Tag Archives: spring

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Springtime Hills

Image August 11, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring wildflowers, hills, and the Carrizo Plain

In the spring following a wet winter, you can often find excellent wildflower displays all over the state of California — from the deserts to the Sierra foothills and just about anywhere else with some suitable land. I photographed these in hills of south-central California that lie between the Great Central Valley and the valleys that run just inland of the coast ranges.

It had been an excellent year for rainfall here — after five years of crushing drought California had a single winter of record-setting precipitation. The plants took advantage of this, and in many places managed to produce extensive wildflower displays. A few of us hiked up into these hills, and photographed back toward the valley below and the setting sun.

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

Spring Trees

July 5, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A rather well-known grove of Yosemite Valley trees, with new spring foliage and photographed from the “wrong” side

Near the end of this spring’s Yosemite Renaissance artist-in-residency in The Valley the early signs of spring were appearing — grass was turning green, rivers and waterfalls were flowing, temperatures were rising, and leaves were appearing on the deciduous trees. I photographed this well-known little grove just a few days after the first spring leaves emerged, when they still had that transitory yellow-green color of early spring.

Almost anyone familiar with Yosemite Valley will know immediately where this grove is located. This photograph was not made from the typical direction — and you may be able to spot the reason it isn’t photographed as often if you just look closely. A careful scan of the scene reveals the presence of a roadway! That is often a complete show-stopper for photographs like this one, but I liked the backlit tree against that darker forest enough to give it a try in this case.

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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

Oak in Winter

July 2, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Light snow covers a meadow and the branches of an oak tree during a spring storm, Yosemite Valley

I went back and forth on the question of whether this photograph should be black and white or color. When I made the photograph, in light snow flurries and soft and low light, there was hardly any color in the scene, and I imagined the “I might as well” go with monochrome. I toyed with the idea of doing a color rendition and leaving the viewer to figure out if it really was in color or not. Finally, I simply decided that color wasn’t a particularly important aspect of the image… and here you are.

The scene might be just a bit deceiving. It is clearly a winter-like scene (though photographed in early spring) with new fallen snow. However, a closer look reveals that the snow is quite light — perhaps no more than an inch or so — yet it is fresh enough to cling to branches and cover the ground. It was snowing lightly as I made the photograph, in fact.

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

Spring Meadow, Clearing Clouds

June 27, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Clouds and mist clear above Tuolumne Meadows, still brown and full of spring run-off

Every spring (or early summer in very wet years) I try to head up to Tioga Pass Road, Tuolumne Meadows, and Tioga Pass on the day that this trans-Sierra highway reopens for the season or as soon thereafter as possible. The road opens as early as late April and as late as early July, depending on various factors but mostly on the amount of snow that fell over the winter. In heavy snowfall years, especially when winter conditions last later, even in July there can still be a lot of snow on the ground and there is water everywhere. Two years ago there was still a lot of snow, waterfalls were everywhere, creeks were overflowing, and in places the water flowed right across the roadway.

This was not a very wet winter. Early in the season it looked promising, but then there was an extended warm and dry spell early in 2018. Fortunately there was a second surprise — a wetter and colder end to the winter season. When all was said and done, while the winter wasn’t complete bust it was well below normal. Given those conditions I was surprised when the road didn’t open until the second half of May. I made it up there a few days after the opening and spent a day along the route, enjoying the transitional return to the warm season, watching ephemeral signs of the snow melt, and making a few photographs. Meadows that are lush and green as I write this post were still brown when I visited. It takes a while for the snow to melt, the water to collect, and the grasses to come back to life. This photograph looks across Tuolumne Meadows, across which the Tuolumne River meanders, toward more distant ridge and domes blanketed by clearing mist and clouds.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: spring

Springtime Hills

Spring Trees

Oak in Winter

Spring Meadow, Clearing Clouds

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.