Tag Archives: trees

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

Granite Ridge, Trees

September 21, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tall trees on top of a granite ridge, Yosemite National Park

This has been a period of unprecedented drought in California as a whole and particularly in the Sierra Nevada. In the fourth of this series of drought years the Sierra is showing the strain. Creeks have stopped flowing, lake levels are significantly low, trees are under stress and dying throughout the range. This summer the annual wildfire season began much earlier than usual, and many fires spread quickly and took longer to contain. We certainly saw all of these effects during our week-long photographic sojourn in the Yosemite backcountry. Until we had a couple of days of (welcome!) rain near the end of the trip, the smoke was a major factor. On many days we had smoke so thick that we were concerned about our health, and the pall often made photography somewhat challenging. Fortunately, even on the smokiest days there were times when it was clear, too.

However, it is possible to see how to make photographs even in smoky conditions. On the plus side, some smoke can soften the light a bit, and the haze can enhance the atmospheric recession effect, which can emphasize the distances between subjects in front of the camera. The haze in this photograph comes partially from wildfire smoke. Here it muted to sometimes-difficult highlights on the granite, and it softened and muted the distant forest across the valley.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest, Soft Light

September 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft early morning light on dense trees of a Sierra Nevada forest

There are three things — perhaps among quite a few potential other — that come to mind for me when I think of this photograph. First, it could be almost any vignette of a forest scene, at least within the limitations of places where these sorts of trees grow. Second, and in opposition to the first thought, it is a very specific place — not a place that anyone else would likely afford any special attention, but because I have given it that attention for some time it has become a special spot for me. Third, it is the opposite of a sort of photograph that we often try to create — rather than being one that simplifies by minimizing content an leaving things out, it tries to find some order and form in a small scene that is extraordinarily complex, yet which follows familiar patterns.

It is also perhaps “about” (insofar as a photograph can be “about” anything) this light, from the early morning of what will become a sunny day, when the light is still soft and diffused. It is also about the nature of forests I think. I remember one very specific moment on a backpacking trip many years ago when I was heading up Rafferty Creek toward Fletcher Lake, a hike I have done many, many times. For some reason, on that morning, I had one of those occasional and powerful epiphanies that occasionally come when I’m on the trail alone. I saw the forest in ways that are not easy to describe. I felt that I wasn’t just walking past “the forest” — I was among a community of living things, and for a moment I became aware of the deep stillness of trees, the tremendous amount to almost static time through which they live, and that they stood still and rooted through blizzards and wind and rain and sunshine.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning Light on Granite Ridge

September 14, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light strikes trees on the ridge of a glaciated dome above Tenaya Canyon, Yosemite National Park

Yosemite is known for many things — the Valley, waterfalls, and other familiar sights — but above all it should probably be known simply for granite. (Apologies to geologists ,who know that “granite” is a simplification, but I’m going with it.) The cliffs and domes of Yosemite Valley are well known, but I’m especially thinking of the higher regions of the park, where one is hardly ever far from granite slabs, granite boulders moved about by ancient glaciers, granite stream beds, granite faces, granite ground into sand…

This is one of those locations where it is possible to look in the right direction and focus your attention on a particular area… and see almost nothing but granite. Here a glaciated granite ridge, topped by sunlit trees, is backed by a glaciated granite wall in shadow, with a glacial granite canyon lying between the two. The surfaces of such places are fascinating. A close look at the sunlit ridge reveals large granite boulders, with trees and small strips of meadow. Below that ridge is a large expanse of exfoliating granite slabs with trees eking out a living on little more than bare rock.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Sierra Forest, Morning Light

September 9, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light arrives in dense Sierra Nevada forest

Spend enough time somewhere and you begin to develop surprising relationships with surprising little places that perhaps no one else would even notice. Since I’ve been going to the Sierra for decades, I’ve had plenty of time to find my own “little places” and to begin to understand and value this. Some decades ago, when my backpacking experience became extensive enough that I often found myself back at places that I had previously visited, I was surprised to discover that particular rocks (like one at a high country lake where I often set up my camp kitchen, or another where I once sat and watched a storm blow in), creeks (such as one near 11,000′ in the southern Sierra where I have camped alone and with friends), trees (such as the one we discovered decades ago on a trip with kids, shortly after it had been blasted apart by lightning), and others acquire a quality of old, familiar friends.

This little bit of forest has become one of those places. It is not quite in the “back-country.” In fact, it is a scene that I drive past on my way to other places. But a few years ago it caught my attention and I began to inspect it every time I passed by, sometimes stopping to look more closely. I cannot quite articulate why or how it is that this bit of forest became “mine,” but it did. I was camped nearby on this morning and had gone out to look for light when I remembered the spot and arrived just as the first direct morning sunlight was beginning to enter the grove.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: trees

Granite Ridge, Trees

Forest, Soft Light

Morning Light on Granite Ridge

Sierra Forest, Morning Light

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