Tag Archives: sky

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Chimneys and Building Details, Standard Mill

October 29, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Details of buildings and chimneys at the Standard Mill, Bodie ghost town, California

On the final day of our October eastern Sierra visit we covered a lot of ground, starting with dawn virga and light snow near Mammoth Lakes before heading east into the high desert toward the Nevada border and then north by back roads past Mono Lake to Lee Vining, where we finally stopped for a very late breakfast. We headed north from Lee Vining, first stopping to photograph aspens near Conway Summit, and the snow that was still falling above along the Sierra crest. With this “interesting” weather still around, it seemed like it might be worth a trip out to Bodie.

I’ve been to Bodie a number of times, and while the historical story is fascinating and the presence of such a large abandoned town is remarkable, I have sometimes been frustrated by the stark and cloudless skies and the realization that the place has been photographed so darned much! But a number of years ago I made it out there on a spring day when there was light snow falling, and I realized that in the right conditions it is still well worth a visit. Since there was a possibility of similar weather this time – though snow did not fall after we arrived – and since it was the off-season, the drive seemed worth it. And it was. Along the way we saw high desert aspen groves, which have a very different appearance than those of the eastern Sierra. The weather gave us a combination of blue skies, partial clouds, and occasional mists covering hill tops – and all of this was constantly changing as the clouds thickened and thinned. As I have walked around Bodie in the past I have been fascinated by the large Standard Mill that sits across the Valley. Since it is fenced off and access isn’t permitted without a guide, I was not able to walk among the buildings… but I was able to get close enough to make some photographs of the interesting juxtapositions of stark metal walls, windows, and chimneys.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Unnamed Lake, Early Morning

October 8, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light and cloud-filled sky reflected in the surface of an unnamed sub-alpine lake in the southern Sierra Nevada range, Kings Canyon National Park

This may have been the morning with the most dramatic light during our mid-September trip to photograph in the High Sierra back-country of Kings Canyon National Park, when a group of four photographs spent 6 nights in a beautiful 11,000′ location not far to the west of the crest of the range. Our camp was on a small rise just above my camera position, and we spent out days either looking at variations on essentially this view or wandering about in the alpine “neighborhood,” exploring and making photographs.

I have some experience with Sierra weather and I can often make some decent judgments about what is going on and where things may be headed. However, during this “shoulder season” when the transition from summer to fall and towards winter is taking place, all bets are off! During the summer, when it isn’t just another blue sky day in the Sierra, a common pattern starts with fairly clear weather, introduces a few small clouds by mid or late morning, and then builds toward possible thunderstorms and afternoon/evening showers. But this morning began with overcast that was distinctly un-thunderstorm-like, the sort of thing that I find almost impossible to read. Were we seeing some evidence of a larger pattern related to the onset of winter-season Pacific fronts? Was it merely a local weather situation that would dissipate as the day wore on? In the end, we did end up with showers late in the afternoon – as we did on over half of the days on this trip – but on this morning the only thing I knew for certain was that the light on the peaks below the cloud-dotted sky was exceptionally beautiful.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Shower, Sierra Pond

October 4, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Raindrops from a late afternoon shower mark the surface of a small Sierra Nevada pond reflecting the sky

During our mid-September photographic sojourn to the back-country of Kings Canyon National Park, the four photographers in my group were blessed with a wide range of weather conditions. The weather was never difficult or bad, but we did get precipitation on something like five of the 9 days we were on the trail. This constitutes what I might describe as “interesting” weather – clouds, some showers, a bit of wind, occasional mist around the peaks, but nothing dangerous or wild enough to interfere with photography and confine us to tents. (Although we missed it, if we had stayed a couple of days longer we might well have added snow to the experience!) From my perspective, and I’m sure that I share this view with most Sierra photographers, the thing we perhaps dread most is encountering one of those weeks-long bouts of perfect blue sky boring weather. Give us some clouds and a bit of rain!

While it is possible to encounter the first Pacific weather fronts of the season at about the time we were there, with their potential for many hours or even days of “weather,” what we encountered was more like the typical summer monsoon weather. Most days started clear or nearly so, and by midday we started to see a build-up of clouds. By sometime in the late afternoon it became apparent that showers were possible, so we went out with appropriate rain gear and protection for camera equipment. As familiar as I am with this weather and even though I’m attentive to the changing conditions, it always seems that the actual onset of rain – typically a few drops seen in the surface of a lake like this one, followed by increasing showers – catches me by surprise. On the afternoon when I made this photograph, as on several other afternoons, there were patches of open sky around and I wasn’t actually expecting rain at the moment it arrived. I made this photograph at one of those moments when the rain was barely enough to feel, but when the pattern of drops on the reflecting surface of the water provided undeniable evidence of precipitation.

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Paoha Island, Mono Lake, Evening

September 22, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Pastel colors in evening clouds above Paoha Island reflect on the surface of Mono Lake

On this evening I ended up at Mono Lake on more or less a hunch about the clouds – thunder clouds had built to the east out over the basin and range country and even a bit over the Sierra, and I had heard a report of thunder and lightning a bit north of here, so I decided to chance an evening visit to the south shore of the lake. Mono Lake evening light can be very special, but it can also be a bit tricky. Because the tall peaks of the Sierra Nevada crest lie directly to the west, the light leaves the lake itself well before actual sunset, so you often might end up relying on the clouds themselves to provide most of the interest. Smoke from a wildfire to the south near Mammoth Lakes had also been affecting the atmosphere, creating a lot of haze and some unusual colors.

In any case, I drove out to a point along the south shore of the lake – not the well-known South Tufa site, though visible from there – and watched the mostly uninspiring light of this very hazy evening. But there I was, and there wasn’t time before the end of the light to get from Mono Lake to other places that might be interesting, so I stayed and photographed and thought about how I might be able to work with the light and conditions that were available to me. There were beautifully shaped clouds, and they rose high enough above the lower atmosphere to gain some clarity. The haze muted the shapes and colors of the far hills and the darker shape of the island. So I composed the scene to just barely hold the island and a bit of the lake at the bottom, and used that to anchor a scene that was mostly sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sky

Chimneys and Building Details, Standard Mill

Unnamed Lake, Early Morning

Evening Shower, Sierra Pond

Paoha Island, Mono Lake, Evening

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