Tag Archives: travel

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Snow and Morning Light on Wheeler Ridge

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Autumn Snow and Morning Light on Wheeler Ridge

Autumn Snow and Morning Light on Wheeler Ridge. Sierra Nevada near Bishop, California. October 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light on the Buttermilks and the face of the eastern Sierra’s Wheeler Ridge as an early autumn storm brings snow flurries.

On both mornings during my early October trip to the Bishop Creek area to photograph aspens, I instead ended up spending at least some time shooting the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada in the area of the “Buttermilks,” an area of very interesting rock formations (and lots of rock climbers!) off of highway 168 above Bishop. On the first morning I drove a good distance up into the region and spent an hour or more shooting a particular scene. On the second morning, when this photograph was made, I only stopped briefly on my up to higher elevation areas, aspen groves, and snow flurries.

An early season storm was coming in – it had been tremendously windy the night before and I’d picked up a dusting of snow at my campsite the night before. While the sun streamed over the White Mountains to the east and managed to light up the high desert hills in this area it was snowing lightly but steadily up in the mountains. Here the light is sweeping across the low, rocky hills in the foreground and hitting the steep lower slopes of Wheeler ridge, while above the peaks are shrouded in mist and clouds and receiving a light but steady snow fall.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Clearing Autumn Snow Storm – Eastern Sierra Near Mount Tom

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Clearing Autumn Snow Storm - Eastern Sierra Near Mount Tom

Clearing Autumn Snow Storm – Eastern Sierra Near Mount Tom. Sierra Nevada, California. October 4, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn snow flurries surround the peaks of the eastern Sierra near Mount Tom and Round Valley as an early fall storm clears.

As I began my return drive from my early-October “aspen hunting” expedition into the area above Bishop, California in the eastern Sierra Nevada a windy storm that had dropped several inches of snow earlier that day was beginning to clear. Rather than taking highway 395 north toward Sherwin Summit I decided to follow the older road up from Round Valley. As I neared the top of this road and looked back I saw this view of lingering snow flurries over nearby peaks and, in the distance, Mount Tom.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Red and Green Aspen Leaves

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Red and Green Aspen Leaves

Red and Green Aspen Leaves. Sierra Nevada, California. October 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Red and green aspen leaves in the Sierra Nevada near South Lake.

I spotted a grove of small aspen trees with very colorful leaves as I was driving down from South Lake and just as the light was just about too dark to continue shooting – especially since the wind was rising and by this time blowing like crazy! It can be tricky to shoot aspen leaves close up even in a slight breeze, but shooting them in fading light when the wind is rising to near gale force is darn close to impossible!

While many of the trees in this grove were headed more in the yellow direction, I found a few that seemed to be going almost straight from green to red.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Three Autumn Aspens, Cliff Face

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Three Autumn Aspens, Cliff Face

Three Autumn Aspens, Cliff Face. Sierra Nevada, California. October 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three autumn aspens with colorful leaves in front of a granite cliff face near South Lake, Sierra Nevada, California.

These trees grow along a rocky area on the road to South Lake just before Parcher’s Resort, where the road ascends past a steep rocky section with some low cliffs. I’ve long been intrigued by the rocks here and when I drove past earlier this day – in somewhat harsh light – I thought it would interesting to come back later in the day when this area was in shade and the light was softer and more diffused. When the aspens change color this spot turns out to be a veritable shooting gallery of rocks and trees, with many interesting juxtapostions of these two elements.

The only real technical challenge – aside from staying out the way of passing cars! – was dealing with the combination of low light in the shaded area and very windy conditions on this day. A significant early-season storm was making its way into the Sierra and the winds were really ramping up in the afternoon and evening. Normally I might try to deal with this by using a faster shutter speed, but shooting in the low-light shade made this less of an option, and I ended up standing around a lot waiting for brief and infrequent lulls in the wind. I also decided to accept a bit of motion blur from the leaves – in the end I don’t think that is necessarily a problem.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
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