Tag Archives: smoke

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

Dawn Fog and Wildfire Smoke

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Dawn Fog and Wildfire Smoke
“Dawn Fog and Wildfire Smoke” — Fog hovers over a meadow, wildfire smoke fills the sky as trees are silhouetted by first dawn light above the Sierra Nevada crest.

In the mountains I usually awaken while it. is still dark outside, and on my most recent visit I was camped in a forest. So I have virtually no idea of the specific conditions I will find when I head out. Will there be clouds? Frost? haze? I won’t know until I get to a location and the light begins to appear. I can anticipate the range of possibilities to some extent ,but occasionally I am completely surprised. That was the case on this morning when I emerged from the forest campground, arrived at a meadow, and found it filling with beautiful ground fog.

Such conditions often are very transitory — all it takes is a little breeze or a slight increase in the temperature and fog is gone. So I quickly headed to a spot I know of where I thought some trees might be silhouetted against the pre-sunrise sky and fog. It was my lucky morning… the fog continued to thicken and spread for a while, and I managed to make this photograph of those trees and a distant Sierra crest peak as the fog drifted my way.

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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

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

Meadow and Autumn Trees

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Meadow and Autumn Trees
“Meadow and Autumn Trees” — Autumn trees and haze glowing in sunlight, Yosemite Valley.

Smoky conditions, a bit to my surprise, produced some really lovely light o this autumn day. I arrived in The Valley on a fall morning to find that managed fires were filling the air with smoke. After driving four hours to get there, starting way before sunrise, I cannot say that I was happy to arrive to this! However, after a moment I remembered that smoke has the potential to produce some lovely effects. I headed toward this meadow, attracted by its large black oak trees and the potential for backlight.

The smoke thinned a bit, but there was just enough left in the air to glow when the sun hit it, including the beam of light in this photograph that came through a gap in the upper canyon walls of Yosemite Valley. With that haze and the backlight the trees really glowed.

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.

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

Oaks, Meadow, Drifting Smoke

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Oaks, Meadow, Drifting Smoke
“Oaks, Meadow, Drifting Smoke” — Smoke from a management fire drifts among autumn black oak trees in Yosemite Valley.

This photograph and the circumstances that led to it are a reminder about how things sometimes turn out differently than you might expect. I had left for Yosemite Valley hours before sunrise, planning to arrive in time to photograph in early morning light. Everything was going fine until I got into the lower Valley and discovered that smoke from a managed fire was blanketing the subject! I was quite disappointed as I drove along the south side of the Valley. But there I was, and there the smoke was, and I was there to make photographs — so I decided to see what possibilities might remain.

I crossed over to the north side of the valley, and looked back into the sunlight and these trees silhouetted in the drifting smoke, which was now glowing in the backlight from sunlight coming over the Valley rim. The backlight made the brown autumn oak leaves glow, and the slowly drifting smoke constantly altered the landscape, sometimes revealing and sometimes hiding features.

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.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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

Autumn Oaks, Morning

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

Autumn Oaks, Morning. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

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.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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