Tag Archives: usa

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

Glacial Erratics and Trees, Lembert Dome

February 5, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Glacial erratics and trees at the base of Lembert Dome, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

This photograph was made last spring in early June, when I drove over Tioga Pass on a quick one-day jaunt right around the time that the road was re-opened for the season after its annual winter closure. The road opened a bit later than usual in 2010 due to above average and late snow fall, and when I crossed there was as much or more snow than I recall seeing up there.

This was one of my marathon drive days. I started well before dawn in the San Francisco Bay Area and arrived in Yosemite in the very early morning and without any concrete plan – except that the ideas of visiting waterfalls and possibly getting up to Tioga Pass were on my mind. I did stop near the Valley first, where I made a series of photographs of Cascade Creek in virtually full flow. After doing this and making a very brief visit to the Valley, I decided to visit the high country along Tioga Pass road. I went just over the pass before turning back. There was so much snow still around that in most places it still looked much more like winter than like early June.

I finally started heading back to the west, as my plan was to return late to the SF Bay Area. As I left the pass and started down toward Tuolumne Meadows the light began to get “interesting” as the sun dropped lower in the west and some high clouds occasionally softened the light. As I drove past Lembert Dome I thought of photographing these glacial erratics that sit on the apron at the bottom of the dome before making one last stop to photograph snow-covered Tuolumne Meadow in the day’s last light.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Weeds, Slough

February 4, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Weeds growing in brackish water of a slough near the Cosumnes River.

It is a photograph of weeds! In a slough! ;-)

During my late January visit to the Cosumnes River Wildlife Preserve, the day began with extremely thick “pea soup” tule fog. As the morning wore on it stuck around, though gradually began to lighten a bit. As this process continued I wandered along the railroad tracks beyond the visitor center and at one point I passed by a quiet and slightly muddy slough… where I noticed these interesting (and so far anonymous) plants growing in the water.

I was intrigued by the pattern produced by their stems and the complementary reflections in the water. I also noticed that if I looked more closely I could see the outlines of some underwater specimens of the same plant and that a few odd oak tree leaves were floating here and there on the surface of the still water.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Trees and Brush, Levee

February 3, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Weak sunlight breaks through Central Valley tule fog to illuminate trees and brush growing on a levee near the Cosumnes River.

This morning started out with extremely dense Central Valley tule fog – at first so thick that I more or less gave up photographing. But eventually, as usually happens, the upper layers of the fog began to thin, and some light began to filter down through the fog. By late in the morning the fog was thinning enough that very pale sunlight began to show through and softly light the dense vegetation on this levee along the edges of the Cosumnes River. This is an incredibly rich environment in the winter, especially with all of the water from winter rains and the nearby river, and the vegetation grows very thick here.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Row of Pelicans in Flight

February 2, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Seven pelicans fly wing-to-wing above the Pacific coastline of California.

I have been meaning to post this photograph for some time, but only now found the space to insert it into the photo stream. I made it back in May of 2010 and rediscovered it during my end-of-year review of all of my thousands of raw files from 2010.

The photograph was shot from the top of a coastal bluff on a section of highway (the “coast highway”) north of Santa Cruz, where the road climbs rather high above steep coastal cliffs. There is a spot that I know of where the birds often skim right along the top of the cliff, riding the updrafts from the ocean winds that blow onshore here. In just the right conditions, these birds come past frequently, and they are often very close to my shooting position.

Most often you’ll see them in small groups or clusters, but this group was special. They were flying wing-to-wing as they approached my position and managed to stay that way as they angled past me.

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