Tag Archives: usa

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

Aspens and Sage

October 12, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Aspens grow against sage covered hills near Conway Summit in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California.

If you want colorful aspen photographs, there are several things that may help. First, you need to be where the aspens are when they turn colors! (Obvious, huh?) In the eastern Sierra Nevada, this means roughly the first two weeks of October in a typical year, though you can often find some color a week or so either side of that period – but be aware that every aspen season is different, so there are no guarantees. And where are they? They can be found all up and down the east side of the Sierra. At their peak, you can find them by simply driving along highway 395 along the eastern slope of the range and looking west. For somewhat more specific information, take a look at this post of mine. Second, you’ll need to look around a bit for great trees. Photographs of aspen color can often make it seem like there is astonishing color everywhere – but the reality is often a bit more complicated. Trees will often be in various stages of transition, and the timing varies according to such things as elevation and local soil moisture. On top of that, not just any aspen trees will do – so you can count on doing a bit of searching to find that perfect tree or grove or colorful slope. Third, it helps a lot to consider the light. Often grove of trees that may look fairly drab when front lit can turn into an amazingly colorful wonder when the light comes toward you from behind the trees.

That is precisely what is happening in this photograph, taken at one of the well-known aspen color spots near Conway Summit just north of Lee Vining. On the right few days each fall, there are huge swaths of wonderful aspen color on the eastern slopes of the Sierra here. I often shoot here in the late afternoon, just before the sun drops behind the crest. This may mean that I’m shooting almost directly into the sun, but it also means that the leaves are brilliantly lit by light that comes from behind and passes through the leaves. This photograph captures a type of grove that always intrigues me, namely one that sits apart from the iconic alpine scenery and instead is in rangeland and sage brush country.

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

Glacial Erratics, Near Olmsted Point

October 11, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Glacial erratic boulders rest on a tree-topped granite slab at sunset near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park

Among the various landscapes of the high Sierra, this sort of scene most clearly says “Yosemite” to me: the glaciated granite slabs, mostly solid but broken but exfoliating and broken by cracks; the scattered glacial erratic boulders left behind by retreating ice; and the sparse trees somehow managing to not only survive but seemingly prosper while growing on almost solid rock. Although you don’t see precisely these things in the better known Valley, once you get up into the high country of the park you’ll see these features almost everywhere, and especially in the zone from, say, 8000′ of elevation or so and on up.

This photograph was made close to Olmsted Point. While Olmsted is probably better known for its “backside” view of Half Dome and its huge views up toward Tenaya Lake and on to the Sierra crest at Mount Conness, the immediate surroundings are full of this typical Sierra terrain that I described above. Most of the terrain above, below, and around the Point shows evidence of this glacial action, and by taking a few steps away from the parking lot in almost any direction (but do avoid cliffs!) you can find enough examples of this landscape to keep yourself occupied for a long time.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Events, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Hangar One, Control Tower, Water Tank

October 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An abandoned control tower and a checkerboard-painted water tank stand near the historic Hangar One, stripped of its outer skin, at the NASA/Ames Research Center Moffett Airfield

This is almost certainly the final photograph from my September 21, 2012 visit to the NASA Ames Moffett Field for the flyover of space shuttle Endeavour on its flight to its new home in Los Angeles. As I have written earlier, since I (and thousands of others) arrived here hours before the main event, there was plenty of time to see things and make photographs. I found a position at the edge of the runway with the huge historic Hangar One located right behind me. Hangar One was originally built to support and house lighter-than-air craft, and it has long been a visual icon on the San Francisco Peninsula.

After the Navy gave the base over to NASA it was discovered that the hangar was polluting the nearby waters of San Francisco Bay – as I understand it, largely due to the use of lead paint on this gigantic structure. (It is so large that 6 football fields could fit inside.) This led to a decision to remove the outer steel skin of the structure, leaving only the skeletal steel structure beneath. While there is talk of replacing the outer covering, for now the hangar remains in this incomplete state. I was intrigued by the huge open structure and its juxtaposition with the very old and weathered control tower in front and the colorful water tank behind.

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

Steelhead Lake, Shoreline

October 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The curving shoreline of Steelhead Lake, photographed in early evening light.

This is a fairly simple shot, and I think it represents a sort of scene that many Sierra Nevada back-country travelers know well. Steelhead Lake sits high on a bench up in the McGee Creek drainage, with a very tall ridge running to the east (and blocking early morning light) and a deep canyon to the west and northwest, with views toward the Sierra crest beyond. Unusual for an east-side location, there is much better light in the evening than in the morning. (More typically, east-side high country areas are open to the east and the morning light, and the evening light is blocked by the Sierra crest.) Most of the shoreline of the lake is forested, with the exception of a section at the upper end that is covered by the base of a talus field spilling down from the higher ridges.

We camped on what almost amounted to a peninsula, at least when viewed from the direction from which the trail arrives at the lake. Our spot on the peninsula was high enough to command a view of most of the moderate sized lake, and especially back across this little cover below our position. Late in the day as the setting sun approached the crest of the Sierra out of the frame to the left, low angle light slanted across the valley below and onto the low ridge along the edge of the lake, illuminating the atmospheric haze and back-lighting the trees along the shoreline.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: usa

Aspens and Sage

Glacial Erratics, Near Olmsted Point

Hangar One, Control Tower, Water Tank

Steelhead Lake, Shoreline

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