Tag Archives: travel

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

First Light, Sabrina Basin Aspens

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First Light, Sabrina Basin Aspens - First morning light traverses groves of golden autumn aspen trees, Sabrina Basin
First morning light traverses groves of golden autumn aspen trees, Sabrina Basin

First Light, Sabrina Basin Aspens. Bishop Creek Area, California. October 3 ,2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First morning light traverses groves of golden autumn aspen trees, Sabrina Basin

There is a particular spot in the Sabrina Basin from which I can look down into a deeper portion of the valley where the sunlight does not hit the trees until hours after sunrise. When photographing in this area I almost have a ritual I follow: begin just before dawn at a higher location and shoot in the very first morning light, explore this higher area for an hour or more as the light builds, then leave and begin the descent back into that valley – first photographing it from above as the sun begins to top a tall ridge to the east and its shadow moves across the groves of trees in the bottom of the valley, and then working within the valley-bottom groves.

This photograph was made during those moments when the sun first began to rise over that high ridge, and the sun/shadow line began its traverse of the aspen groves that line the bottom of the canyon. Here the light had reached the first trees closet to me and was just beginning to work its way back toward the further groves that were still in deep shadow.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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

Lodgepole Forest and Lower Slopes of Mount Gibbs

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Lodgepole Forest and Lower Slopes of Mount Gibbs - Lodgepole forest trees and the lower slopes of Mount Gibbs are bathed in sunset light, Yosemite National Park
Lodgepole forest trees and the lower slopes of Mount Gibbs are bathed in sunset light, Yosemite National Park

Lodgepole Forest and Lower Slopes of Mount Gibbs. Yosemite National Park, California. September 13, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lodgepole forest trees and the lower slopes of Mount Gibbs are bathed in sunset light, Yosemite National Park.

This was an evening of “interesting” (e.g. – tricky!) light that changed from moment to moment. The issue was that there were high clouds to the west of my position not too far from Tioga Pass. These clouds can cut both ways – on one hand they can be lit up in quite astonishing ways by the light at the end of the day and just after sunset, but they can also quite simply block the light from the west. When I see this situation in the Sierra, I often make a point of being where I can take advantage of the potential for a wild show of sky color, but I’m also aware that as often as not nothing will happen and the sun will simply slide behind the clouds. On this evening things were complicated. Earlier there was a wonderful atmospheric haze that became luminous in the back-light. However, as the sun dropped toward the horizon, at times it did pass right behind clouds that were thick enough to block its light and turn the world quite gray.

Eventually I figured out that light was going to be transitory and unpredictable on this evening, so I more or less settled into “opportunist” mode, ready to move quickly when a bit of light showed up in one place or another. With a somewhat long lens on the camera, I would wander around or just stand and watch. Then, almost without warning, something would light up – a tree over there, a ridge behind me, some clouds – and provide a momentary opportunity to make a photograph. At the point that I made this photograph, in subtle, rose-colored light, I had almost given up since the trees around me had fallen into shade. But a brief bit of sun came through a break in the clouds near the horizon and lit the nearby grove as the slopes of Mount Gibbs became pink in the end-of-day light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Granite

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Aspens and Granite - Two aspen trees with sparse autumn leaves stand in front of a lichen-covered granite wall.
Two aspen trees with sparse autumn leaves stand in front of a lichen-covered granite wall.

Aspens and Granite. North Lake, California. October 8, 2011. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two aspen trees with sparse autumn leaves stand in front of a lichen-covered granite wall.

Photographing this section of rocky hillside along the road the runs past North Lake has become a bit of a habit for me during the past few years. North Lake is a well-known place for photographing fall colors, with good reason. It is in the larger Bishop Creek drainage of the eastern Sierra, one of many places where it is possible to find a lot of autumn aspen color. As a consequence, many people (sometimes too many!) head there to photograph the seasonal color change. I think I first shot there a bit before the most recent upsurge in visits by photographers and photography workshops, so I was able to make some photographs of the general scene in somewhat more solitary conditions.

In recent years, on too many occasions, I have arrived at this lake to find mobs of photographers. Fortunately, for the most part they stop and photograph to same two well-known areas of the lake. Even more fortunately, with a little bit of walking and looking around, one can find a lot of other stuff to photograph here. While the grand views are obvious and spectacular, there are many opportunities for photographing “intimate landscapes” that feature perhaps a few trees, some rocks, a bit of lakeside grass, and so forth. These two trees, almost bare of fall leaves, stood against a bit of cracked cliff that was covered with patches of colorful lichen.

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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Granite and Snow

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Granite and Snow - Early autumn snowfall or ledges of a cracked granite wall near North Lake
Early autumn snowfall or ledges of a cracked granite wall near North Lake

Granite and Snow. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 8, 2011. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn snowfall on ledges of a cracked granite wall near North Lake.

This was a cold photograph! After the 2011 early October sequence of surprise snow storms, I headed up to the North Lake area as soon as the road was (barely) passable, arriving to find nearly a foot of snow in some places. Needless to say, the series of storms had not been kind to the aspen color – many of the most colorful leaves had been blown down, others had turned black, and much of what remained was inaccessible or caked with snow.

I initially thought about taking advantage of the relatively small number of photographers who had shown up and photographing the classic view from near the outlet, but I decided that it would be more interesting to take advantage of the unusual snow conditions. With that in mind, I set out to walk the road alongside the lake. Next to this road the hillside rises and eventually becomes quite rocky, in places starting to seem almost like cliffs. In one of these areas I came across this bit of cracked and shattered granite, sparsely covered with lichen and with new snow resting on small ledges.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.