Tag Archives: scenic

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

Granite Ridge and Trees

December 9, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A backlit granite ridge above the Tuolumne River is topped by trees.

I think that this is probably going to be the final riff on the subject of this particular ridge, the subject of several photographs I have posted in recent weeks. As I probably wrote at least once before… I climbed up from our camp onto the top of a small dome-like granite whaleback that gave me an open view in almost all directions and a high point from which to look over a good section of the Tuolumne River as it passes through a section of the Yosemite back-country. I arrived at this spot in the very late afternoon and then stayed there for perhaps two hours as the light gradually shifted from that of afternoon to sunset and then twilight.

This photograph was made before the golden hour, though I think that a bit of added warmth is already beginning to appear in the color of the light. The sun was coming from above the distant ridge seen faintly through the haze above the valley of the Tuolumne, and it was periodically blocked by some high clouds. While the clouds can “blah-ify” the light pretty effectively, when they are not completely covering the sky they can cast interesting and temporary light across the landscape as they move past. For a moment the light came brightly through the clouds and back-lit these beautiful trees that were growing on the granite surface of this dome.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Crumbling Ghost Town Ruins, Evening

December 8, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light in the crumbling ruins of an old mining ghost town near Death Valley National Park, California.

Rhyolite is a Nevada ghost town not far from Death Valley National Park. (The bit of distant ridge seen through the “windows” of the structure is probably inside the park.) The story of Rhyolite is interesting, and not all that different from what happened in many other “boom and bust” towns in the desert and in other areas of the west. For a short time, thousands showed up to work in extractive industries, otherwise known as mines, and there was apparently an actual bustling city here. The old railroad station, ruins of bank buildings and a school, and the size of the area occupied by the town are evidence of this. But, as is virtually always the case, the boom couldn’t last and the departed inhabitant left some years ago, leaving the town to the elements.

This is a different sort of Rhyolite photograph than I might usually share. Most are made either at night or in the golden hour period near dawn. This one was made in the evening, when the direct sun was gone. (At this time of year the sun sets beyond a nearby ridge, so the direct light is gone well before sunset.) The soft, bluish evening light creates a different effect and, for me, makes the old buildings a bit more mysterious. Here I shot from outside one of the crumbling structures that is now filled with rocks. I don’t usually say much about what a photograph might mean (and often my photographs are simply what they are) but this one evoked for me some thoughts about the nature of time and the transitory effect of the human presence on the landscape. Not only has this building – which at one time must have had a floor, a roof, a nicely finished interior, and perhaps even comfortable furniture and perhaps art on the walls – decayed to the point where the line between its structure and the rocks of the natural landscape becomes obscure, but even the attempts to declare ones presence by means of graffiti have begun to crumble.

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

Rocky Shoreline, Sub-Alpine Lake

December 6, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Morning light on the trees, boulders, and grasses of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake, Yosemite National Park.

On the morning after my hike up to this lake we were all up early and eager to explore the surrounding area. Everyone rose well before sunrise, and we headed off in various directions for our first morning of exploration and to start shooting. I began in the forest, looking for some corn lily plants and then various snags and fallen trees, but I eventually ended up along the shoreline of the lake. A lake like this one has almost limitless subjects to photograph. I began working the edge of the lake by photographing a few shoreline trees, then moved on to photograph some large boulders in the lake not far from the shore. As I moved clockwise along the edge of the water I began to pick up one of my favorite subjects – trees back-lit by morning light – and I worked to find a few compositions that spanned the bright foreground rocks and grasses, the middle distance shoreline trees, and then the more distant and shaded talus slopes leading to overhead ridges.

There were six of us in the group, and it was interesting to observe the different ways we each worked. Everyone was up pretty early, but for the most part each photographer headed off to look for his own special subjects. Occasionally we would run into one another, but we most often took pains to not try to re-do one another’s shots. Some among us immediately began to explore a bit more widely, heading around the lake and into the forest along the far shore, while others started very close to our campsite and slowly began to expand their circle of subjects. Over the course of a number of days we all got to know the lake and its surroundings much better – there is nothing like staying in one place for three or four days to reveal it in more depth than might be apparent on a short overnight visit.

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

Forest and Granite

November 29, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Forest trees ascend a slope filled with small granite domes and ledges, Yosemite National Park.

This little scene could probably be found in a few thousand locations in the Sierra if you were to keep your eyes open while wandering about. The combination of glacially-smoothed, rounded granite formations, a bit of meadowy grass, and groves of pines is a distinctly “Yosemite” sight for me.

I photographed these trees in a location not far from the Tuolumne River where a side canyon comes down from above to join it. From a somewhat open position along one side of this valley I was able to shoot across the valley with a slightly long lens and compress the distance a bit and pick out a series of granite diagonals interrupted and hidden by the back-lit trees.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: scenic

Granite Ridge and Trees

Crumbling Ghost Town Ruins, Evening

Rocky Shoreline, Sub-Alpine Lake

Forest and Granite

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