Tag Archives: storm

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

Autumn Snow, Hope Valley

November 19, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early autumn snow flurries in Hope Valley

On this early October drive across the Sierra, eventually heading for the town of Bishop, we crossed Carson Pass from west to east. The object of the drive was to photograph fall subjects on the east side of the range, but there was nothing to keep us from starting early – and we began searching out colorful autumn aspens and other subjects even before reaching the pass. Light snow started west of the pass, and when we stopped at the turn-out at the pass a decent amount of snow was falling, the wind was blowing, and it definitely felt like winter. Back in the car we started down the east side of the pass.

The snow continued as we took a short detour on a gravel side-road, then returned to the main highway to head east on highway 88 through Hope Valley. I first visited Hope Valley many years ago when I had just begun cross-country skiing, and today I often pass through on my aspen-hunting trips. The aspens were turning colors on this day, and if you look very closely you can see a very large grove of them in the distance through the snow. We briefly stopped at the turn-off to Luther Pass, where I made this photograph looking back up the creek that flows through the valley. Snow was falling and there was a thin layer of snow sticking to everything. As if to prove that photographers aren’t the only people nuts enough to stand around in the cold wind and snow, there was actually a fisherman along the creek just out of the frame to the right!

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Early Autumn Snow, Eastern Sierra

November 18, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An early autumn snow storm obscures the view of pines, aspens and other fall foliage in the eastern Sierra Nevada

This photograph, like a few others I have posted this fall, was made on an early October day when we drove across the Sierra from west to east during the first “real” snow of the season. Our goal was Bishop, California, since we planned to photograph autumn aspen color on the “east side” for a few days. Since the usual more direct route over Tioga Pass was closed due to snow, we ended up crossing all the way up close to Tahoe over Carson and then Monitor Passes to get to highway 395, which we then followed southwards along the east side of the Sierra.

The snow began before we reached Carson pass, and though it never fell very heavily, it more or less continued for the rest of the drive, only stopping shortly before we got to Bishop. This was quite a contrast to the weather we had been having, which had been up into the low 90s in our part of California only a few days earlier! Since we had the whole day to get to Bishop we made frequent stops and detours along the way, giving us lots of opportunities to photograph scenes that had a distinctly winter-like appearance. One place we paused was along a high point on highway 395 just north of Lee Vining, where huge groves of colorful aspen trees were just visible through the blowing snow. Turning slightly away from the aspen color, I chose to make a few isolated evergreen trees the focus of this photograph.

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

Autumn Snow, Parker Canyon

November 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An October storm brings snow to the Parker Canyon area of the eastern Sierra Nevada

This is yet another photograph from our early October “aspen chasing” trip to photograph fall color in the eastern Sierra. We were on the “east side” for five days, in conditions that began with a full day of snow, then turned mostly sunny for a few more days, and returned to more winter-like weather on our final day. On that last day of the visit we tracked far to the east of the Sierra, out into high desert ranges where we saw many interesting things including a number of stands of aspens in surprising and less-visited places.

We looped back from the east and passed by the south shore of Mono Lake, and coming over the rise between there and highway 395 we were not surprised to see a substantial chunk of the Sierra crest laid out before us… but we were a bit surprised to see that it appeared to still be snowing along the crest. We had awakened to light snow in Mammoth Lakes that morning, but assumed that it was just a passing squall. This seemed to be the case, as we did not see much more in the way of precipitation as we headed east. But these were apparently the sort of conditions in which storm clouds form right over the crest, and the result was this very dramatic scene. Low in the frame, the foreground hills pick up a bit of sunlight, and as they ascend toward higher peaks, aspen trees in full autumn color are visible. A forest filled valley, lined by an old lateral glacial moraine, ascends across the frame from right to left, leading to the entrance to steep Parker Canyon. High above, light snow falls and the peaks around Parker Pass slip in and out of the clouds.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dawn Light, Wheeler Crest

October 31, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light on rugged Wheeler crest following an autumn Sierra Nevada snow storm.

It had snowed all day the previous day, and I knew that the eastern escarpment of the Sierra would be covered in new snow at dawn. The dawn weather conditions were a bit of an unknown, but it seemed to be worthwhile to get up very early and be in position with a view of the crest at sunrise, so we headed up into the hills above Bishop and below the mountains to see what would happen.

There were clouds. This can be a good thing or a bad thing in this situation. Without clouds the light can be less special, but if there are too many, especially to the east, they may completely block the sunrise light – and that light on the eastern face of the range is what we were there for. There was some clear sky overhead, and it seemed that the clouds to the east over the White Mountains were at least somewhat broken. These conditions bring the possibility – but not the certainty – that the dawn sun may find its way through gaps in the clouds, spotlighting areas of the mountains as the light works its way across and down their east faces. In fact, it worked out this way. We first photographed the range straight on, mostly centering compositions around Mt. Humphreys. After shooting that subject I looked around a bit more and saw bands of light starting to sweep across the face of the cloud-topped and rugged Wheeler Crest.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: storm

Autumn Snow, Hope Valley

Early Autumn Snow, Eastern Sierra

Autumn Snow, Parker Canyon

Dawn Light, Wheeler Crest

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