Tag Archives: snag

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Snag and Talus Field

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Snag and Talus Field
Snag and Talus Field

Snag and Talus Field. Kings Canyon National Park, California. September 16, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old snag stands atop a rocky outcropping and in front of a huge talus field, Kings Canyon National Park

During our mid-September 9-day expedition into the Sierra Nevada high country of Kings Canyon National Park we spent the better part of a week camped in this 11,000′ basin full of lakes and trees and rocks. We camped near the outlet stream of a lake located in a narrow section of the valley, with many more lakes beyond our location and a string of them ascending the valley to our south. Each day, from early morning until after dark, was largely spent exploring this landscape and making photographs.

The valley of lakes to our south, of which our lake was the lowest, was plainly visible to us from our camp site, which was situated on a rise above this lowest lake. From here we could look up the canyon across “our lake” and see a string of several other lakes along this creek. A few were easy to see while others further up the valley revealed themselves primarily by surrounding rock and by breaks in the vegetation. Every day, no matter what else we were doing and where else we photographed, we did at least some work around these closest lakes, and I developed a sort of “daily rounds” taking me up one side of the valley to the upper lake and then back down the other, with occasional detours across the middle of the valley. Is I recall, I was making one of those detours when I photographed this tree, located on top of a small rocky knoll in the middle of the upper valley and backed by the tremendous talus field descending from the surrounding ridges high above.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fallen Snag, Dry Tarn

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Fallen Snag, Dry Tarn
The bleached remains of an old dead tree lie on the rocks of a dry subalpine tarn, Kings Canyon National Park

Fallen Snag, Dry Tarn. Kings Canyon National Park, California. September 13, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The bleached remains of an old dead tree lie on the rocks of a dry subalpine tarn, Kings Canyon National Park

This year was the second of two very dry years in the Sierra Nevada and much of the west. The snowfall this past winter (2012-13) was far below normal and set records in some places. Last October and November it seemed like we might be starting a very wet season, which would have been welcome after the previous winter’s low levels of precipitation, but then the tap was shut off near the end of the year and there was hardly any more precipitation at all during the rest of the season, the portion when the majority of the Sierra’s precipitation falls. Consequently, this has been a strange summer in the Sierra. Although there may have been more monsoonal rain the usual, the effects of the depleted snow pack are obvious. The spring run-off occurred early and was anemic. By July much of the Sierra looked more like August, and I was already seeing signs of fall by early August.

With all of this in mind, it was no surprise to use to find some unusually dry conditions in the Kings Canyon back-country when we visited for more than a week in mid-September. (Though, in some ways, things were less horrendous than I might have expected. Perhaps this was a combination of going at a time when things tend to be dry anyway and, as a local pointed out to me, some recent summer rains.) On our first day at the location where we stayed to photograph for nearly a week I wandered up some nearby meadows towards a lake that I though I might want to photograph. Very close to my campsite I found several completely dry tarns. (A “tarn” is a seasonal pond fed by snowmelt, and many of them dry up each season.) This very old, sun bleached snag lay across the exposed rocks of this one, creating a stark images.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cottonwoods, Meadow, and Stumps

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Cottonwoods, Meadow, and Stumps - Stumps of dead brush in a meadow with autumn cotton wood trees, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Stumps of dead brush in a meadow with autumn cotton wood trees, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Cottonwoods, Meadow, and Stumps. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. October 24, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Stumps of dead brush in a meadow with autumn cotton wood trees, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

We encountered these first autumn-foliage cottonwoods shortly after we entered this canyon, and this being our first day shooting in this area, I think we (or at least I) felt obligated to shoot every possible subject, since everything was so new on this day. Later I might have passed up these cottonwoods which, despite their brilliant color, were it a tricky spot to photograph and were just about to end up in the direct morning sunlight.

Trying to find some sort of composition that could include them but not make them the whole story, I first saw the brushy meadow with its light green grasses and older dry grass, but that was too featureless of a foreground for what I had in mind. Then I saw these old dead stumps of perhaps tamarisk or some other desert plant that were still standing in a section of this meadowy area, and I decide to use them to fill the foreground.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest, Tarn, and Granite

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Forest, Tarn, and Granite - Sierra forest and granite reflected in the surface of a small tarn, Yosemite National Park.
Sierra forest and granite reflected in the surface of a small tarn, Yosemite National Park.

Forest, Tarn, and Granite. Yosemite National Park, California. July 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sierra forest and granite reflected in the surface of a small tarn, Yosemite National Park.

Having visited the Sierra and the Yosemite high country for more than a few decades, I have become attached to a number of small and unlikely little places that have personal meaning to me. This is one of those odd little spots. At a point along Tioga Pass Road there is a small unmarked turnout like many other such turnouts along this route. One time a few years ago I stopped here for reasons that I can no longer recall. I got out of the car and noticed a very faint path leading away from the road – so, of course, I took it! It led though tightly spaced trees and towards a small canyon, passing several small ponds along the way. I also recall mosquitos. Lots of mosquitos.

Since that time I have returned to this spot quite a few times – in snow on the day that the road first opens, on sunny summer days like this one, and on damp and foggy evenings in late fall not long before the highway closes for the season. Where is the spot, exactly? All I’ll say is that it is in Yosemite and that you can get to it by walking away from Tioga Pass Road. Frankly, I don’t think the specific location really matters to anyone but me and perhaps a few others who might stop here, too. There are thousands of such little spots throughout the Sierra, and it is your discovery of your own personal places among them that can make them special.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.