Tag Archives: tioga

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

Juniper Tree Trunk, Detail

August 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The heavily weathered and contorted trunk of juniper trees near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

These Sierra juniper trees grow in the most improbable places – on top of granite domes and slabs, with roots somehow finding sustenance in cracks and bits of gravel, and no doubt exposed to the full force of mountain storms. This is actually a group of trees that take advantage of the same crack in the otherwise solid granite, and which have grown together into what almost appears to be one very wide tree at first.

Because of their toughness, the way they grow almost into the rock, and the fact that the trees continue to live even when portions have died, it sometimes seems to me that these trees can have a character that is closer to that of the rock itself than just about any other living thing in the Sierra. The oldest branches and roots grow into the rock and have been shaped so much by their relationship to it that they can almost take on a rock-like character themselves.

These particular specimens happen to be growing part way up a dome-like granite slab above Tioga Pass Road as it passes through Yosemite’s high country. It appears that part of the treed may have been affected by fire, and dead sections have been worn and eroded by the tough sub-alpine environment. The only obvious signs of life in this close up image are the bits of moss or lichen growing in a few cracks in the wood.

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

Granite Domes and Trees, Morning

August 12, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Morning light on trees and glaciated ridges, Yosemite National Park.

It is now 11:23 p.m. PDT on Friday, August 12… and I just realized a few moments ago that I neglected to schedule the posting of a new photograph today! Before I left for Yosemite on this past Wednesday I thought I had placed a photograph in the queue for automatic posting today, but apparently not. As long as I complete this post in the next half hour or so, I won’t miss posting my daily photograph!

I made this photograph early today (Friday, August 12) as the first light was striking the glaciated ridges near Olmsted Point. I had arrived early enough to climb far up on the granite slopes above the famous overlook before the sun came up – I had a plan to photograph some of the solitary trees high on these granite slabs as the first light struck them. I accomplished that, and as I began to descend from this area I decided to make a few more photographs while I was up there. Across the nearby canyon is another ridge that is topped by the glacial erratics, the solitary boulders sitting on top of the rounded ridges and just about anywhere else in this part of Yosemite. The early light was coming across from the left and striking the tops of these ridges, but it had not yet struck the huge face of Clouds Rest, seen behind them.

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

Gaylor Basin and the Cathedral Range, Evening

August 11, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Evening shadows stretch across the boulder-filled meadows and forests of Gaylor Basin with the peaks of the Cathedral Range on the skyline, Yosemite National Park.

On the first evening of my late-July four-day visit to Yosemite’s high country along Tioga Pass Road I decided to visit this favorite location of mine. It is a short (but steep!) hike from near Tioga Pass over a nearby ridge to reach this quiet basin with its many lakes, long distance views of the Cathedral Range, and the treeline terrain of rocks and trees that I believe is my very favorite in the Sierra.

I started out after my mid-afternoon “dinner” and the drive to the trailhead from my camp at Porcupine Flat. Probably because it was so late in the day, I met a fair number of people hiking back out but only saw two others in the entire basin once I arrived. I suppose this is one of the advantages of keeping odd “photographer’s hours” – while most people are heading back to camp to fix dinner, I’m heading out to catch the evening light.

In the end, I didn’t make many photographs on this evening. I mostly wandered, something I love to do in these high open basins. I walked around the first lake, passing over some still-unmelted snow, and crossed the very full outlet stream, trying to skirt the wettest portions of the meadow by looking for rocky terrain. I finally settled on an area just below the lake and made a few photographs of trees and rocks and the long, shallow valley leading toward the main trunk of the Tuolumne River and the mountains beyond. I finished just after dusk, climbed back up the ridge as darkness came on, and finished the hike back to my car with the help of the light from my headlamp.

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

Trees and Granite, Morning

August 6, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Morning light shines on the trees clinging to massive granite domes in the high country of Yosemite National Park.

I’ll write a bit less about this photograph since I posted it already in a color rendition and described some of the background of the image in that earlier post. The basic idea is that I used a very long focal length to isolate the single primary tree against a world of granite that recedes toward the rising sun that is above and out of the frame to the right.

When I made the photograph I had a pretty good idea that it might work as black and white. In fact, though I don’t recall for certain, I think I was leaning towards thinking of the scene in black and white when I made the exposure. (Those last two sentences must seem strange if not almost perverse to people whose primary background is in film!) Sometimes, as with this scene, I end up liking both versions, at least at first. While I may end up leaning toward one or the other more after I live with the prints a while, right now I go back and forth. Of course, when two things are different it is not necessarily the case that one must be better than the other; sometimes they are just different.

Oddly, one thing that inclined me towards black and white ends up also suggesting color. Because so much of the content of the frame is nearly monochromatic I think I originally felt that with so little color to work with that it might make sense to just let it be monochromatic. But then, “with so little color to work with,” the subtle effect of color begins, in some ways, to be even more important.

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