Tag Archives: stream

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New England

Autumn Stream

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Autumn Stream
“Autumn Stream” — A stream flows past fall colors in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

This month’s visit to New Hampshire and Vermont to photograph autumn color reminded me of some things about photography in unfamiliar places. I usually photograph where I have long-developed place knowledge or at least experience with very similar subjects. That wasn’t the case in New England. We started out by visiting “icons” — which isn’t a bad strategy at the very beginning. They are “icons for a reason,” and they let me start to figure out the personality of a new place. But on several occasions I was also reminded of the value to pushing beyond those boundaries — just poking around, keeping my eyes open to possibilities, looking in the opposite direction from the obvious thing, and sometimes just wandering a little bit.

The “wandering” took various forms on this trip. Sometimes it involved driving long distances or turning off the highway to head up a side road. In the case of this photograph, we had pulled out at a “picnic area” for a moment, and I wondered what was beyond the trees surrounding the parking lot. I could tell there was color in that direction and it seemed like there might be a creek. So off we went to find this lovely little stream flowing through the forest, and we ended up photographing there for a half hour or more.

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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: Sierra Nevada

Outlet, Morning

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Outlet, Morning
Morning light shines on the formations of a canyon containing the outlet stream of an alpine lake.

Outlet, Morning. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning light shines on the formations of a canyon containing the outlet stream of an alpine lake.

Don’t hold me to this… but this may be the final photograph in the series from the August Eastern Sierra backcountry trip. A group of us entered the wilderness, set up a base camp, and photographed the area for a week. The group included Michael Frye, Claudia Welsh, Franka Gabler, David Hoffman, Jerry Bosworth, Patty Mitchell, and me — a fine group of colleagues and friends with whom to spend the week! We survived a torrential rain storm on our first day or two, then explored the area around our camp and on up into the high, alpine country nearby.

If you have been following my posts from the trip, this subject perhaps seems familiar by now. The outlet stream from the lake where we camped empties suddenly into a fairly narrow and rugged canyon that descends to a larger valley beyond. The morning light here was often quite beautiful, coming from beyond and somewhat to the right. On this morning a bit of haze, likely from wildfires, glowed in the backlight and slightly muted the details of more distant features.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Cascade

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Cascade
Water falls across a fractured rock face after August rain, Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Cascade. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Water falls across a fractured rock face after August rain, Ansel Adams Wilderness.

We were here in August, a time when a cascade or waterfall like this one in the Sierra Nevada high country would typically be more of a trickle than a torrent. But a torrential rain storm had raised the creek levels just before we arrived, and the flow was quite impressive. Fortunately, by the time we arrived, the silt that had turned the water a muddy brown had almost dissipated.

We were not actually aware of this fall when we headed this direction in the late afternoon. Our actual goal was the timberline country further up the route. But shortly after we turned and began following the creek that led that direction we came to the cascade, which was positioned right next to our route. Packs immediately came off, cameras came out, tripods were set up, and we were pleasantly distracted by the photographic potential of this feature.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature

Stream, Boulders, and Alpine Meadows, Evening

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Stream, Boulders, and Alpine Meadows, Evening
Evening comes to boulder strewn alpine meadows to the west of high Sierra Nevada peaks.

Stream, Boulders, and Alpine Meadows, Evening. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Evening comes to boulder strewn alpine meadows to the west of high Sierra Nevada peaks.

This photograph comes from I might characterize as a “group hike” up into the high country from our “photographers’ base camp” in the Sierra backcountry back in August. My recollection is that this was the first full day if good weather after some challenges on the first two days. Most often we sort of wander off individually or in small groups to photograph, but on this late afternoon we all headed the same direction, following a stream up toward some high country locations that we knew about.

As we walked that way we frequently stopped at various points of photographic interest. First there was a cascade, then a waterfall that was flowing impressively following the previous day’s rain. Above this the trees became smaller and more widely separated, and too we were walking though timberline country, where meadows and boulder strewn terrain predominated. A tall ridge to our west eventually cut off the evening light, and I made this photograph just before I reversed course and started back towards camp.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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