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Commentary, Locations, Sierra Nevada Fall Color

Sierra Nevada Aspen Hunting and the Weather

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Something to think about for photographers headed to the eastern Sierra to photograph aspen color next week: The seven-day Yosemite to Kings Canyon weather forecast is calling for snow (!) on Wednesday and Thursday, and things don’t look like they’ll totally clear out on Friday. This has some ramifications:

  • Those of us who get to the eastern Sierra by way of one of the trans-Sierra passes may encounter difficulties if the forecast pans out. I would not be at all surprised to see a temporary closure of Tioga Pass Road (highway 120) though Yosemite, and other passes to the north could be affected. This makes for a very long drive for those of us in the SF Bay area!
  • A storm can affect the aspen color display. A cold snap can, or so many of us believe, encourage the colors to change. But wind can also bring down many of the leaves in a hurry. (I once arrived before dawn at North Lake to see – just barely – incredible color conditions in the grove the runs up the hillside on the far side of the lake. Moments later a snow squall blew in, and as the wind began to blow I retreated to my car for a half hour. When it passed, half of the leaves had blown down!
  • On the plus side, an early winter storm can bring some opportunities and advantages as well. Overcast and rainy/snowy weather can intensify the colors and create some very compelling and moody scenes. New snow adds something special to the scene, whether only on the higher peaks above or down among the trees.

It could get interesting, so check those weather forecasts and the road conditions on the mountain highways. Fall in the Sierra is a time of change in many ways. Pacific winter-type weather systems start to move through, and they can range from very mild to virtually full-blown winter storms. While most of them pass quickly, some can last for a few days and close passes. It would be very unusual for such an early October storm to actually mark the beginning of the winter road closures, but mid-October storms have done so in the past.

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

Juniper Trees and Granite Slab, Morning

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Juniper Trees and Granite Slab, Morning
Juniper Trees and Granite Slab, Morning

Juniper Trees and Granite Slab, Morning. Yosemite National Park, California. July 27, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two juniper trees in morning light at the base of Pywiack Dome, Yosemite National Park.

This strong and straight juniper and the smaller twin hiding behind it grow at the top of the rocky debris field at the base of this dome not far from Tenaya Lake in the Yosemite National Park high country. A bit later than the “golden hour” time, the morning light begins to spill around the side of the dome and illuminate these trees from behind, creating a glow in their branches and the branches of trees and brush around them.

Last night someone asked me if I choose when to go to the Sierra to photograph based on the weather conditions. I wish I had that luxury! To some extent I make general decisions about where and what to shoot based on the season – The Valley around the end the start of November, the east side in early October, etc. – but for the most part I go where I can go when I can go there. However, I do alter the focus of my shooting based on the current conditions. This late-July trip is a good example.

I associate certain types of light with different seasons, and I tend to look for clear and crisp light in late July along, accented by snow fields and lots of new growth. I was a bit surprised by the amount of haze in the atmosphere. In fact, in some ways it almost reminded me of very late summer and early fall when Sierra wildfires often create a smokey haze over the range. With this in mind, I figured out that crystal clear photographs of mountain peaks against sky were not going to be in the cards. Instead I focused more on closer subjects, and when I shot more distant subjects I thought a lot about how to use the haze, embracing its effect rather than regretting that I had to deal with it. This photograph is perhaps an example of both of those approaches. The main subject here, the central pair of trees, cannot be more than a couple hundred feet away, if that. Behind the trees and the slab are more distant granite domes and cliffs and forest winding up the mountainside. Shooting almost straight into the sun accentuated the hazy quality of the more distant elements of the scene and enhanced the sense of front to back distance, and separated the foreground trees from the background it a way that would not have been possible in “better” lighting conditions.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Last Light, Mount Conness

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Last Light, Mount Conness
Last Light, Mount Conness

Last Light, Mount Conness. Yosemite National Park, California. June 18, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The final evening alpenglow illuminates the summit ridge of Mount Conness and the west face of Medlicott Dome in the Yosemite National Park high country.

This will be my final photograph of Mount Conness from the evening of June 18, the day that Tioga Pass Road opened this year and the day of one of the most spectacular Yosemite high country sunsets in recent memory. It will be the final both in the sense that I think I’ve now shared the best of the group of images of this sunset and in the sense that it was literally my final exposure of the evening.

The short back-story is that what started out as a fairly unimpressive evening (at least in the photographic sense) transformed over a short period into something extraordinary as the sun dropped to the horizon west of the Sierra and illuminated the clouds from below, creating rare and very special alpenglow conditions over a wide area of the Sierra. (During the week that followed quite a few people commented on this amazing light, which they had witnessed from locations as distant as Mono Lake on the east side and the Central Valley to the west.)

When I made this photograph the show was coming to an end. At this point the sun had already set a few minutes earlier – the exposure was made around 8:45 p.m. – and the light was low enough to require a six-second exposure. While it may seem like Mount Conness (the tallest peak near the left on the skyline) and other features are receiving direct sunlight, this is actually the remaining post-sunset glow in the western sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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

Early Season Ice on Tenaya Lake

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Early Season Ice on Tenaya Lake
Early Season Ice on Tenaya Lake

Early Season Ice on Tenaya Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. June 5, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of early season ice on the surface of Tenaya Lake with high granite peaks and domes beyond, Yosemite National Park, California.

A long-lens version of the classic view of Tenaya Lake from Olmsted Point, made on the day that Tioga Pass Road opened for the season and while ice still covered almost all of the surface of the lake. Peaks and domes tower above the lake, including the heights of Mount Conness near the upper left. In a larger version of this photograph, many seasonal waterfalls are visible along the sides of the cliffs and domes.

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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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 210mm
ISO 200, f/5.1, 1/400 second

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