Tag Archives: smoke

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

Autumn Aspens, Ridge and Haze

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Autumn Aspens, Ridge and Haze
Autumn aspen “color” in black and white, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Autumn Aspens, Ridge and Haze. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen “color” in black and white, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention —or at least a trigger to try something different that what I would usually be doing with a subject like this one. The subject is, of course, “fall color” from the Eastern Sierra Nevada aspens. The challenge at times on this visit to the area was the wildfire smoke was obscuring a lot of the landscape and muting and altering the colors. Late-summer and autumn wildfire smoke has long been a seasonal feature in and around the Sierra Nevada, but the situation has become much worse in recent years. The fires a larger and they last longer, with the end result being a whole lot of smoke in the air.

So, what to do? There are almost always ways to shoot around such challenges. One is to forego the large landscape and shoot more intimate subjects — perhaps focus on one grove, one tree, or even one leaf rather than on the grove in the larger landscape. Another is to embrace the smoky conditions and try to find a way to make aesthetically compelling photographs of that subject. Another option is to move to monochrome. The smoke that looks brown and ugly in color can merely look like interesting haze in black and white. Of course, this leaves us with another challenge when the subject is fall… color. But we photographed autumn in black and white in the past. We can still do that.

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

Sunset, Wildfire Haze

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Sunset, Wildfire Haze
Trees in Yosemite wilderness sunset light made colorful by wildfire smoke.

Sunset, Wildfire Haze. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees in Yosemite wilderness sunset light made colorful by wildfire smoke.

This is one more in the series of photographs I made during a few moments of intensely colorful light one late-season evening in the Yosemite backcountry. The physical location (high, with a clear line of sight to the western horizon) and the presence of wildfire smoke created intensely colorful light just as the sun set. It was one of those exhilarating photographic experiences when something quite unusual happens, but it is so transitory that one must act quickly and photograph almost without conscious thought. I was working quickly, relying on instinct, and trying to respond intuitively to the landscape and the changing light. (Having a lot of prior landscape photography under one’s belt helps a lot in situations like this!0

I suspect that the light in the photograph looks almost unreal. It seemed that way to me at the time, too! In this photograph the hazy quality of the atmosphere is more apparent — take a look between the darker trees and toward the more distant granite slope, where details are muted by this glowing haze.

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

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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

Trees, Rocky Ridge, Sunset

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Trees, Rocky Ridge, Sunset
Wildfire smoke turns the sunset deep red on a rock and tree covered Yosemite wilderness ridge.

Trees, Rocky Ridge, Sunset. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Wildfire smoke turns the sunset deep red on a rock and tree covered Yosemite wilderness ridge.

Every so often the sky coughs up some light that is almost unbelievable, and I feel obligated to say that, yes, this really did happen… and perhaps offer an explanation. In this case the story is a combination of location Every so often the sky coughs up some unbelievable light, and I feel obligated to say that, yes, this really did happen… and perhaps offer an explanation. In this case the story is a combination of location and conditions. This granite dome-like ridge is located in the Yosemite backcountry overlooking a large canyon and with an unobstructed view to the western horizon. That distant horizon is across the Great Central Valley and marked by the Coast Range. Because the ridge is high the line to the sun right at sunset goes though a lot of atmosphere, which tends to soften and warm the light. On top of that, this was the season of widespread wildfire smoke, and that added to the bloody red color of the light on this ridge.

I had been out on an evening walk away from camp that took me up to a high point on the ridge behind this camera position. I made photographs up there and then started to walk along the backbone of the ridge that would take me back to camp. As I came around to this section that is open to the west, the color of the light was just about as intense as it gets. I dropped my camera bag, popped up my tripod, and made a few exposures during the last moments before the sun dropped below the horizon.

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

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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

Summit Boulders and Tree, Sunset

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Summit Boulders and Tree, Sunset
Sunset light on the summit of a Yosemite granite dome on a hazy late-summer evening.

Summit Boulders and Tree, Sunset. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light on the summit of a Yosemite granite dome on a hazy late-summer evening.

Even back before the recent increase in California wildfires, smoke haze was common during the later summer and early autumn months in the Sierra Nevada and, for that matter, over much of the state. For years I noticed that something was different about the atmosphere in September, and it wasn’t until relatively recently that I realized that the hazy softness in the September sky is, at least in part, due to widespread smoke. To be sure, most of the time it this haze is subtle. And, it can also be beautiful in the right situation. On this evening, it softened and warmed the light just before sunset.

We had been camped in this area for several days, and on this evening I took a long and slow walk with my camera. I headed around the far side of the lake that was next to our camp, gradually working my way toward a high point beyond that overlooks one of the great canyons of the Yosemite backcountry. On this summit I found a few glacial erratics and one small tree hiding in their shadow. I paused to make this photograph, then continued on along the spine of the low peak to descend back towards camp on the other side.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.