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

Shoreline Forest With Snags

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Shoreline Forest With Snags
Several skeletal dead trees stand among the trees of a living forest, Yosemite National Park

Shoreline Forest With Snags. Yosemite National Park, California. July 27, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Several skeletal dead trees stand among the trees of a living forest, Yosemite National Park

This is another of my early morning photographs in the greater Tioga Pass & Tuolumne Meadows area. When photographing here I may head out on foot, especially if I’m camped in the Tuolumne Meadows campground. On the other hand, many interesting subjects are too far to walk and/or sometimes the campground is full and I end up camping outside the park. the latter was the case on this trip — I was camped a couple of miles east of the park. On this morning I got up before dawn and headed over Tioga Pass and down toward Tuolumne Meadows.

I did not have a specific plan in mind, and I was operating in an essentially opportunistic mode, looking for whatever subjects might turn up. I arrived at this lake before the first light struck the trees, and the soft early light tended to illuminate the shadows, opening up details that are very hard to see in typical daytime light. I had few minutes to work before the sun arrived and lit up the trees, so I used a long lens and looked for sections of the forest that provided interesting textures and forms. Here the ranks of trees build up the slope, and a few dead snags are more visible against the relatively uniform backdrop of living trees.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow, Forest, and Dome

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Meadow, Forest, and Dome
Morning light on Lembert Dome and the forest and grasses of Tuolumne Meadow

Meadow, Forest, and Dome. Yosemite National Park, California. August 15, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on Lembert Dome and the forest and grasses of Tuolumne Meadow

The prior day was one of thick wildfire smoke, coming mainly from a fire on the far side of the park near Wawona, but also with contributions from various others fires including some small, managed lightening fires. The effect was not good — the smoke here was as thick as I’ve ever seen it before, including during a late summer visit to Cathedral Lakes a few years back during the height of the drought, when at times it seemed like the entire Sierra was on fire. In any case, the evening before I made this photograph it was still very smokey, and I wondered what the next morning would bring.

As usual, I woke up before sunrise. I was tempted to stay in the warm sleeping bag a while longer, but I summoned the focus to look outside. Noting that I could see blue sky, I got up fairly quickly and left the tent, heading down to the meadow. There was still just a bit of residual smoke hanging around, and there was also a shallow layer of light ground fog. All of this produces some very interesting atmosphere and light as I wandered the meadow, walking between grassy areas and encroaching bits of forest. I paused here, positions myself so that the large trees at the right would block the direct sun, and I made a few photographs including all of the elements of this landscape except the river that passed by out of sight.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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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 Meets Meadow, Morning

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Forest Meets Meadow, Morning
Forest trees at the edge of Tuolumne Meadow, morning

Forest Meets Meadow, Morning. Yosemite National Park, California. August 15, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Forest trees at the edge of Tuolumne Meadow, morning

We made a very brief mid-August visit to Tuolumne Meadows recently, mainly as a sort of shake-down cruise to test equipment for another upcoming trip — but also, of course, “because Tuolumne!” The equipment testing went just fine, though other aspects of the trip were less perfect. Mostly, there was the wildfire smoke, which was about as thick as I’ve ever experienced up there on our first day. It was so thick that we actually got in the car and headed over the crest and out of the park to try to escape it, not really getting out of the pall until we went all the way to Mammoth Lakes! It was still very smokey when we returned to camp in Tuolumne and when we went to bed that night.

I woke up early the next day and peeked outside. I didn’t see more than a slight bit of leftover smoke, so I got up fairly quickly and wandered down to the meadow to see what I could see, arriving there with my equipment before the first light came over the Sierra crest. As is so often the case there, despite being one of many hundreds of people camping at Tuolumne, I was alone for a full hour just a few hundred feet from the campground as I wandered and photographed in the meadow. This photograph shows the familiar boundary between forest and meadow. In the foreground and to the left the land is lower in areas that flood during the spring runoff and are still marshy even now. To the right are trees, growing on the slightly higher rocky terrain that dries out sooner and which provides a better footing for these trees.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Two Trees, Golden Hour

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Two Trees, Golden Hour
Two lake-side trees in evening light along the Sierra Nevada crest near the Yosemite boundary

Two Trees, Golden Hour. Hoover Wilderness Area, California. August 6, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two lake-side trees in evening light along the Sierra Nevada crest near the Yosemite boundary

After a day of challenging weather it was a relief to watch the skies clear above this High Sierra lake, leading to an absolutely lovely and benign evening. (The previous evening all of us had been trapped inside tents during a three-hour rain storm.) Our camp was set up, we had eaten dinner, it was quiet and calm, and it was one of those peaceful and quiet Sierra Nevada evenings.

After dinner, eaten on the rocky bench near the bottom of this photograph, I got my equipment and climbed a bit higher, to a point from which all of the lake and its surroundings were visible. To my right was the Sierra crest, and beyond the mountains and valleys of the Yosemite backcountry. Across the lake the trees of a low saddle were picking up the late evening light coming across the tops of those Yosemite ridges.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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