Tag Archives: sierra

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Early Autumn Snow

November 29, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Snow from an early autumn storm dusts the high peaks above Eastern Sierra aspen trees

I made this photograph on an early autumn morning, on a day with conditions that were either difficult or special, depending on your point of view. After several days of photographing aspen color in the Eastern Sierra, this was my final morning of this particular trip. The weather had mostly been “nice” — perhaps a bit unusually so for this time of year, but in line with the pattern of California drought that was now in its fourth year. But on my last night of this trip an early fall storm blew in, and overnight it snowed lightly on my camp.

Looking at this as an opportunity, I was up early in the morning. I headed up higher into the mountains where I knew there would be plenty of the aspen color that I had photographed during the past few days, but now altered in appearance by this “interesting” weather. It was cold enough that light snow was sticking on the higher peaks, and at my elevation it was that raw kind of weather that is windy and just cold enough to “try to snow.” The overcast softened the light, bringing more illumination to shadows and intensifying the autumn colors.

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

Seepage Stains, Cathedral Range Granite

November 28, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Water seepage stains the surface of a Cathedral Range granite face, Yosemite National Park

During our week camped at a Yosemite back-country lake in September we had plenty of time to become intimately aware of the surrounding landscape, to explore its features, and to return to some of them more than once. One photographer who wasn’t with us this time but who has been a fixture on these trips in the past (Hi, Mike!) and shared some general information about a particular feature that intrigued him — and as a result the rest of us also became intrigued by it. The description of the location was a bit vague, but not so vague that a person who knows the area well would be unable to find it. (Think of directions like, “Near some granite to the south of a lake and west of another lake.”) So, once on the scene, this area was one that caught our focus.

Up from where we were camped, through some trees, and near the base of an incline, there is an odd section of cliff. In the sort of spot where you might expect everything to have been ground away by ancient glaciers there is a section of cliff that is hundreds of feet long and perhaps no ore than thirty feet high. A basin lies above it, and it seems that water finds many places to seem over and through these rocks, staining them in all sorts of diverse and amazing ways. This photograph is one of several close up studies I did of small sections of this face, where solid, blocky granite is cut through by cracks and water stains are everywhere.

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

Grove of Bare Aspen Trees

November 24, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A few autumn leaves linger on a grove of bare aspen trees, eastern Sierra Nevada

No, I’m still not done with my photographs from autumn 2015 in the Sierra Nevada! This year I first photographed this grove in late September, much earlier than would normally be the case. Even then many of the trees had already lost their leaves, seemingly in response to the fourth serious drought year in the Sierra. The drought affected trees in a variety of ways, ranging from early color change to simply dropping leaves without a color change to seemingly going dormant. (Other trees that were less stressed seemed to change later than usual, perhaps in response to later warm temperatures resulting from climate change.) I was less than satisfied with those first late-September photographs of these trees, so I thought more about them after returning home and made a plan to return the following week and refine my ideas.

And that’s just what I did. I made this photograph one week after those first images. This time I spent less time at the grove since I already had a fairly clear idea of what I was trying to produce. Given how few leaves there had been the week before, I was somewhat surprised to find any color still left here — but I was also happy that there was some! Bare and near bare late-season aspen trees seem compelling to me, for reasons I cannot quite put my finger on. Is it that they signal the fine, incontrovertible end of the warm season? Or is it that they signal the certain arrival of the beauties of winter? Perhaps there is something about these bare trees standing in groups and their promise of new life the following spring? When there are still just a few colorful leaves remaining, as in this scene, somehow the effect seems even stronger.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Eastern Sierra Ridges, Rain

November 22, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A passing squall drops rain on hills at the base of the Eastern Sierra

I first stopped here with a very different sort of photograph in mind. I pulled off US395 just north of Bishop in a spot where I knew I could overlook pastureland spotted with autumn color cottonwood trees and backed by the mighty eastern escarpment of the Sierra. But the weather was extremely changeable, and within minute a passing squall almost completely obliterated the view, leaving me looking mostly at a thick curtain of falling rain.

I waited a bit, hiding under the rear door of my vehicle with my tripod set up, and before long the conditions began to change again — I could see that the moisture-filled atmosphere was beginning to glow to the south where clouds were thinning and sun was illuminating the falling rain. As I watched, the distant low hills of the eastern Sierra gradually began to re-emerge. These conditions not only make the view opaque but they also desaturate the colors. Believe it or not… this minimalist landscape is a color photograph!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sierra

Aspens, Early Autumn Snow

Seepage Stains, Cathedral Range Granite

Grove of Bare Aspen Trees

Eastern Sierra Ridges, Rain

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