Tag Archives: texture

Fall Foliage and Rock Face, Tioga Road

Fall Foliage and Rock Face, Tioga Road

Fall Foliage and Rock Face, Tioga Road. Yosemite National Park, California. September 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fall colors come to plants growing in cracks in a rock face alongside Tioga Road, Yosemite National Park, California.

As I drove across the Sierra via Tioga Pass Road in late September I was watching for early fall color, which often just gets going at about this time. Most of the good color is east of the crest, but there is one area near where the road crosses Yosemite Creek where I sometimes spot some yellow leaves – and, sure enough, as I passed this spot I saw some interesting color along the rock walls beside the road.

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.

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keywords: yellow, green, gold, leaf, plant, branch, bush, tree, aspen, rock, face, cliff, crack, gray, boulder, broken, angle, season, fall, autumn, texture, tioga, pass, road, 120, highway, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, high, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, trans, creek, nature, travel, scenic, needle, stock

Bare Aspen Trunks and Boulders

Bare Aspen Trunks and Boulders

Bare Aspen Trunks and Boulders. Sierra Nevada, California. October 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Granite boulders stand behind a row of nearly bare fall aspen trees near South Lake, Sierra Nevada, California.

This is one more photograph from my early October aspen-chasing expeditions to the eastern Sierra. On this trip I ended up in the Bishop Creek area and on this cold, slightly snowy, early fall day I ended up at one point along a section of roadway just below Parcher’s Resort near South Lake. Below Parcher’s there is a meadow – I parked there and spend some time wandering up the roadway past this area of steep, jumbled rocks and aspen trees and other foliage.

A note about the light in this photograph: I had passed by this area before – on previous visits and earlier during this trip – and thought about how I’d like to photograph here in diffused, shaded conditions. So I made a plan to return much later in the afternoon when I knew that the sun would move around behind the ridge about this spot and leave it in shade, but with some light coming in from the open sky and ridge on the other side of the valley – pretty much exactly the sort of conditions I look for when I photograph this type of 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.

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keywords: row, aspen, bare, tree, trunk, season, fall, autumn, white, branch, leaf, leaves, vertical, yellow, gold, rock, boulder, cliff, lichen, texture, parchers, resort, south, lake, bishop, creek, road, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, california, usa, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, stock

Corn Lily Leaves, Early Fall

Corn Lily Leaves, Early Fall

Corn Lily Leaves, Early Fall. Cathedral Lakes, Yosemite National Park, California. September 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dry corn lily leaves and plants as Sierra Nevada summer plants go dormant at the beginning of the fall season – Upper Cathedral Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

On the first evening of my brief two-day visit to Upper Cathedral Lake, I wandered up a narrow ravine near where we were camped, hoping to eventually get up high for some photographs of dome-like formations and the lake and Cathedral Peak beyond. But almost immediately I became distracted by much more intimate subjects closer at hand in the shaded and diffused light of the gully. Near the top of a narrow section I came across a large bed of old corn lily plants that had reached the end of their short summer-season lives and had fallen over in interesting and complex patterns.

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

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keywords: corn, lily, plant, wild, flora, foliage, brown, tan, dead, dry, leaf, stem, branch, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, summer, fall, dormant, season, change, landscape, nature, travel, scenic, upper, cathedral, lake, camp, hike, backpack, tuolumne, meadows, high, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, texture, pattern, needle, stock

San Francisco Buildings, Foot of Market

San Francisco Buildings, Foot of Market

San Francisco Buildings, Foot of Market. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Forms of large downtown San Francisco buildings near the foot of Market street in morning light.

Near the foot of Market Street, close to the Ferry Building and the Bay, the morning light coming across the water lit these buildings in a special way – something to do, I think, with the low angle of the light, the fact that the fog was just clearing, and the blue sky with thin clouds above. Although the buildings are in direct sun, the light is partially softened and interrupted by the remaining fog clouds over the Bay to the east. When I shot this I had a pretty good idea that it would end up as a black and white photograph.

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

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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, black and white, market, street, embarcadero, building, tall, skyscraper, architecture, form, structure, window, column, reflection, light, shadow, morning, sky, cloud, shadow, texture, tower, rail, balcony, landscape, travel, bay