Tag Archives: summit

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People

Person Atop the Grandstand, Racetrack Playa

April 8, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A climber stands atop “The Grandstand” formation in the middle of the Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California.

I got a short period of good light when I visited the Racetrack Playa in late March… followed by an evening, a night, and a morning of mediocre light. Win some – lose some! When I first arrived at the playa it was still relatively clear, with only the thin high clouds seen in this photograph. My first stop was at “The Grandstand,” this interesting rocky hill in the middle of the otherwise perfectly flat playa. As I wandered around looking for good angles from which to photograph the formation, a succession of visitors climbed to the highest point of the formation. I had never thought to do this, even though I had climbed over part of the Grandstand to get to the other side on a previous visit. After waiting some time for the climbers to get out of “my shot,” I finally figured out that the lone figure atop this large rock made an interesting subject.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 200, f/11, 1/320 second

keywords: death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, racetrack, playa, moving, rocks, the, grandstand, formation, man, person, climber, top, summit, atop, stand, brush, plant, sky, cloud, mountain, range, scenic, travel, nature, landscape, sport, active, adventure, drive, stock, blue

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

Runoff Pool, Evening – Tuolumne Meadows

December 3, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I made this photograph on a very early-season visit to the Tuolumne Meadows area in early July of this year. Since this was a below-normal precipitation year, the road to the pass cleared a bit on the early side and by early July almost all of the snow was gone at road level – but there was still a good amount of run-off water in Tuolumne Meadows. (Though nothing like in the big precipitation years, when portions of the meadow become more lake than solid ground.)

There were some interesting clouds this evening so I wandered out into one of my favorite areas in the lower end of the meadow as the day ended and photographed the new grasses and pools of water that reflected sky, clouds, and surrounding peaks. In the distance the summit of Ragged Peak marks the location of Young Lakes.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Locations

Tioga Pass and Alternatives as Winter Approaches

October 19, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Lots of us northern and central California photographers make trips to the eastern Sierra in the summer and fall – I know that many of you have been there in the past month to photograph aspens and other fall color. For many of us the standard route to the “east side” is through Yosemite National Park and over Tioga Pass on State Highway 120 to Lee Vining and the area near Mono Lake. From here it is a short drive south to Mammoth (about a half hour) and Bishop (an hour) and points south, including Big Pine, Independence, and Lone Pine.

As the fall season arrives and winter weather approaches, Tioga Pass becomes a less reliable route and eventually closes for the season. The seasonal closure typically occurs sometime in late October or in November, though the historical records show that it has happened as late as January 1!

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

Aspen Leaves in Transition – Near Conway Summit

October 11, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Aspen leaves in transition from green to fall hues in the shade of a grove above Conway Summit, Sierra Nevada, California.

This is another of my close-up aspen detail photographs from my one-hour or so shoot in the eastern Sierra near Conway Summit on the last Sunday of September. I took a quick detour to this part of the “east side” after completing a short photographic backpack trip to Cathedral Lakes that weekend.

I’ve photographed this grove before, so I stop every season and see what I can find. This time I think I arrived a few days earlier than usual in the color transition. There were still a lot more leaves on trees in the grove than I’ve seen in the past and a nearby grove was still completely green. (This grove is among the first you encounter as you drive up the road from Highway 395/Conway Summit toward Virginia Lake, right by a dirt road turnoff on the left side.)

As I walked into the lower edge of the grove, I discovered that among leaves that were for the most part either green or yellow, there were a few here that had a wider range of colors – some residual green, yellow, gold, orange, and even verging on red. So, in addition to shooting the larger view of the grove, I decided to use a long lens and work on a few close shots of the leaves that most caught my attention.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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