Tag Archives: tree

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

Dogwood Flowers, Sunset Light

May 14, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The flower-laden branches of a dogwood tree hang above the Merced River in sunset light

In the evening we had pulled off the road near the place sometimes called “Gates of the Valley” (and occasionally by other names), but I was not especially interested in photographing the famous and iconic scene that many stop there to photograph. I wouldn’t rule out photographing it, but it would have to be an exceptional evening to warrant adding my contribution to the uncounted photographs that have been made of the Merced River, Bridal Veil Fall, and El Capitan from this spot. We stopped for dogwoods.

I have photographed the dogwood blossoms in this area plenty of times in the past, and at the right time there can be a lot of flowers here. This was one of those right times, since it seemed like an exceptional spring for production of dogwood blossoms. Initially I had my eyes on some trees on the north side of the road, but first I thought I’d wander east a bit. That turned out be a good direction to walk for several reasons – I unexpectedly ran into friends who were also photographing here, and I found one beautiful tree that was hanging its blooms out over the waters of the Merced River. I then headed back to the west, stopping to talk to other folks (it seemed like everyone was out photographing dogwoods on this evening!) and then continuing on past the pull-out, stopping along the way to make more photographs of dogwoods and the forest in evening light. Before long I ended up at a well-known bridge over the Merced – where, yes, I ran into more friends! When I got there I almost felt like I was ready to call it an evening, but then I saw the low angle near-sunset light coming up the river and recalled a bunch of flowers I had seen there earlier in the day. I thought it might be interesting to shoot almost straight into that light and use a long lens to “get close” to the flowers and to throw the background along the river out of focus. The result is a dogwood flower photograph this is a bit different from most that I shoot.

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

Granite and Trees, Morning

May 13, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Morning light on granite slabs in the Yosemite high country.

These are the light, the rocks, the trees that bring me back to the Yosemite high country of the Sierra Nevada every year when Tioga Pass opens and which keep me coming back until the high country closes again in the fall. Tioga Pass opened for the season this past weekend, and that – plus the chance to see a show and visit with some friends in the Valley – was excuse for a quick visit. I try to go over the pass each season on the day it opens or shortly afterwards. For me, crossing that pass and starting down the road into Lee Vining Canyon marks the start of “summer,” even though the calendar still says it is spring.

Since the high country camp grounds are not open yet and the Forest Service camps east of the pass are also still closed, I ended up getting a last-minute camp site in Yosemite Valley. (This also provided the opportunities to attend the reception for John Sexton’s and Anne Larsen’s show at the Ansel Adams Gallery, to hear John’s wonderful talk about Ansel Adams that evening, and to get one last crack at photographing this year’s dogwood bloom.) On the first day I did little more than make an obligatory drive up toward the pass and see the familiar country. This was the second dry winter in a row in California, and there is very little snow for such an early date in the season. Perhaps because of this, there were far fewer people up there than on other recent opening days. On the second day I got up well before dawn and left my Yosemite Valley camp in darkness, driving up Tioga Pass road early enough to photograph in the May Lake (turnoff), Olmsted Point, and Tenaya Lake areas in early light. Here I found what I was looking for – sparse trees in the back-light from early morning sun, ridges of exfoliating granite, and a bit of hazy morning atmosphere. I suppose it might just be my first high-country photograph of the new season.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Canyon Light, Big Sur

April 23, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

A solitary tree stands on a hillside at the base of a rugged canyon filled with morning light and haze

I have driven past this canyon many times, even stopping to hike up into it on more than one occasion. I’m usually there in the morning, when the early sun is just clearing the top of the high ridge beyond the canyon, and backlight streams down into the canyon, sometimes so bright that it is almost impossible to look up into it.

This was one of those mornings. As I got to the Monterey Peninsula I was initially surprised by the amount of haze in the air, since it was supposed to be – and actually was! – a very windy day. This was good news, though, since I love atmosphere that is not crystal clear. A few fog clouds were trying to form over some of the higher hills, but mostly the air was just filled with this semi-opaque, luminous haze that gave form to the light passing through it. As I arrived at this spot I looked to my left out of habit and first thought that it might be too hazy to produce a photograph that showed the faint details that I was interested in. But since I was there and this was a lot more interesting than the view out over the ocean, I stopped and took a look, soon finding a composition that placed the solitary tree silhouette near the bottom of the frame and anchored the scene, the rest of which was very atmospheric and subtle.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Fall Aspen Color, Boulder Mountain

April 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Brilliant autumn aspen color on Boulder Mountain, Utah

I produced a lot of photographs in the state of Utah in 2012. Although I had not photographed there before (as astonishing of an omission as that seems!) I think I did a pretty good job of making up for lost time. I made three visits to the state, one in spring and two in the fall, and spent a total of about 35 days on the road to, from, and within Utah. I plan to go back!

On that first spring visit we drove over the shoulder of Boulder Mountain between the Escalante and Torrey areas before the new spring foliage had yet come to the extensive aspen groves found in that area. Being an aspen aficionado I could imagine what these slopes must be like in the fall when the foliage changes, and we made a plan to try to pass by here again in the autumn. Not being completely familiar with the seasonal patterns in this part of the country, we might have been just a bit late for peak Utah color – in general we saw brilliant aspen color in many places, but it had already passed at the higher locations, and we soon learned that the cottonwood color comes a bit later in the month. So when we left the town of Boulder to follow the road up and over the Boulder Mountain area, we had a combination of some brilliantly colorful groves at the lower and perhaps middle elevations and higher groves that had more or less completely dropped their leaves. That is the scene in this photograph, made in early evening light on a day when there were some high clouds – and the shockingly colorful foreground trees are backed by the bare trunks of winter aspens higher up the slopes of the mountain.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: tree

Dogwood Flowers, Sunset Light

Granite and Trees, Morning

Canyon Light, Big Sur

Fall Aspen Color, Boulder Mountain

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.