Tag Archives: shore

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Subalpine Lake, Late Afternoon Light

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Subalpine Lake, Late Afternoon Light
Late afternoon light on a rocky peninsula on a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

Subalpine Lake, Late Afternoon Light. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late afternoon light on a rocky peninsula on a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

This is a photograph that required a bit of persistence! During our September stay in the Eastern Sierra Nevada backcountry, I first walked up to this lake several days before I made this photograph. When I arrived for the first time I made a guess as to where I might find a photograph, but the guess was wrong! As the light faded I tried a different spot, and I found a good one, but I missed the best light. I made a mental note to come back, and even noted the specific spot to be in. A day or two later I headed back in that direction late in the day, with plenty of time to get there before the good light arrived… but then I got distracted by some other attraction, spent too much time on it, and arrived at this lake — you guessed it! — about three minutes too late! However, I did have a bit more time to consider the location and timing of the shot I had it mind.

I went back one more time, and this third time was almost not a charm. I got there plenty early and found my spot well before the good light… and discovered a woman set on fishing from the lovely rocks on the peninsula in the center of the photograph! Since I was early I decided to wait quietly and not try to convince her to get out of my shot, but I did explain what I was there for. I waited. She continued to fish. I began the internal debate about just how aggressive I should be about trying to get the shot. I think she figured out that I really wanted this photograph, since about five minutes before I made it she moved on to another spot on the other side of the rock. (She continued to fish, and I had to time my exposures between her casts, when sent line right into the water beyond the rocks.) In the end my persistence paid off, and I got a photograph that I like — to me it seems to capture that lovely late-day, late-summer light in the high country, and it even includes some really lovely color in the water. I finished the photography here… and had time left over for a short hike to the top of a nearby pass before the light faded.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Rocky Shoreline, Reflections

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Rocky Shoreline, Reflections
Sky and high peaks reflected in the surface of a lake in rocky alpine country

Rocky Shoreline, Reflections. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sky and high peaks reflected in the surface of a lake in rocky alpine country

This is (yet another!) photograph from my September week in the John Muir Wilderness backcountry with a group of photographer/friends. We set up a base camp at a lake in a long valley running north/south, and photographed the immediate area and further subjects that we could reach on day hikes. The orientation of this valley gave us an unusual lighting condition — hours of blue hour light in the morning and early evening after the sun dropped below the tops of the two giant ridges to the east and west.

Our lake was mostly a fairly rocky place. The gentler portions of the shoreline featured small trees, often separated by open space and both rocky and meadowy areas. The more rugged side of the lake was the base of a gigantic talus field that extended far up the mountainside to the east. I made this photograph when light still illuminated the upper slopes of the ridge while the lake itself was in shadow. The effect was to make the landscape seem even more stark, so I photographed to emphasize the large forms of light and dark, and then chose to render it in black and white.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Coastal Bluffs, Morning Fog

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Coastal Bluffs, Morning Fog
Under foggy morning skies, steep coastal bluffs rise above the Pacific Ocean along the Big Sur coast

Coastal Bluffs, Morning Fog. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Under foggy morning skies, steep coastal bluffs rise above the Pacific Ocean along the Big Sur coast

I’m fortunate to live in a (photographically speaking) “target rich environment.” Two hours to my west is the Great Central Valley of California, a couple of hours beyond that and I’m high in the Sierra Nevada, and a bit more driving takes me to the east side of the Sierra and the beginning of basin and range country. I can get to Death Valley in a day’s driving. San Francisco is a train ride away, and a bit north of that begins the heart of coast redwood country. (I can actually get to redwoods by driving only about a half hour from home.) Less than an hour away is the Pacific Ocean, and a somewhat longer drive takes my past Monterey and Carmel and into the remarkable Big Sur coastline.

That’s where I went on this day, getting a somewhat later start than I hoped for but arriving in time to find fog still hanging around among the coastal mountains and bluffs. I know this coastline well enough to photograph in some little-known spots, but this location is very close to something quite iconic. I’ve photographed this location many times, in all sorts of conditions — fog, brilliant sun, winter storms. It can be a very colorful and bright place late on a clear-sky day, but on this morning it had a quieter and more closed-in feeling.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

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

Quiet Lake, Autumn Reflections

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Quiet Lake, Autumn Reflections
Autumn aspen trees reflected in the quiet surface of an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake

Quiet Lake, Autumn Reflections. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees reflected in the quiet surface of an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake

Although this photograph does not show the “classic” view of this location, there may be enough here to make it look familiar. (If you know… shhhhh.) I stopped here at an “off-hour” that wasn’t the time of day when most people looking for to reproduce that classic photograph show up. That wasn’t my intention, and I now typically only go to this place (and others like it) when I suspect that something truly unusual might happen for the most part.

I arrived and wandered over to the often-crowded spot… to find that I was almost alone here. What an unusual pleasure! The water was extremely still for this time of day, and cloud-filtered light was coming from behind and to the left of the bright grove of aspen trees. They reflected beautifully in the lake, but I decided to interrupt that reflection and its symmetry by finding a way to include the grasses growing along the near shore of the lake, grasses that were themselves starting to take on the colors of autumn.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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