Tag Archives: subalpine

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dawn Reflections

Leave a comment
Dawn Reflections
The quiet morning surface of a subalpine lake reflects the slopes of a Sierra Nevada mountain

Dawn Reflections. Hoover Wilderness, California. August 7, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The quiet morning surface of a subalpine lake reflects the slopes of a Sierra Nevada mountain

In early August I had the opportunity to join a group of friends for a brief backpack trip up to the Sierra Crest in the Hoover Wilderness Area along the northeastern Yosemite boundary. We packed a lot of variety into a short trip — starting at the lower end of an east side canyon and culminating along the still-snowy crest, experiencing typical Sierra summer blue sky and hours of heavy rain, seeing beautiful wildflower displays fed by strong run-off streams, and dealing with the inevitable clouds of mosquitos. This wasn’t primarily a photographic expedition for me, but almost any backcountry travel is going to include some photography, so I carried a smaller and lighter kit that still allowed me to photograph a few things.

I made this photograph very early in the morning. The rest of my group did not share my early morning habits, so when I got up and left my tent before dawn I was alone. I walked to the top of a nearby promontory from which I could overlook the lake and its surroundings as the first light arrived. I am always struck by the immense quiet and stillness found in such places in the very early morning. The air was still and the lake’s surface smooth — no one else was yet out and about, and nothing was moving aside from an occasional fish rising to feed. As the sun slowing spread across the shoulder of the peak on the other side of the lake I photographed for nearly an hour before returning to camp, where my hiking partners were just beginning to stir.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

High Country, Dawn

Leave a comment
High Country, Dawn
Just before sunrise, soft light and colorful sky above Yosemite high-country peaks, forest, and meadow.

High Country, Dawn. Yosemite National Park, California. July 27 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Just before sunrise, soft light and colorful sky above Yosemite high-country peaks, forest, and meadow.

Sometimes landscape and nature photographers enjoy complaining about certain things required to be in the right places at the right times in order to make photographs of their intended subjects. So, here is a story. The previous day I had been out photographing until the light was gone, and then had to travel back to my dark camp. By the time I finished camp business, it was quite late, and by the time I got to sleep it was less-than-a-full-night’s-sleep until the time I would have to get up. But get up I did, well before dawn. I dressed in the cold and darkness, soon heading out with no coffee or breakfast while the sky was still dark. Before long I began to find potential subjects, even though the light was not yet quite “there.”

Now, behind that story (complaining? false heroism?) is another truth: I feel fortunate to be able to do this! As I ventured out, I found myself almost entirely alone. Even though I was driving on a very popular high country road, I saw almost no one else. Before long the bluish earth shadow line began to drop toward the horizon behind these peaks, and I stopped at a little meadow I know well. Although it is next to the roadway, it was almost completely silent and still, and the meadow plants were covered with dew. I photographed as this brief show of sky color began to fade, and as I finished I thought about the number of people who only come to these places in the middle of the day, and who therefore miss the color and the quiet and the solitude. Is it worth getting out of my sleeping bag in the predawn darkness? Yes!

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Shoreline Aspen Color

Leave a comment
Shoreline Aspen Color
A variety of colorful autumn aspen trees line the rocky shoreline of an Eastern Sierra subalpine lake

Shoreline Aspen Color. Eastern Sierra Nevada. September 30, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A variety of colorful autumn aspen trees line the rocky shoreline of an Eastern Sierra subalpine lake

While understatement can often be a good thing, sometimes when making photographs of Sierra Nevada autumn aspen trees one simply has to go with the colors. This was one of those times. I was fortunate to arrive at this spot on close to the ideal color day for this section of the lake. Not only were nearly all the trees showing their fall color, but quite a few trees showed the less common shades of red and orange, along with the more typical golden-yellow. These are not big trees, but what they lack in stature they make up for in color.

This photograph is also an example of one good kind of light for photographing this subject. I began photographing a bit earlier in  the soft, shaded light. This sort of light can be very “friendly” to intensely colorful subjects and to subjects that include lots of shadows. But it can also be quite blue — except here I photographed just before the sun reached this spot, and much of the ambient light was acquiring a warmer quality. The soft light doesn’t push the intensity of the colors so far that they may blow out — it tends to make the colors more vibrant, but gives a bit more control.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Sierra Meadow, Evening Light

Leave a comment
Sierra Meadow, Evening Light
The Cathedral Range and the Dana Fork fork of the Tuolumne River

Sierra Meadow, Evening Light. Yosemite National Park, California. July 15, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Cathedral Range and the Dana Fork fork of the Tuolumne River

One of the great pleasures of the Sierra — and other places, for that matter — is “aimless wandering,” just heading out into a landscape with no specific goal in mind, but simply to move slowly and quietly and find what there is to see. This was an evening for such things, so I went to a familiar place a few hours before the end of the day and just walked off slowly into the landscape, meandering along the boundary between meadow and forest, stopping frequently to observe. Truth be told, I probably spent more time standing still than walking.

Perhaps 45 minutes before sunset I realized that some unusual “sky action” was about to take place above my location, and my meandering took on a clearer since of direction. I began to work my way back toward my starting point, a location from which I envisioned photographs of the sky and foreground landscape. But even this more purposeful walking was slow, and along the way I stopped to photograph this bend in the river, with a distant granite ridge above the meadow and forest.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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