Tag Archives: sierra

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Outcropping, White Mountains, Morning

October 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The White Mountains with new snow and morning clouds tower above a spire in the Buttermilks above Bishop, California

In early October, my excuse for going – yet again – to the eastern Sierra was, of course, to shoot the beautiful fall color of the aspen trees. That is reason enough to head over there, and I go every fall. And I did photograph aspens while I was over there. But my little secret is that there is a lot more than aspens to photograph on the East Side in the fall, and while aspens were always on my mind, photographing them took up less than half of our time overall.

The first day of the visit was devoted largely to travel, and the travel took longer than usual because a fall snow storm was passing through, closing passes so that we had to cross the Sierra much further north than usual, and then slowing the drive down highway 395. (The slow drive was partially due to road conditions, but perhaps more due to interesting photographic conditions that led to a lot of side trips and stops along the way.) On the second morning I knew that there would be a layer of fresh snow on the east facing slopes of the crest above Owens Valley, so we drove up into the Buttermilk area above Bishop to photograph there at dawn. After finishing up there we headed back down to pick up the road up into the Bishop Creek drainage. As we drove I saw some of the interesting pinnacles of the Buttermilks catching the morning sun as the huge ridge of the White Mountains, also covered with new snow, towered over on the other side of Owens Valley.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Mt. Humphreys, New Snow, Sunrise

October 18, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunrise light illuminates overnight snow on Mt. Humphreys and peaks of the Sierra Nevada crest above the Buttermilks

This was the morning after a day of October snowfall up and down the Sierra Nevada. The previous day we had photographed in snow almost the whole day as we traveled east over Carson Pass, then via Monitor Pass to highway 395, and continued south past Walker, Bridgeport, Lee Vining, and Mammoth (where the snow finally let up) and on to Bishop. Photographing aspen color in the snow was a special treat, since it combined the autumn ritual of aspen chasing with the clear indication that the cold season was on its way, a message delivered by snow.

That night I realized that the snow would certainly coat the peaks of the eastern Sierra the next morning, so instead of heading straight up to photograph aspens, I decided that we would instead go to a place in the sage country above Bishop from which a great section of the eastern Sierra is visible, to see if we might get dawn light on the snow-covered mountains. We arrived – of course! – before sunrise, and the jury was still out. There were clouds floating over the crest and, more importantly, there were clouds high up in the White Mountains to the east. Mornings like this have the potential to either be a complete bust if the clouds block the early light, or to bring especially beautiful conditions if the dawn light finds a way to shine through breaks in the clouds. We got our breaks, and on top of that the clouds above the crest began to break up just as the sunlight arrived. In this photograph, a fluffy cloud has been considerate enough to momentarily park its peak-shaped form above Mt. Humphreys, a bit of light hits the peaks, a band of light lower down illuminates the base of the snow-covered escarpment, and a bit of reddish light even hits the nearer and darker foreground peak.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Leaves on Snow

October 17, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Frost covered autumn aspen leaves lying on new-fallen snow, Sierra Nevada

Early October is the time of the annual aspen color transition in the eastern Sierra Nevada. For me, the combination of the dramatic color change and the seasonal weather changes clearly denote the fact that summer is over and that we are heading toward the cold part of the year. (I like this – I find that the fall through spring seasons are more photographically compelling, and I’m no longer a “hot weather person.”) While October in the Sierra can bring some beautiful and even warm days, there is not question that nights are both longer and colder, and the occasional passing weather front will drop enough snow to make it feel distinctly winter-like.

Although we knew that much of the iconic color at North Lake had already passed, we decided to go there anyway on this morning and look for more subtle things that remain. The road past the lake is on a north slope and we drove through plenty of recent snow as we passed along this shoreline in 22 degree temperatures. As expected, most of the trees had lost their leaves already, though we also found some trees that still held enough colorful leaves to make the visit well worth our time. And, when those leaves fall, they don’t simply disappear! On a snowy morning like this one they collect in piles on top of the snow, providing beautiful little compositions and highlighting the intensity of their colors.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shoreline Meadow, Unnamed Lake

October 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Granite boulders line a small rock-filled meadow near the outlet of an unnamed sub-alpine High Sierra lake, Kings Canyon National Park

This is, to say the least, a complex photograph. I am well aware that it violates all of the “rules,” especially those that suggest that a photograph should have a clear central subject. While that is often fine advice – and I often try to use a single aspect of a larger subject to say something about the larger whole – I think that in some cases it may be fine to use a photograph to portray things that are not quite so simple, and subjects or scenes where the core nature of the thing is, in fact, its overwhelming complexity of detail and form.

This was clearly a very detailed scene, and it embodies an important aspect of the character of these high sierra areas that sit just below timberline in the sub-alpine zone. While there is an order to this environment, it is not a simple order and many components work together in complex ways. I made this photograph at the outlet stream of this nameless lake, located at the 11,000′ level a very short distance from our camp. On this morning the lake’s waters were very still, reflecting the rocky surrounding terrain. (The only simple thing in this scene is the bit of reflected sky at the lower right.) The bit of foreground meadow has taken on the late summer and early fall golden and brown tones, and its surface is interrupted by embedded rocks that become more numerous near the lake’s edge and in its outlet stream. The rest of the landscape is largely one of rock – massive chunks of rock such as the dome-like feature along the far shore and the rounded and rugged shapes of the slopes above, along with fractured and shattered talus slopes composed of rock that has fallen down from the peaks above. Aside from the meadow, the only plant life visible in this landscape consists of scattered trees growing among the rocks and small clusters of alpine willows.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sierra

Outcropping, White Mountains, Morning

Aspen Leaves on Snow

Shoreline Meadow, Unnamed Lake

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