Tag Archives: valley

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Black Oaks, Drifting Smoke

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Black Oaks, Drifting Smoke
Seasonal fire smoke drifts through a grove of Yosemite Valley black oak trees in morning light.

Black Oaks, Drifting Smoke. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Seasonal fire smoke drifts through a grove of Yosemite Valley black oak trees in morning light.

This photograph comes from my early-November one-day marathon up-and-back photography visit to Yosemite Valley, timed to photograph the fall colors. Since I start these trips hours before sunrise, I can never be sure of what conditions I’ll find in the Valley. I knew it would be clear weather with relatively warm temperatures… but I did realize until I arrived and saw the smoke that there would be management fires in the Valley. These fires are a good thing — they reduce the dead vegetation that can lead to extremely destructive fires — but they can make photograph difficult. As I arrived in the Valley it was obvious that I’d be dealing with smoke!

At this time of year the colors of backlit black oaks trees can glow, so I headed to a place where I know that there are some good specimens and excellent opportunities for that backlight. Arriving there, I discovered that the fire was right next to and almost surrounding the location. This could have been a very bad thing, but I soon realized that the light passing through the smoke was glowing beautifully and producing light beams. I found a spot with this composition and waited for the light to move across this spot.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest Path, Autumn

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Forest Path, Autumn
A Yosemite Valley trail winds among big trees and dense autumn foliage.

Forest Path, Autumn. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A Yosemite Valley trail winds among big trees and dense autumn foliage.

My feelings about Yosemite Valley, the location of this photograph, are… complicated. The place is in my bones. I first visited decades ago when I was just a child — yes, I watched the original firefall. I’ve gone scores of times since then, and I have seen the place in all seasons and all kinds of conditions. There’s no question that it is an utterly remarkable, almost unbelievable landscape. On the other hand, the human impact can be troubling. There are traffic jams, the increasingly necessary rules and regulations are jarring, it can be smoky and smoggy. Honestly, I avoid the place as much as possible udring the summer months. And yet…

… it IS “in my bones.” And I keep going back. Autumn may be my favorite season, and on the right day and in the right places it is possible to escape the impediments to the enjoyment of the Valley’s beauty — perhaps during a quiet moment along a mostly-deserted trail that passes big trees, with the space between them filled by delicate branches of maples and dogwoods transitioning to autumn colors.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Autumn Light and Color

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Autumn Light and Color
Light through seasonal haze illuminates autumn trees in Yosemite Valley.

Autumn Light and Color. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Light through seasonal haze illuminates autumn trees in Yosemite Valley.

I have a few seasonal rituals, things I do and places I go every year. Visiting Yosemite Valley during its fall color season is high on the list. The Valley has color, but it comes later than the Eastern Sierra aspen transition. So I made one of my epic one-day up-and-back visits earlier this week. The plan: up hours before dawn, a four-hour drive to arrive just after sunrise, a few hours of morning photography, midday naps, more late-day photography… and then the four-hour drive back home again..

It is exhausting, but it is also exhilarating to see the peak color there once again, to renew my acquaintance with familiar subjects, and to investigate a few new ones. I know this specific location quite well — and if you visit the Valley much you probably know it, too. A gap in the Valley’s cliffs to the south-southwest allows beams of light to reach the valley floor and progress across the meadow and trees. I made a plan to be there for this light, and I made this photograph just as the light passed across this group of black oaks.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Travel

Mosque, Valbone River Valley, Albania

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Mosque, Valbone River Valley, Albania
A mosque in sunlight under cloudy skies in the Valbone River Valley, Albania.

Mosque, Valbone River Valley, Albania. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A mosque in sunlight under cloudy skies in the Valbone River Valley, Albania.

We stayed in Kosovo (with the family of a member of our “European family”) for a few days this summer during our extended travels in Southern Europe. After visiting the more typical destinations for American tourists, this was more of a cultural “stretch” for us, and a very rewarding one it was. There is much to say about the experience that I will share elsewhere at some point, but on this day we went into the nearby mountains of Albania, driving to a point where the road ended along the Valbone River — a spectacular area that easily rivals my Sierra Nevada landscapes.

Along the way to this destination I saw this rural mosque sitting in this beautiful valley as we passed by, and I made a mental note to try to stop and photograph it on the way back down later in the afternoon. I managed to persuade the rest of our party to stop and give me some time to explore and photograph here, and I was not disappointed.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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