Tag Archives: shoreline

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake and Rocky Peninsula

February 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Smooth water behind a small rocky peninsula reflects clouds above a high Sierra back-country lake, Kings Canyon National Park

We stopped at this small lake along the route to and from our destination during our September 2013 nine-day photographic excursion into the high Sierra back-country of Kings Canyon National Park. Between the trailhead and the 11,000′ basin where we camped for nearly a week, there was a 15+ mile hike, two near-12,000′ passes, and a final climb of well over a thousand feet – too far for our party to travel in a single day. So we ended up making a stop here on the inbound and outbound trips. This is a view a few steps away from our campsite near the outlet stream.

My previous visit to this lake had been several decades earlier, back on my very first solo Sierra Nevada backpacking trip. That is a story worth its own lengthy post at some point, but the most striking point may be that I decided that my very first solo trip would be two weeks long! Given that solo backpacking may strike some as a stretch in several ways, a shorter first trip might seem more sensible – but in retrospect I’m glad that I went out for so long. After a few initial days of dealing with the expected “issues” of solo backcountry travel, I got past those concerns and have rarely felt as connected to the natural world as I did during the second half of that trip. At about that point I stopped at this lake on the walk between Bubbs Creek and Rae Lakes, and I recall the next day’s climb to the Pass, where I sat for a long time, in no hurry to leave or get to any place in particular.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shoreline, Morning

October 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The shoreline of an unnamed sub-alpine lake in the Kings Canyon National Park High Sierra.

I made this photograph along the shoreline of one of the many small lakes lying within a very short walk from our back-country campsite high in the eastern Sierra near the crest in Kings Canyon National Park. On this morning I headed up canyon with vague ideas about looking for back-light, a favorite condition/subject of mine in the Sierra. I first wandered up one side of the canyon and after finishing my slow amble at a main lake I reversed my track and headed back down the other side of the narrow valley, passing this small lake.

At just about this time the sun cleared the higher ridge to our east and its morning light arrived at the shoreline. The back-light creates a fringe of light in the outer needles of the trees and it illuminates the willows and other smaller plants that were beginning to take on autumn colors. Here the clear water near the edge of the lake was very shallow, and the patterns of the submerged shoreline rocks continues the rocky character of the shoreline. In typical high Sierra fashion, there is rock everywhere, with much of the vegetation working hard to find sustenance in rocky soil between the granite outcroppings and slabs.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Granite Bowl, Sierra Nevada Lake

September 25, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Forest and rock-filled meadows line the edges of a Sierra Nevada lake in late afternoon sun

This broad sub-alpine basin was both beautiful and, at times, a bit tricky to photograph – though overall it provided nearly unending subject opportunities and we returned to it often during our stay in the area. The primary trickiness had to do with light, and especially late in the day. At this time of year, the morning sun rose far enough towards the south that the slopes along the far side of this valley remained in shadow. In the late afternoon the color of the light began to warm and it shone on most of the basin – but an observant photographer would notice that the light began to fail quite early along the north side of the valley as tall peaks and ridges to the west began to block the sun. I think that each of use were tricked at least once by just how fast the light disappeared. One moment it would seem like there was light everywhere along the shoreline of the large lake in the upper part of this basin, and then within minutes the shadow from the high ridge would slide across and the light would be gone.

By the time I made this photograph I was figuring out this pattern, and I knew enough to start work earlier than I might have expected. I’m fond of many sorts of Sierra Nevada terrain, but the sort of terrain seen here may be just about my favorite. It is an intimate landscape of small grass-filled meadows and shorelines, frequently interrupted by piles of rocks and hills of low granite slabs, with everything eventually running into the shorelines of the nearby lakes. Walking through this terrain, you must twist and turn, rise and fall, and constantly look for a way up or down the rocks, a ramp from one level to the next, or a path leading toward the next little bit of meadow. Here at 11,000′ of elevation there are still trees, but the “forest” is open, consisting of small, widely separated trees for the most part, and light shines in everywhere.

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

Waterline Rocks, Sand, and Foam

August 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pacific ocean surf washes sand among shoreline rocks along the California coast

I’m often on the look out for these little coastal vignettes, and this one surprised me while I was photographing something else. We had traveled over to the coastline between Santa Cruz and San Francisco with no particular goal in mind – well, except for stopping for a bite to eat in Santa Cruz and then heading up the coast in search of the fog-sun boundary that we hoped we might find somewhere north of Davenport. However, even though the fog was visible off-shore and occasionally sent a few wispy clouds over the coast itself, we never did get quite the fog we were looking for.

We finally stopped at an anonymous spot along the road where I though I might be able to make a photograph out of a scene of rocks and waves as the coast curved away to the north. But between the time I had seen the shot and the time we managed to turn around, park, and get gear out, the light that had caught my attention was gone. But, being stopped and all, and standing there with my camera on the tripod, I figured I might as well walk out toward the edge of the bluff. As I did so, I had another specific shot in mind, but while heading to the spot to make that photograph I also noticed these rocks at the water’s edge and made a mental note to “work” them a bit before leaving. Once I finished that other photograph of the larger scene, I tipped the camera and tripod down to point at these rocks and watched to get an interesting bit of sea-foam above them. (I’d be lying if I implied that it didn’t take a few exposures to get this one that I like.)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: shoreline

Lake and Rocky Peninsula

Shoreline, Morning

Granite Bowl, Sierra Nevada Lake

Waterline Rocks, Sand, and Foam

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