In England on the Fourth of July (a bit ironic for an American, no?) we were out along the banks of the River Thames as the summer evening came on. We had wonderful weather during this visit — if anything it was too warm. A low deck of broken clouds covered the sky, but to the west the sky was clearer and the light streamed through the hazy air.
I think this photograph is probably more about the light than anything else. For some reason, when I found the image in my archive and began to work on it I barely thought about the subject at all — the light seemed to be enough. When I did look at it more closely I realized that the content of the image is really fairly ordinary — a dock in the foreground, a bit of the river bank. a tall building on the right and urban buildings across the river on the left, a bridge (a central subject in my view), the clouds, and the warm color of the evening light.
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
Thoughts about seasonal light in the Range of Light…
Sunset, Lower McCabe Lake
It is no secret that I can find something to love about every season in the Sierra Nevada — the storms and snow of winter, the wildly flowing water and new growth of spring, and the lazy days of summer that bring easy access to the high country. But if I had to pick one perfect day in the Sierra high country it would be in fall.
This ideal day would come some time between the middle of September and the middle of October, when it becomes increasingly clear that summer really is ending and that winter really is on its way. This is not a wild season — no giant winter storms, no raging rivers and waterfalls, no spectacular growth and colorful fields of wildflowers. It is a quieter time. The crowds are almost all gone, and the people you do meet there are more likely to be those with a deeper relationship with this range.
The light is beautiful — perhaps as beautiful as it gets — and perhaps even more precious because it doesn’t last as long on these shortening days of the late season. The sun is lower in the sky and less intense, and there is often a muted, golden quality to the light, amplified by the golden colors of dry meadows, the beginning of fall colors, and softened by seasonal haze. And it is all the more sweet because we know that winter is just around the corner and that these days will end very soon.
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
Oak and grass-covered summer hills extending into late summer morning haze
This is a portrait orientation version of more of less the same scene I shared in an earlier photograph from the same mid-August morning hike through a familiar, long time favorite local hiking and photography location. It is an area full of grasslands and oak-covered hills, lush and green for a few months each winter and spring, and then California gold/brown for much of the rest of the year. I have hiked these hills and this specific trail for many years, though it had been several months since my last prior visit — it was good to be “home” again!
This morning was special for a few reasons. There was a wonderful feeling of returning to “my world” following a few months away from this place and my return, only days earlier, from a lengthy trip to the east coast that included more than a week in the very urban environment of New York City. It also turned out, a bit to my surprise, that this hike would bring my annual “autumn is just around the corner” experience — that day each year when something tells me clearly that summer is beginning to wind down and that the beauties of autumn are not far away.
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
Late summer morning fog clears about oak and grass-covered California hills. (And yes, it is the same image I shared earlier as today’s daily photograph.)
I first encountered “AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” day — which is my own invention, so don’t try to look it up! — many years ago on a Sierra Nevada backpacking trip. I recall the day specifically, even though it was decades ago. At the time I didn’t know quite what it was even though I clearly sensed the symptoms. As we hiked, we passed an expansive, remote meadow in which a large group of deer were feeding. It was a summer day by the calendar, but it felt different from all of the previous days of that summer. The day was windy and we felt compelled to wear warmer clothes than on other days on this trip. After that I began to notice it more regularly and pay attention to it, and I am now aware of its arrival every year.
It comes unannounced and not on any specific day. For me it typically shows up on a day in the middle of August, at a point when we are just a bit closer to the end of summer than to its beginning. I suspect that its arrival is a rather subjective thing, and that it varies by location and each person’s exposure and sensitivity to natural patterns — though this week when I pointed out its arrival to my wife while we were walking, she agreed that she felt it, too.
I cannot quite put my finger on what it is that I sense, even though I’m certain that it is here when I do sense it. I think that the quality of light has something to do with it, and yesterday we both agreed that it made sense to speak of this light as being somehow “softer.” I know it when I see it, and when I then pay attention to the light I detect a certain loss of clarity in the atmosphere, almost as if there is a bit more of a luminous haze.
But it isn’t just the light. One August I was backpacking across a meadow in the Yosemite Sierra and suddenly becoming aware of it. Again, although I recognized what I was feeling, I wasn’t completely clear about the specific cause, though I had a very clear sense that it had to do with a change in the sound quality of the wind and the way it carried across space. More recently I experienced it while hiking though a place much like that in the photograph accompanying this post, and as I hiked I tried to understand as many aspects of it as I could. The morning breeze had a crisp edge, even though the sunlight was warm. There was a glowing haze as morning fog cleared. I walked past piles of fallen oak leaves and noticed a faint sweet, musty autumn fragrance, and as I walked on them I felt and heard their crunch. I wondered whether it might be that, at some subconscious level, I was aware that the sun was now a bit lower in the sky, or if I was more aware that seasonal plants had stopped growing and were now in decline.
On this day, whenever it arrives and without any doubt, I have a certain awareness of the inevitable approach of autumn and the fading away of summer. Until this day I live in the patterns of summer, taking the warm weather for granted, complaining about the heat, and making summer plans and perhaps putting them off, comfortable in the knowledge that there is plenty of summer left. I watch my vegetable garden grow and anticipate the ripening of vegetables and fruit. But then, on “AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” day, my perspective switches — now summer is no longer coming nor here, but instead coming to an end. Summer things must be done soon. It is time to plant a fall garden. And out there on the horizon of my thinking now are autumn and then winter… my favorite seasons of the year.
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
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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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.
