Tag Archives: Sierra Nevada

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Yosemite Falls and Glacier Point

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Yosemite Falls and Glacier Point
Yosemite Falls and Glacier Point. Yosemite National Park, California. May 16, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Yosemite Valley and Yosemite Falls early on a hazy spring evening, with Glacier Point outcropping in the foreground. (color version – black and white version was posted yesterday.)

keywords: california, national park, Sierra Nevada, Spring, Yosemite, valley, falls, glacier point, rock, boulder, mountain, evening, afternoon, haze, tree, forest, view, meadow, mist, usa, travel, scenic, view, landscape, stock

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Yosemite Falls and Glacier Point

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Yosemite Falls and Glacier Point

Yosemite Falls and Glacier Point. Yosemite National Park, California. May 16, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Yosemite Valley and Yosemite Falls early on a hazy spring evening, with Glacier Point outcropping in the foreground. (black and white version – color version will be posted tomorrow.)

Note: It seems a bit ironic that this photograph would appear from the queue on the day I return from a Yosemite trip that was very much affected by the terrible wildfire smoke covering much of California right now. While this photograph depended on some haze, it sure would not have looked like this yesterday!

Double irony: As I shot this very interesting and hazy scene, there were lots of other photographers there firing away at the obvious – and not too interesting – view of Half Dome to the right. Always good to look around and see what else is there to shoot! :-)

keywords: california, national park, Sierra Nevada, Spring, Yosemite, valley, falls, glacier point, rock, boulder, mountain, evening, afternoon, haze, tree, forest, view, meadow, mist, usa, travel, scenic, view, landscape, stock, black and white

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

Ansel’s Tree

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Ansel's Tree
“Ansel’s Tree” — The snag that remained in 2008 of the tree in Ansel Adam’s “Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome.”

This is all that remained in 2008 of the Jeffrey Pine on Sentinel Dome that was the subject of the famous Ansel Adams photograph,”Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome.” Somewhere I even have my early attempts at trying to do the “Ansel Adams thing” with my black and white film camera when I was much younger, featuring one or more photographs of this very tree, while it was still alive. Trust me, if you are a Sierra Nevada landscape photographer of a certain age, you knew this tree and probably visited it.

I photographed this close-up “portrait” many years after the tree died, while on a quick hike over to the summit of Sentinel Dome along the Glacier Point Road in 2008. Things change slowly in the Sierra, but they do inevitably change. This is now, objectively speaking, another dead snag atop a Yosemite granite dome — however, this snag has achieved a sort of iconic status. Yet, perhaps there will eventually be another, maybe even the younger tree seen in the background beyond the dead stump.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: People, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Two Hikers on Sentinel Dome

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Sentinel Dome Hikers Above Yosemite Valley
Sentinel Dome Hikers Above Yosemite Valley

Sentinel Dome Hikers Above Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. © Copyright 2008 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two hikers enjoy the panoramic view from Sentinel Dome above Yosemite Valley – Yosemite National Park

On this early season day back on 2008 I drove up the road to Glacier Point, stopping alone the way to make the short lateral hike out to the summit of Sentinel Dome. Sentinel is a classic viewpoint in Yosemite, and was made even more famous by the well-known iconic “Jeffrey Pine” photograph by Ansel Adams, featuring a lone, rugged, wind-bent tree that grew for years on that summit, backed by distant peaks of the high Sierra. (That tree died years ago, though its stump remains and is still picturesque… and a reminder that time passes. Another reminder for me — when I was a child my family visited this dome and that tree while it was still living.)

On this visit I took the newer trail that replaced the old (and environmentally insensitive) trail from a parking lot on the lower reaches of the dome, and arrived on the summit to reacquaint myself with the spot after a long absence. As I photographed on the summit, this young couple hiked to the top and settled in on this rock to take in the spectacular view into the canyon below.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.