-filled Sierra Nevada valley.

I photographed this scene in what a colleague refers to as “the quiet light” — the soft light in shade, found here during the daytime but also found before sunrise and after sunset. This lights is not as striking as the more dramatically colored light of sunrise and sunset, but it has a special peaceful quality.

The lake wrapped around our basecamp, with nearby streams flowing into and out of it. The rocky shoreline on the far bank is backed by tiny bits of meadow, some trees, and a series of rocky benches rising to a low, glaciated ridge. Beyond that — and not visible from here — is an alpine lake. And above that rocky talus slopes rise toward the base of the highest peaks, in a world of rock.

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 | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Peaks and Lake Shore

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Peaks and Lake ShorePeaks and Lake Shore
Sierra Nevada peaks tower about a rock-line alpine lake.

Peaks and Lake Shore. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sierra Nevada peaks tower about a rock-line alpine lake.

True confession time — my “photographic core” is and probably always has been black and white photography. Today the majority of my photographs are in color, and I love working whit color images. But I began with black and white, way back when I was just a kid using a cheapie camera on family vacations. Later my father took me into his home darkroom and I learned to make prints, black and white essentially by necessity in those days. My early photographic heroes were almost all black and white photographers.

All of that is by way of explaining the inclusion of this black and white photograph among all of the other color photographs from this trip, a one-week backcountry visit in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. We looked at this scene daily — it was only steps from my tent — and over the week we got to know its details and its moods well. I made this photograph late in the day, as shadows lengthened across the low, rocky saddle, and the more distant peaks lost most of their sunlight.

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 | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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