Tag Archives: sierra

2023: Favorite Photos

Image January 18, 2024 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

It is that time again — time to share favorite photographs from the past year. I am sharing “2023: Favorite Photos,” including a dozen representative images. I think it is a diverse set, and I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Below is a single image of the full set of twelve. Subjects include the Sierra Nevada (of course!), Death Valley (also of course!), the California coast, birds in California’s Central Valley, a macro photograph, an urban landscape from Manhattan, and several photographs from our 10-week visit to (mostly) Southern Europe.

It is a group of 12 images chosen from among my 2023 favorites — not necessarily my “12 Best Photographs” of the year. (See the difference?) The process of winnowing the set down to a dozen left out other favorites. I like all of those photographs, but I chose these because they represent a variety of work and cover some of the main experiences, places, and subjects of 2023.

I’ll post each photo separately below, too, adding a bit of narration to each image. I hope you enjoy them!

The individual photographs follow, in no particular order, accompanied by brief descriptions. Click the photographs to display them larger. Click their titles to see and read the original posts, which include more descriptive text. You may leave comments and questions at the end of this article.

Our long visit (ten weeks!) to Europe last summer was wonderful, but I missed almost the whole summer in “my Sierra Nevada.” (I haven’t yet figured out how to be in two places at once.) But once we returned to the USA I turned my attention to the mountains and made my first visit of the (tail end of) summer in mid-September. I was on the East Side on this stormy evening when the sky and clouds above Mono Lake lit up, providing a dramatic and spectacular light show.

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

Aspens, Peaks, and Evening Shadows II

Image December 14, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn aspen groves, lengthening early evening shadows, and snow-dusted peaks in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Seeing a photograph here with the Roman numeral “II” attached you may wonder if there is a version “I.” There is, of course, and the first of the pair was posted a few days ago. In this case, the only significant difference is that this is a “landscape” orientation view of the scene and the other version used the “portrait” orientation. When the subject allows it I often photograph in both orientations — partly for practical reasons and partly because they both seem to work!

The scene is a type that I like a lot, at the elevation where the forests we expect in the high country meet high desert sagebrush country. The aspen trees seem to like both, and they are frequently a bridge between the two types of terrain. Here it is late in the afternoon (or perhaps early in the evening?) and long shadows are starting to stretch across the landscape.

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.

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

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

Aspens in a Row

Image December 13, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A row of colorful autumn aspen trees against a backdrop of rugged rocks.

Along the base of this rocky face, which parallels the shoreline of a subalpine eastern Sierra lake, aspen trees try to grow with the classic tall and straight form. They almost succeed, but the rocky soil seems to hold them back, and while they are fairly straight they are not that tall. However, because they are in the shadow of a ridge yet open to the light on the other side, they pick up lovely soft and reflected light.

Our initial plans did not work out on this morning. We arrived at a high-country lake hoping to find reflections of aspens and the surrounding peaks. Instead we encountered strong winds and rough water on the lake. There were no good reflections and leaves were coming down in the wind. However, there are almost always alternative subjects, and by using a long lens I was able to photograph these trees across the valley.

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

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

Autumn Oaks, Morning

Image December 11, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn oak trees silhouetted in morning light, against the backdrop of smoke from a managed fire, Yosemite Valley.

This photograph comes from the my November 1 visit to Yosemite Valley on a day when a managed fire filled the air with smoke. It was especially thick here, as the fire was burning more or less around the meadow containing these trees. In the photograph you can probably see the thicker smoke in the shaded distance, though where I was standing it was not quite as bad.

There were several key features making this photograph work. The slender trunks of these trees are always interesting, but here they were backlight by intense sunlight coming over the top of the Valley walls, increasing the saturation of the fall leaf color. This light also left the trunks in silhouette while lighting up some of the dry autumn grasses, and the smoke muted background distractions.

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

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sierra

2023: Favorite Photos

Aspens, Peaks, and Evening Shadows II

Autumn Oaks, Morning

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