Tag Archives: shoreline

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Boulders, Shoreline

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Trees, Boulders, Shoreline
Boulders and trees along the shoreline of a Yosemite backcountry lake.

Trees, Boulders, Shoreline. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Boulders and trees along the shoreline of a Yosemite backcountry lake.

This dense and complex little scene caught my attention as I slowly wandered around the periphery of this Yosemite backcountry lake early in the morning a few years ago. I often look for a sort of compositional simplicity in photographs — some basic, underlying form that encompasses the elements — but sometimes I like to head off in the opposite direction and play with the idea of including lots of components in the scene. If I didn’t do this occasionally, I think I’d have to leave a lot of subjects out of my photography. So, yes, there’s a lot going on here: a couple of vertical lines from trees; a jumble of small trees and plants, the shapes and textures of the boulders, and even a bit of reflection in the water.

I made the photograph at a particular moment in the evolution of the morning light at this location. Because I was out and about very early, the first light I experienced was the soft, bluish light of the pre-dawn time. Before long the sun began to hit some of the surrounding peaks, and as this light spread it began to reflect warmer light in to the still-shaded parts of the landscape. At this point the light is still soft, but it is gradually and almost imperceptibly warming and becoming a bit more directional.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Shoreline Trees, Morning Light

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Shoreline Trees, Morning Light
Morning light on shoreline trees at a backcountry Yosemite National Park lake.

Shoreline Trees, Morning Light. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on shoreline trees at a backcountry Yosemite National Park lake.

Our group spent the better part of a week camped near this northern Yosemite Lake, exploring it, its two companion lakes, and the surrounding high country. We camped in the forest a ways back from this lake, but it was only a minute away and thus became a daily subject for photography, especially in the morning when the light come over the ridges to our east and backlight the shoreline trees.

This subject, in this light, presented a pair of interesting challenges of the sort that you only learn to appreciate after doing landscape photography in such places. The first came from shooting toward the light from the edge of the lake. Photographers know the issues with flare that can result from light hitting the lens directly — but multiply that times two when the light comes from above and from the reflections from the lake’s surface. The gyrations necessary to block both often prove interesting. The second challenge was… mosquitos! Not just that the fiends, biting little devils annoyed us constantly, but also that their blurry forms tend to appear in photographs when viewed closely. You don’t know the meaning of fun until you’ve cloned a few hundred of them out of a photograph!

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Peak, Lake, and Boulders, Sunset

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Peak, Lake, and Boulders, Sunset
The last light of the day touches the top of Sheep Peak in the McCabe Lakes Basin, Yosemite National Park.

Peak, Lake, and Boulders, Sunset. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last light of the day touches the top of a peak in the northern backcountry of Yosemite National Park.

This is not a new photograph — rather, it is a reconsideration of one that I made almost a decade ago and recently looked it with new eyes. The location is in the northern backcountry of Yosemite National Park, in a somewhat remote area characterized by high ridges, rocky terrains, and some lovely lakes. I was there with a group of friends and photographers for a few glorious days during which we took our time and explored the surrounding terrain.

We were camped at a lower lake among forest trees, in a location that gave us shelter but also access to tons of higher, more alpine terrain. Often we headed off individually to photograph, but on this late afternoon we all headed to the same place, ascending a slope at the upper end of “our” lake to arrive at the next lake up the valley. Sequences of lakes like this are common in many backcountry areas, and I enjoy the individual personalities of the lakes as they are affected by terrain and elevation. This lake was surrounded by alpine meadows, very small and sparse trees, lots of talus, and towering peaks.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Autumn Shoreline

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Autumn Shoreline
Early autumn colors, granite slabs, and low water levels at a Yosemite backcountry lake.

Autumn Shoreline. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn colors, granite slabs, and low water levels at a Yosemite backcountry lake.

Recently I have been going through a large body of work created on backcountry photography trips with a group of fellow photographers. The photographs begin in 2008, when I first encountered them near a favorite Yosemite high country location. It continues over the next few years when I packed myself fin and briefly joined them each season, and then over a longer period when I fully integrated with the group and began spending a week or so photographing with them (almost) every summer. It has been a wonderful experience with a great group of photographers and friends, and I’m hopeful that the story will be shared more widely in the future.

This photograph comes from 2009, the second summer that I joined them, albeit briefly. They base-camped for more than a week in this area when I backpacked in to join them for a few days. (My early departure may have been a blessing in disguise, since shortly after I left the temperatures dropped close to zero!) A benefit of settling into one location for a few days is that I have the time to slowly wander the area, a photographic opportunity that is not available on typical backpacking trips where the need to make mileage leaves far less time for photography.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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