Tag Archives: wilderness

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Tree and Rock Face

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Tree and Rock Face
A tree next to an eroded and fractured rock face, John Muir Wilderness

Tree and Rock Face. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tree next to an eroded and fractured rock face, John Muir Wilderness.

Here I am back, once again, to that trip into the John Muir Wilderness from which so many recent posts have come. Believe it or not, there still may be a few to come! With a full week to photograph there, I had ample opportunities to explore all sides of this area.

Above our camp the landscape opened up, becoming more rugged and alpine. This is a land of exposed rocks, glacially smoothed and ground down, with rocks and slabs interspersed with meadows. As I followed a creek up into this drainage, often skirting along the edge of wet, meadowy areas, I saw some interesting rock patterns a bit higher up at the base of a nearby ridge, so I climbed up to photograph the rocks and the small trees and wildflowers growing there.

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

Trees, Rocky Meadow

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Trees, Rocky Meadow
Trees march up the slopes of a rocky subalpine meadow, John Muir Wilderness

Trees, Rocky Meadow. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees march up the slopes of a rocky subalpine meadow, John Muir Wilderness.

Yes, I am still mining the files from this 2017 trip into the John Muir Wilderness. We were lucky to stay in an absolutely lovely area, and to find that this area was also within day-hiking distance of other wonderful locations, some of which were literally minutes away from our base camp. On top of that, we hit the weather jackpot. After a very wet and extended winter season, the lingering snows had kept the Sierra wet later than usual, and despite arriving here in the last week of August and sticking around until the very beginning of September, we had green meadows and wildflowers.

Perhaps a fifteen minute walk above our camp, beautiful subalpine meadows began. This is the land of small trees separated by expenses of seasonal green, dotted with boulders, swampy in places, and often open to expansive views of distant peaks. In short, it is pretty much my favorite place to be in the Sierra Nevada.

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

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Meadow, Forest, and Mountains

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Meadow, Forest, and Mountains
Clouds in the sky above meadow, forest, and mountains, John Muir Wilderness

Meadow, Forest, and Mountains. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clouds in the sky above meadow, forest, and mountains, John Muir Wilderness.

This is another photograph that emerged from the raw file archives as I reviewed photographs from a weeklong backcountry photography expedition a couple of years ago — that year’s version of the annual trips I make with a group of like-minded photographers. As per the usual plan, we made our way to a beautiful backcountry location, set up a base camp, and went to work spending the next week photographing the area like mad.

A short walk above our camp the country opened up into the terrain that is among my favorite in the Sierra — forests of smaller trees, broken up by rock-dotted meadows, and expansive high-elevation views to surrounding ridges and peaks. I made this photograph on a morning visit to this spot, starting to photograph before dawn and continuing into the early morning after sunrise. For the most part, the sky was typical “perfect Sierra blue,” but I was fortunate when a few clouds began to form about the distant ridge.

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 | Facebook | Email

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

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Light, Clearing Storm

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Evening LIght, Clearing Storm
Summer storm clouds clear in the evening over the John Muir Wilderness

Evening Light, Clearing Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

One of the advantages of setting into one backcountrylocation for an extended stay is that I often get to experience the location in a variety of circumstances and conditions. I get to shoot in morning, midday, and evening light; in “perfect” blue-sky sunshine and thunderstorm conditions. And because the seasonal changes happen so rapidly in the high country, with its shortened growing season, I can watch wildflowers bloom and meadows transition from green to golden.

Along with fellow photographers, I spent a week in this spot two summers ago. On most days the sky was that Sierra Nevada “perfect blue…” that may not thrill photographers who are looking for something more interesting. But over the course of the stay those conditions changed. There was a morning with a deck of broken clouds, an night of thunderstorms, and this evening when clouds caught the light and high country pastels replaced the often stark

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 | Facebook | Email

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

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