Tag Archives: white

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

Cloud Shrouded Cliffs and Snow, Yosemite Valley

May 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late season clouds shroud snow-covered cliffs high above Yosemite Valley, California.

Among my very favorite conditions in Yosemite Valley are those of winter or late-spring days when there is snow along the cliffs high above the Valley and clouds float along the cliff tops alternately revealing and hiding trees, cliffs, and granite spires. The story behind this photograph is, as is often the case, one of being distracted from the obvious thing by some other small thing that I could have overlooked if I hadn’t looked in the right direction at the right moment.

I was in the Yosemite Valley area for a day, primarily to shoot wildflowers in Merced Canyon below the park. Between my morning and evening shooting along the Merced, I headed up into the Valley to see what I could find. Frankly, although it is always beautiful to be in the Valley, I wasn’t seeing much of anything that inspired me to make photographs. I enjoyed my time there, but eventually decided to go to a slightly different area to see what I could find. On my way back to the Valley from that other place, I passed through Wawona Tunnel, had some extra time, and decided to at least pull out briefly at tunnel view and have a look around. The scene is always tremendous, with the astonishing Valley and all of its impossible features spread before you – but it isn’t always worth trying to turn this into a photograph. I’m spoiled enough that I don’t always even take the camera out when I stop there, and this was one of those days. I left my gear in the car and just walked to the overlook to, well, look for a minute before driving on. I have a habit of looking all around when I’m in such a place since sometimes a subject can be found that is not the primary iconic thing. So I looked around… and high above and way off to the side I saw the clouds gathering around a few of the granite spires, with an occasional beam of light shining through. Ignoring the Valley itself, I now quickly returned to my car, put a long lens on the camera, put the camera on the tripod… and from the back of my car and in the parking lot (sigh… ;-) I made a series of photographs of these fog-shrouded snowy cliffs.

I understand that this weekend a number of photographers, including quite a few that I know, will assemble in the Valley for a “photo walk.” I won’t be there, since I have another thing that I have to attend to elsewhere. So consider this photograph to be my “best wishes for a great shoot.” Oh, and it is also a personal photographic celebration of the fact that Tioga Pass will open on Monday, making the high country my home away from home for many days over the next few months.

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: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

White Rim Canyons

April 27, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Rugged canyon and plateau landscape of the White Rim area, photographed from Grand View, Canyonlands National Park.

I made this photograph on a day when we visited the “sky island” section of Canyonlands National Park, a high plateau fronted on many sides by steep cliffs and giant drop-offs. Since this was my first time in Canyonlands, I had a lot of reconnaissance to do before my planned evening shoot. We drove around sections of this part of the park, pausing at many overlooks to enjoy the view and consider the potential evening views. At one point we stopped at an overlook near the southern end of this section of the park to look and photograph.

The area in the photograph is the “white rim” area, where whitish colored rocks form a sort of tough terrace into which creeks have begun to carve canyons. The scale of the formations is tremendous, and the fact that two mighty rivers, the Colorado and the Green meet not too far from this point. This photograph was made well before the “ideal” golden hour time, but the low and slanting side-light and the rugged terrain of canyons and buttes seemed to compensate for that.

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

Redbud Flowers, Merced Canyon

April 23, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Spring blooms completely cover the branches of a redbud tree, Merced Canyon, California.

One of the most striking signs of spring in some portions of California is the intensely colorful blooming of the redbud plants. (Variously described as “trees” or “bushes.”) At the right time in April, the blooms are found in abundance along the bottom of the Merced River Canyon below Yosemite National Park. This year I had time for a quick one-day visit to the area – photographing the redbud plants was one of my two major goals that day, and I certainly had plenty of opportunities.

A few weeks from now and throughout the rest of the year, the redbud is not an especially remarkable plant among the other plants that grow in these areas. However, when covered almost completely by intense purple flowers, the plant stands out against the mostly green and brown background of other plants. This tree seemed to have fully blossomed, and the earliest spring leaves were just beginning to appear among the flowers. I shot this with a long lens to provide some background blur, and I worked in a shaded are of the canyon before the direct sun arrived, since I prefer to photograph this plant in softer light.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Utah

Cliff, Green River Overlook

April 20, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The canyon of the Green River beyond a band of sandstone cliffs, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

I was in this spot primarily to photograph the late afternoon and evening light on the canyons, cliffs, plateaus, and mesas around the Green River. (I’ve recently posted a couple of other photographs of that subject.) One of the many striking aspects of the geology in this park is the sudden cliffs that drop from the edges of large flat areas. The upper portion of Canyonlands park, called the “Island in the Sky” is such a place. It is a large and relatively flat plateau, and if you disregard the more distant surroundings it seems like a prairie or perhaps a high desert grassland. But when you venture to its edges you most often find, on at least three of its sides, that there is a sudden drop off where the river systems below have eroded the surrounding terrain up to the edges of giant sandstone strata. I’m not an expert on the area, but one thing I read pointed out, if I recall correctly, that there is an upper plateau (the island in the sky), a 1000 foot drop, another plateau marked by the White Rim, and then another sudden drop into the depths of the surrounding river canyons.

So this bit of vertical sandstone is the upper portion of part of that first 1000-foot drop-off, in this case with the White Rim plateau and then some additional canyons beyond. Shooting late in the day, I was pointing the camera almost straight into the light – something that I often like to do. This allowed me to capture the faint shadow in the atmospheric haze formed as the light passed between two buttes at the upper edge of the frame. It also created a bit of a challenge in retaining detail in the fully shaded dark-colored cliff face! I was able to capture this in a single exposure that tested the dynamic range of my camera, and then bring back a bit of the cliff detail in post. Now, if I had just had someone stand, or better yet, dance on that cliff edge… Any volunteers for my next visit? ;-)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: white

White Rim Canyons

Redbud Flowers, Merced Canyon

Cliff, Green River Overlook

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