Tag Archives: summer

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

Tree Climbing Lesson

January 23, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two black bear cubs and their mother climb trees in Yosemite National Park, California.

I was very fortunate to be able to watch this bear family a couple of years ago – and to have a long enough lens to do so without intruding on them. The mother bear seemed to be alternately letting the “kids” play around and do whatever they felt like, and then offering them “climbing lessons” on some of the trees. The cub with black fur seemed the most comfortable at this, quickly scrambling straight up the trunks to surprising heights, moving with agility that reminded me of monkeys. The brown-fur sibling seemed a bit more cautious and “mama” seemed to have to offer a bit of encouragement and support, much as a human parent might do. Her actions at this point reminded me of my own experience with my kids the first time they climbed something (that seemed to them to be) dangerous – I followed close behind with my “front paws” around them, ready to catch if necessary.

While the brown cub initially hesitated quite a bit, before long it also took off and quickly ascended way up in the tree, and before long the whole family was 20 or more feet off the ground.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

East Side of Bishop Pass

January 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Trail and meadows below the east side of Bishop Pass, eastern Sierra Nevada range.

This photograph comes from about a dozen years ago. I recently came across it while sorting through older photograph files for a variety of reasons – general clearing out of old images, searching for photographs of a particular subject for a client, and seeing what older images I might have missed when I first made them. When I saw this photograph it evoked a whole series of fun recollections.

Nearly weeks earlier, I had begun a two-week-long backpack trip along a section of the John Muir Trail. At that time, the only section of the JMT that I had not hiked (at least once!) was an area between approximately Shadow Lake and the Muir Trail Ranch – and this was to be the trip on which I covered this remaining bit of trail. The trip started just fine, though in some territory that is not exactly my favorite portion of the range – the low areas around Devils Postpile. After passing by that national monument we headed south, passing Duck Lake and camping at Purple Lake.

The next morning I woke up feeling a bit under the weather, an unusual experience for me on the trail. The next leg of the trip was to take us through an area without an easy exit, and I became concerned about what would happen if my “feeling poorly” deteriorated into actually being sick. I reluctantly decided to leave my group to continue without me, and I backtracked over Duck Pass and down into the Mammoth Lakes area and headed home. (Ironically, by the time I got out I was feeling fine…)

Ending a trip this way just didn’t feel right, so I hatched a plan to show up and run into my friends on the last day of their trip. Since they were coming out over Bishop Pass, I crossed that pass into beautiful Dusy Basin a day earlier, and on the next morning hiked down the canyon so that I could be casually sitting on a rock as they came up the trail from LeConte Canyon. I have rarely seen people as surprised as they were when they found me! After our reunion and joining them for their last trail night, the next morning we were up early to hike out over Bishop Pass. This photograph was made shortly after we crossed the pass and began our descent to the trailhead.

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

Corn Lilies, Late Summer

December 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late summer corn lilies begin to take on fall colors, Yosemite National Park.

Corn Lilies are among my favorite Sierra Nevada high country plants. During their short summer growth period they begin as corn-cob-shaped shoots that spring up in wet areas as the snow melts out. They quickly grow into lush green plant in thick bunches that are intensely green and which have beautiful curving shapes and textures. (This makes them a very popular subject for photographers!) As the season continues they begin to show some “flaws” from insect damage and so forth, and at some point in August they begin to lose their green color, often beginning to pick up some brown coloration that can be nearly golden in the right light. At some point in September even the most durable specimens begin to be striped with yellow, brown, or even black and they finally simply fall over.

I found this bunch very close to our campsite in the back-country of Yosemite National Park around the middle of September. Although you cannot see it in this photograph, this clump of corn lilies had fallen over in a most interesting way – they all fell pointing away from the center of the group! So these plants are in the middle of falling over, and are lit by early morning light diffused by forest cover.

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

Granite Ridge and Trees, Afternoon Light

December 3, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Afternoon light back-lights a glaciated granite ridge partially covered with trees, Yosemite National Park.

Late in the afternoon – almost more like early evening, actually, the atmosphere at this spot along the Tuolumne River valley in the Yosemite back-country was “complex” – both challenging to shoot and full of interesting and varied potential. You might be able to see in the upper right portion of the image that a good part of the sky was obscured by a thin gray layer of high clouds, and by looking at the very faint a low contrast view of the more distant mountains at the upper left it is clear that the atmosphere was quite hazy, especially when back-lit. Yet, there is sunlight slanting across the expanse of granite and trees on the foreground ridge, and this light picks off some of these trees.

This was the kind of lighting that requires some patience. And fortunately I had gotten myself to a beautiful spot on top of a granite “whaleback” (a low and long dome-like structure) above a small side valley beyond which this ridge was arranged with the more distant ridge in the background. Most of the time the light was what I’ve heard one of my friends simply describe as “blah.” The atmosphere was a bit hazy, most of the light was obscured by the high clouds (and the haze), and even in this quite beautiful spot most of the time nothing much stood out as a photograph.

Such scenes require – and can teach – patience. It helps to find yourself alone on a granite ridge without much else to occupy your time and with no other particular task at hand. It also helps if you have learned that there is nothing at all wrong with sitting quietly in one spot for a couple of hours and simply observing. And, if you have done these things before and have observed these scenes, you know that there is a possibility that even in light and landscape that might seem a bit “blah,” there is the potential for a momentary bit of light to create something worth photographing. This was a perfect afternoon for that sort of shooting.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: summer

Tree Climbing Lesson

Corn Lilies, Late Summer

Granite Ridge and Trees, Afternoon Light

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