Tag Archives: snow

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

Aspens, First Autumn Snow

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Aspens, First Autumn Snow
An early season storm brings snow to eastern Sierra Nevada aspen groves.

We made it to the eastern Sierra Nevada last week for the annual pilgrimage to photograph aspen color. We drove over on the day when the first winter-like storm of the season came to the range, and our travel plans changed accordingly. Normally we would cross the Sierra via Tioga Pass through Yosemite National Park. Although the Republican government shutdown closed the park, the trans-Sierra highway 120 remained open… until the night before our trip when it was closed in preparation for the forecast storm. When this pass closes – as it can often do in October, when early season storms drop a few inches of snow on the road – I have to consider options to the north: Sonora, Ebbetts, or Carson Passes. When we started out, Sonora was still open, but I figured that Carson was a better bet, as it is an all-season route. So we headed over Carson in the morning, encountering the first snow flurries well before the pass. From this point on, with the exception of a few lower elevation sections of our drive over Monitor Pass and then down highway 395 to Bishop, we were either in or near light snow.

This has been a slightly different year for aspens – though, to be honest, no two years evolve exactly the same way when it comes to the color transition. The highest trees had mostly lost their leaves, but we saw excellent color in many places all along the route. This color transition marks, for me, the reality that the warm season is over and California’s rainy, snowy, and colder season is coming. Being among the aspens during one of the first early season snow storms amplifies that effect, and we remarked on how sudden the transition was. Only a few days earlier it had been in the low 90 degree range in parts of Central California… and here we were in snow. I photographed the scene in this photograph as we reached the top of Conway Summit, the high point on highway 395 just north of the town of Lee Vining. Here one of the largest and most accessible aspen groves can provide an astonishing amount and variety of color for a few days each year. However, on this day the colors were distinctly muted by the falling snow.

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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: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Receding Ridges, Afternoon Rain

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Receding Ridges, Afternoon Rain
Receding Ridges, Afternoon Rain

Receding Ridges, Afternoon Rain. Olympic National Park, Washington. August 16, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A passing afternoon rain shower mutes the details of Olympic Mountain ridges, Olympic National Park

I made this photograph on the same afternoon and evening as several of the other Olympic National Park photographs that I have posted recently. We went up to Hurricane Ridge in the late afternoon in hopes of photographing evening light across the valleys and mountains visible from that overlook, and we were partially rewarded. The conditions varied from moment to moment – occasional sun broke through clouds, atmospheric haze thickened and thinned, there were brief rain shows and a rainbow.

When we arrived the conditions were such that we imagined that they could evolve in any of several directions. We hoped for the possibility that the clouds to the west might break and allow light through. We worried that these clouds might thicken and cut off the late light entirely. When rain showers moved across the scene in front of us and dripped a few showers our way we thought that rain might develop. (We did get our light, but only briefly, and not for this photograph.) I made this photograph during that time when rain seemed like a distinct possibility. A semi-transparent curtain of showers gradually appeared over the valleys and range to our south, obscuring the details of the scene.

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: Pacific Northwest

Ridges, Evening Light

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Ridges, Evening Light
Ridges, Evening Light

Ridges, Evening Light. Hurricane Ridge, Washington. August 16, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light shines through broken clouds to illuminate forest-covered ridges and high peaks beyond, Olympic National Park

I have not had a lot of luck trying to photograph the Hurricane Ridge area in the past. You’ve probably seen the beautiful and iconic photographs by other photographers – lavish displays of wildflowers, striking alpine ridges holding snow fields and glaciers, spectacular cloud-filled skies. However, on the few occasions when I have tried to shoot there I have contended with wind, fog that held visibility down to mere yards, and poor seasonal timing. Since we were in the Seattle area (for something non-photographic) with a free day, I figured I might try one more time. Initially I had thought of the run up to Artist Point in North Cascades, but the weather forecast there was not at all promising, with rain expected. Initially I thought that there might be similar weather out on the Peninsula, but as we started out I got a call from my brother, who is a Seattle area photographer much more familiar with the patterns of the area, saying “go to the Olympic Peninsula. I’m looking at a web cam and it seems clear!”

In fact, by the time our ferry crossed to the west side of Puget Sound, it was looking quite clear. After some midday, lowland shooting, we figured that we would try Hurricane Ridge at the end of the day. With this in mind, it was a bit after 5:00 when we arrived there. The first look around was not too encouraging – the wildflowers were mostly spent and it was cloudy, though sun was breaking through the clouds from time to time. I decided to give it a try since I know that conditions can change quickly and because it was likely too late to get to any other interesting points in the remaining daylight. Setting up and watching the scene, I noticed that while it was cloudy and even a bit rainy, breaks in the clouds to the west were sending occasional beams of light chasing across the landscape, especially the large forest-covered ridge in the foreground of this photograph.

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.
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.

Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Nature

Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle

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Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle
Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle

Trees and Grass, Die Eiskapelle. Near Königssee, Germany. July 14, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Momentary sunshine illuminates a grass-covered hill and small trees in front of Die Eiskapelle at the base of Der Watzmann, near Königssee, Germany

We hiked to this spot on one of the first days of our stay in the Schönau am Königssee area of Bavaria in Germany, where we stayed in an old, rambling farm-house for a week. Aside from the general charm of the area – conforming to many of the expectations of American visitors – there are a lot of special features around here: Berchtesgaden National Park and the Königssee itself, along with the views of the Bavarian Alps, including the classic peak of Der Watzmann, the second highest peak in Germany. We took the tourist boats up the length of the beautiful Königssee lake – which I think of as what Yosemite Valley might look like if it were filled with water – and disembarked at the start of the trail to Die Eiskapelle. This trail begins at the very civilized landing, with its outdoor cafe, beach, and lawns, and starts up the hill very gently. It soon enters the hardwood forest, narrows, steepens, and begins to feel more like the sorts of trails I’m familiar with from the American mountain west.

Die Eiskapelle is in a small, rocky valley at the base of a huge cliff dropping down from the eastern face of Der Watzmann. As I understand it, the permanent ice field seen at its base in this photograph is formed by repeated avalanches that come down this face. The July time frame of our visit usually is when I spend a lot of my time in the Sierra, and as wonderful as our trip to the UK and Europe was, at times I longed a bit for “my Sierra.” In the upper reaches of this trail, as the path disappeared and I was left to find my own route across bits of grassy meadow and rocky terrain to the base of the snow field, I felt as close to the Sierra as at any time on this trip – the feeling reminded me a bit of early season in my favorite terrain among the granite peaks right at timberline. And, momentarily returning to landscape photographer mode (despite using a small, handheld camera!), I paused here for some minutes, looking for a composition that would combine these small foreground trees with the ice field and then waiting for a bit of light from the broken clouds to move across this small grassy rise.

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.
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.