Evening storm clouds over the Sierra crest beyond Tuolumne Meadows and Lembert Dome, Yosemite National Park, California.
Once I saw these clouds begin to gather above Mount Dana on the Sierra crest, I made it my goal to be in this particular spot along the banks of the Tuolumne River at sunset. Actually, I arrived and set up quite a bit before actual sunset, and I began shooting even a bit earlier than the time when this photograph was made. A large storm cell had parked itself over and just beyond 13,000’+ Mount Dana on the Sierra crest at Tioga Pass, and as the evening went on rain eventually began to fall from this cell.
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.
Three pelicans in flight along the Pacific Ocean coastline near Davenport, California.
I had a few hours to photograph along the coast north of Santa Cruz, California on this morning so I decided to head up as far as Waddell Creek beach (part of Big Basin State Park) and see what I could come up with. The light wasn’t promising. It was foggy – which can be interesting – but the sort of fog that sits a few hundred feet up above the ocean, leaving the view sort of dismal and gray. I figured that possibilities might include certain landscape photographs (perhaps on the fog/sun boundary, where things can be interesting), wildflowers (near their peak along the coast, and often interesting in soft, diffused light), and wildlife.
I’m always interested in photographing the pelicans that skim up and down the coast, often in groups of a half a dozen or more. At my first stop at Scott Creek I didn’t see much of interest, so I kept going. Just north of here the road travels along the edge of tall coastal bluffs, and shore birds often skim right along the edge of these cliffs. I stopped at one such spot where I’ve photographed before and made a few photographs of gulls and pelicans and other birds, but then quickly moved on to Waddell Creek beach.
After shooting at Waddell for a while I headed back to the south. Near the top of the hill rising south from Waddell, I happened to look to the west and saw a large flock of pelicans passing right along the bluff, not more than 15-20 feet from the edge. I slowed and before I could stop another large flock repeated the pass of the first group. I quickly unloaded by gear and headed out to the edge of the bluff… only to wait for 10-15 minutes without another flock passing by. (I could have predicted that! :-) However, patience paid off and eventually several large groups appeared along the bluff and passed right in front of me, including this trio that was part of a much larger flock.
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.
Colorful late autumn leaves in the redwood forest of Muir Woods National Monument, California.
These leaves represent more or less the last gasp of autumn color at Muir Woods – the photograph was taken just a few days before the winter solstice. Although I’ve visited Muir Woods a number of times of a period of many years, during this past year I have done quite a bit of photography there, and with this series of photographs I feel like I’ve gone through a full season with the park. As I wandered through the main groves twice during the last half of December I really had a strong feeling of concluding a year of growth in the forest… and of shooting this subject. It was fitting that on this visit I saw for the first time one of the first flowers to come up as a new cycle begins, the fetid adders’ tongue and its subtle but beautiful flower. This got me thinking about and looking forward to the cycle of renewal that will soon begin again in this park.
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.
Three small aspen trees with fall color leaves among small plants grow from a crack in lichen-covered rocks – Sierra Nevada, California near South Lake.
Yet another variation on the “bare aspen trunks with some leaves, photographed against granite” theme – I can’t help myself! :-)
This is another of several photographs I made along the road below Parcher’s Resort on the way to South Lake in the eastern Sierra above Bishop, California. At this early October point in the season there are almost endless ways to approach photography of aspens – still-green aspens, aspens barely starting to change color, newly colorful aspens among still-green aspens, aspens at the height of their yellow/orange/red color, aspens past peak starting to thin a bit, aspens with only a few beautiful leaves remaining (and the rest littering the ground beneath), aspen trunks bare of any leaves and waiting for the winter to arrive – and all of these shot in an infinite variety of light, in an infinite variety of settings, with an infinite variety of compositions.
So I hope no one minds if I continue to post a few more. :-)
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.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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