Tag Archives: scenic

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

Mist and Curving Ridge, Yosemite Valley

November 27, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Mist from an autumn storm flows across the crest of a curving ridge high on the walls of Yosemite Valley.

The mist from this late-October storm is flowing over the edge of a curving ridge high above the floor of Yosemite Valley, leaving just a hint of the higher, curving ridge above this pinnacle through the clouds at upper left. This photograph, like one I posted very recently, was made as I alternated my attention between the image of Upper Yosemite Fall alternately transitioning between filtered sun and obscuring clouds and small details of the closer Valley walls as seen in this image. From moment to moment there were many interesting combinations of light, cloud, trees, and rock… but they came and went quickly and almost without warning.

I usually post photographs here before printing them, and not all of the posted photographs necessarily get printed. This one is an exception in that I made the first print of it yesterday. I’m also happy to say that some very subtle details that are barely or not visible in this web jpg reproduction are there in the print, including some faint outlines of trees in the upper left portion of the frame and some details of the rocky face at lower right.

This photograph is 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: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Mist Shrouded Spire, Yosemite Valley

November 26, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A rocky spire emerges from the mist of an autumn storm along the rim of Yosemite Valley.

Still mining the backlog of photographs from my late-October visit to Yosemite Valley, here is another photograph made in the beautiful rainy and misty conditions of an autumn storm that came across the Sierra during the last weekend of the month. Since I’m crazy about photographing mist and fog, there was almost too much to shoot at times! When I made this photograph I was moving back and forth between isolated shots of small sections of the upper Valley rim blanketed by fog and light rain, and the scene of Yosemite Falls which was alternately socked in and almost clear. I kept my eyes on the cloud conditions just upwind of the falls, and when it looked like a clearing was approaching I would swing my camera that direction. Then, as thicker clouds moved across the falls and obliterated that view I redirected the camera towards small and quickly changing bits of cloud-covered landscape elsewhere along the cliffs nearby.

This is the sort of scene that makes me think more about how tremendously difficult it was/is to photograph such things with film! A subject like this is anything but static – the clouds move across and through the trees and rocks and change continuously, often so quickly that you only realize what has happened when the opportunity has passed. Accomplishing this with a few sheets of film must require not only tremendously good luck but also an excellent understanding of how these conditions evolve. I try to apply the same awareness of the conditions when I shoot such scenes… but I’m quite happy to be able to make multiple exposures quickly and without a lot of fuss!

This photograph is 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: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees and Cliff, Morning Light, Ahwahnee Meadow

November 24, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning sun light illuminates autumn trees at Ahwahnee Meadow and dissolves the last remnants of morning ground fog, Yosemite Valley.

This was just about the very last exposure I made in this series. As I wrote earlier, I had started shooting in Ahwahnee Meadow before sunrise, on a very cold morning (frost on the grass!) when ground fog obscured the trees. I continued to photograph here for perhaps an hour and a half as the sun light began to touch the highest cliffs and peaks and slight breezes began to move the ground fog. Finally the light began to make its way down to the valley floor, hitting the trees along the west edge of the meadow. At this point I figured it wouldn’t be long before the trees that I was shooting would be touched by the first bit of light. This photograph was made at just about that moment when, fortuitously, some thin clouds moved overhead and muted the fist light to strike the yellow leaves of this grove of trees, standing above the very last remnants of the ground fog.

This photograph is 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: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Five Pines, Reflected Light of El Capitan

November 22, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late afternoon light reflected from the face of El Capitan gently illuminates a group of five ponderosa pines near El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite Valley.

I photograph the oak trees of El Capitan Meadow almost every time I visit the Valley. The normal thing to do is to take the road back toward the west end of the Valley, pull out along the right side of the road, and either photograph from the road or head out to the south into the meadow itself. Almost every time I do this I look at the trees on the other side of the road and find them interesting, but I haven’t had much luck in photographing them. I often have the same experience – I look over there and think that there should be obvious subjects for a photograph, and sometimes even pick out general subjects… but when I try to actually shoot them nothing happens.

On this late afternoon on a fall day, the sun had just dropped below the cliffs to the west and I had more or less finished shooting the subjects that I was working with in the meadow. I headed back to the car and once again looked across the road into the forest along its north side. I thought I saw some interesting light over there and a bit further west, so I started walking. Eventually I came to a row of very large trees which I photographed, though I’m still not quite “seeing” an image in those shots. As I worked here I saw this group of five pines nearby and noticed that now that the sunlight was starting to fade from the Valley floor that they were lit with a strong glow from the south west face of El Capitan, which looks right above this section of the forest – it was as if someone had set up a 3000′ foot tall light panel just for me.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: scenic

Trees and Cliff, Morning Light, Ahwahnee Meadow

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

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