Tag Archives: smoke

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Morning, Wildfire Smoke

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Morning, Wildfire Smoke
Wildfire smoke layer drift, above Mono Lake at sunrise

Morning, Wildfire Smoke. Mono Lake, California. September 18, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Wildfire smoke layer drift, above Mono Lake at sunrise

The subject of this photograph comes about as close to being insubstantial as possible. When I began photographing before dawn on this September morning, Mono Lake was still mostly visible, though a large cloud of wildfire smoke was gathering to the southeast and beginning to drift toward the lake. First, layers of smoke began to stretch individually across the lake as sunrise approached. As more of them arrived they began to completely obscure the more distant landscape and to mute the colors and details of objects that were even closer. If you look at this photograph for a moment you can begin to see what remains — a bit of a peninsula with some tufa formations along the right margin, and in the lower center and stretching toward the left some soft reflections of morning light on the surface of the lake.

For a moment when I first saw the smoke I was disappointed that it might interfere with my photography, but it only took a moment to realize that these were special and beautiful conditions not likely to occur that often. The smoke and the morning backlight rendered details almost invisible, only seen faintly through gaps in the smoke. The smoke itself, dividing into layers and taking on subtle colors from the morning back-light, filled the scene with nearly abstract shapes. But before long smoke filled in even more, and soon it was too opaque to photograph at all.

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: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Wildfire Smoke, Morning Light

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Wildfire Smoke, Morning Light
Morning light reflects on the surface of Mono Lake, partially obscured by drifting wildfire smoke

Wildfire Smoke, Morning Light. Mono Lake, California. September 18, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light reflects on the surface of Mono Lake, partially obscured by drifting wildfire smoke

The night before I made this photograph I had driven back to my Lee Vining Canyon camp from a backcountry hike in the Tioga Pass area, leaving the park and descending the steep route after dark. As I crossed the upper end of Lee Vining Canyon, where there is a relatively clear view to the east, I saw the pall of smoke from a developing wildfire and the glow from the flames lighting it from below. Given California’s drought, the late point in the dry season, and the number of other fires in this area, I was quite concerned about what might be happening.

I got up well before dawn the next morning and as I headed down canyon toward Mono Lake there was just a bit of smoke in the air. As I came around the final bend before the junction with US 395, however, I could see that there was a very dark cloud to the southeast and that layers of smoke were starting to drift across the surface of Mono Lake in the pre-dawn light. My first though was a bit of disappointment that the smoke was likely to interfere with my photography plans, but this was quickly replaced by the realization that I was starting to see some very special and unusual conditions as the dawn approached. I found a high place and went to work photographing abstract and soft patterns composed of the reflecting surface of Mono Lake, the drifting smoke bands, and the partially obscured distant mountains.

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

Photographs: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Along the Seine

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Along the Seine
A man sits at the top of steps along the Seine River, Paris

Along the Seine. Paris, France. August 9, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man sits at the top of steps along the Seine River, Paris

Most of our time in Paris this past August was spent walking, and there are certainly plenty of great places to walk in this city! But Paris is big enough that sometimes it is useful to get around in other ways: train, bus, subway… and boat. So, after a few days of looking around on foot we decided to catch one of the river tours up and down the Seine through the city. We’ve done this in other cities and discovered that the boats often provide a very different view of things than what we see from the streets.

I quickly figured out that much of my photography from the river would best be done with a longer lens, so I put a telephoto zoom that I had brought along on my little Fujifilm XPro2 camera. Photographic subjects, when seen from a boat, often pass very quickly and there would be little time for lens changes. I photographed almost continuously — architecture, bridges, people along the banks of the river, and more. Here I saw a fellow relaxing against a wall at the top of a stairway leading down to a walkway along the river.

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

Photographs: Nature

Wildfire Smoke, Early Morning

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Wildfire Smoke, Early Morning
layers of thick wildfire smoke obscure the morning light

Wildfire Smoke, Early Morning. Along US 395, California. September 18, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

layers of thick wildfire smoke obscure the morning light

This was the culmination of more than twelve hours of observation of a developing wildfire located east of the Sierra Nevada, roughly between Lee Vining and Mammoth Lakes. The previous evening I finished a hike into the Sierra backcountry not far from Tioga Pass, returning to my car well after sunset. As I drove back down Lee Vining Canyon in the near-darkness I saw a big tower of smoke to the southeast and the tell-tale glow of fire on the bottom of the cloud. The next morning I woke up and headed straight back toward Mono Lake, from which I figured I could photograph conditions related to the fire.

I began photographing Mono Lake itself, where the lake was still mostly visible with only a few thin smoke clouds floating over it. But very soon this changed as winds brought the smoke right over Mono Lake, casting a pall over the scene all the way up to Conway Summit. My goal was to head south along the eastern escarpment, but as I did so the smoke only became thicker. I made this photograph at a point closer to the fire, where the smoke was very, very thick, enough so to take away most of the sunlight and add a post-apocalyptic quality to the scene.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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