Late season evening light on a trees and a small meadow near Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.
After hiking up from Lower Young Lake and arriving at the upper lake well before the good light I wandered off along the southwest shoreline of Upper Young Lake to scope out photographic subjects for the “good light” period that was going to start very soon. First I walked along the shoreline where I found several prospective shots of a rock outcropping with trees at the end of a peninsula that curves into the lake. I kept walking along the shoreline and found a few more interesting formations with the backdrop of the more distant hillside leading to the ridge that runs along the edge of the basin. Eventually I worked my way a bit beyond the lake to a point where small, grassy gullies began to drop toward the steeper terrain leading to the next lake down the valley, and here I found some interesting backlit trees and boulders, again with the hazy image of the more distance hillside beyond.
This photograph was made pointing almost directly toward the lowering sun – it is actually just a bit to the right and behind some rocks and trees that are out of the frame. Because it was so close to the end of the day – and because of the late time of the season – the light soon became very saturated and warm colored. To me this scene says “end of summer” in the high country – while it is still comfortable and the winters snowfall is still weeks in the future, there is a time in September when the days shorter, the grasses turn golden brown, the aspen color is only weeks away, and most of the tourists have left when the changing of the seasons can no longer be denied.
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.
The summit ridge of Ragged Peak is reflected in the still morning surface of Lower Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.
On the final morning of my mid-August backpacking/photography trip to the Young Lakes area I awoke to some overcast to the east. Photographically speaking, this was a mostly good thing. As the morning light builds, it can otherwise become harsh, but when just the right thickness of clouds is overhead the light can be diffused a bit and the shadows are lit and the bright granite surface reflections are a bit subdued. In addition to having a bit of thin cloudiness overhead, there was virtually no wind, so the surface of the lake remained glass-like longer on this morning, and showed a clear reflection of Ragged Peak, the dominant feature on this end of the ridge that runs alongside these lakes.
The saddle to the left of Ragged Peak reminds me of a previous late-season to this lake. I thought I was the only person there – it must have been very late September or perhaps even the beginning of October – but in the morning someone showed up as I was sitting by the lake shore. It turned out that he was a “seasonal” – a back-country ranger during the summer months who did something else the rest of the year. We had a long conversation about a variety of things, including his musings about whether it was perhaps time to apply for a “real” job with the park service. Near the end of our conversation he mentioned that he had been over this saddle, so of course I had to try it. I won’t say much more about it, except to point out that it does not really have a trail and it ascends a very steep slope filled with very large boulders before topping the rough edge of an old moraine – in other words, it isn’t quite like taking the trail to Glen Aulin.
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.
Early evening light on a tree-covered rocky peninsula at Upper Young Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.
I’ve visited these lakes almost annually for a number of years, since I first visited one autumn on a long day hike from the Tuolumne Meadows area. Many people visit the lower lake on day hikes, quite a few others backpack to the area and visit all three, and climbers on their way to Mount Conness also pass through the area. My plan was to stay several days so that I could do a lot of photography in the area. The upper lake provides a beautiful sub-alpine scene, surrounded by relatively level meadows with small hills interspersed with rocky rises and groves of trees. Because the area is open to the west there can be stunning evening light here… and that I precisely why I went to the lake on this evening.
I was camped at the lower lake, where I had photographed in the morning. After I finished up my morning photography I spent a good part of the late morning and early afternoon eating a post-shoot late breakfast, more or less hanging out, reading, doing a few camp chores, and finally having a very early dinner at about 3:00 – the plan is to eat the big meal of the day early, go off and do photography as the evening light approaches, and then return to camp after dark and have something to eat before climbing into the sleeping bag.
The route that I prefer to use to get to the upper lake is not really exactly a trail. Anticipating that I’d be returning from the upper lake via this route in near or actual darkness, as I climbed it I made sure to remember a series of landmarks that I could use to find my way back. At various junctures on the route – as I would do on any similar route – I stopped to look backwards and fix in my mind certain obvious route cues that I could follow on the way back: stay above the thicker trees, stay in the middle of the bench, cross the low rise while heading straight toward a certain distant ridge, begin the descent at the two groves of trees next to the lake, and so on. I was so focused on this that when I reached my final landmark at the upper lake I barely looked around – I arrived at the final grove and immediately turned right to walk the short distance to the lakeshore and look for compositions. At about this point I recalled that I also had planned to check out camping possibilities for a future visit, so I looked back up at the grove I had just left.
I saw a tent and two people and tripods – all of which I had completely overlooked at first, so fixated was I on my “route.” I walked back up to say “hi” when I noticed that one of the two photographers looked quite familiar. I approached and said, “You bear a striking resemblance to John Sexton” – which made a lot of sense in that he was John Sexton. (If you don’t know who he is… you should. Follow the link to his web site and perhaps do a bit of searching to find out more.) I have, of course, known of John’s wonderful photography for some time and I had most recently been to a lecture at the opening of a show of his work in Carmel earlier this summer. The other photographer was Anne Larsen.
The wilderness is always full of surprises, but meeting John and Anne in the Yosemite back-country was one of the most pleasant in recent memory. We spoke for a while until the light began to become more interesting, but at various times during the evening we again ran into one another and talked about this and that. The next morning I met them once again as we were heading back to the trail head. (I felt a bit guilty about my “tiny” 15 pound load of photography equipment – they were each carrying close to 30 pounds of film gear!)
The photograph is of a tree-covered rocky rise at the end of a narrow curving peninsula that forms a small lagoon near the outlet of the lake. My initial thought had been to photograph a small tree near the edge of the lake – one that I have photographed in the past – but John correctly pointed out that it would be in shadow at the time of best light, so I decided to focus on this subject instead.
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.
Exterior detail of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City.
After traveling uptown to the general area of Columbia University for a breakfast visit to a bakery that had been recommended to us we wandered across the street to the grounds of this famous and imposing cathedral. We began in the sculpture building next to the church, and this photograph was made from that general area, taking advantage of the soft and diffused light of this overcast day.
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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