Tag Archives: wildfire

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

Sunset, Wildfire Haze

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Sunset, Wildfire Haze
Trees in Yosemite wilderness sunset light made colorful by wildfire smoke.

Sunset, Wildfire Haze. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees in Yosemite wilderness sunset light made colorful by wildfire smoke.

This is one more in the series of photographs I made during a few moments of intensely colorful light one late-season evening in the Yosemite backcountry. The physical location (high, with a clear line of sight to the western horizon) and the presence of wildfire smoke created intensely colorful light just as the sun set. It was one of those exhilarating photographic experiences when something quite unusual happens, but it is so transitory that one must act quickly and photograph almost without conscious thought. I was working quickly, relying on instinct, and trying to respond intuitively to the landscape and the changing light. (Having a lot of prior landscape photography under one’s belt helps a lot in situations like this!0

I suspect that the light in the photograph looks almost unreal. It seemed that way to me at the time, too! In this photograph the hazy quality of the atmosphere is more apparent — take a look between the darker trees and toward the more distant granite slope, where details are muted by this glowing haze.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Rocky Ridge, Sunset

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Trees, Rocky Ridge, Sunset
Wildfire smoke turns the sunset deep red on a rock and tree covered Yosemite wilderness ridge.

Trees, Rocky Ridge, Sunset. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Wildfire smoke turns the sunset deep red on a rock and tree covered Yosemite wilderness ridge.

Every so often the sky coughs up some light that is almost unbelievable, and I feel obligated to say that, yes, this really did happen… and perhaps offer an explanation. In this case the story is a combination of location Every so often the sky coughs up some unbelievable light, and I feel obligated to say that, yes, this really did happen… and perhaps offer an explanation. In this case the story is a combination of location and conditions. This granite dome-like ridge is located in the Yosemite backcountry overlooking a large canyon and with an unobstructed view to the western horizon. That distant horizon is across the Great Central Valley and marked by the Coast Range. Because the ridge is high the line to the sun right at sunset goes though a lot of atmosphere, which tends to soften and warm the light. On top of that, this was the season of widespread wildfire smoke, and that added to the bloody red color of the light on this ridge.

I had been out on an evening walk away from camp that took me up to a high point on the ridge behind this camera position. I made photographs up there and then started to walk along the backbone of the ridge that would take me back to camp. As I came around to this section that is open to the west, the color of the light was just about as intense as it gets. I dropped my camera bag, popped up my tripod, and made a few exposures during the last moments before the sun dropped below the horizon.

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: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Oregon Sky

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Oregon Sky
A still lake, a band of forest shoreline, and sky with wildfire smoke in the Cascade Lakes region of Oregon.

Oregon Sky. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A still lake, a band of forest shoreline, and sky with wildfire smoke in the Cascade Lakes region of Oregon.

This, I suppose, is sort of a vacation photograph — a subject “snapped” with a handheld camera while on a hike. “Not a normal vacation snap!,” you say? Well, OK. To be honest, I’m not a very reliable family vacation photographer. I have to remind myself to make those “normal” (and important!) straightforward photographs of people and activities. And, somewhat sad to say, I came back with none of those at all from my recent family camping trip in the Cascade Lakes region of Oregon.

But I did bring this back. One morning, before joining the rest of the gang for morning camp festivities, I went for a short hike along the shoreline of Lava Lake. It was a very quiet and slow morning. I don’t think I met more than a couple of other hikes and the biggest action was the passing of a couple of kayakers. The lake was still since the day’s winds and not started yet, and there was a wildfire smoke haze in the sky. In this part of Oregon, at least on this day when the smoke obscured more distant features, the open sky dominated the landscape.

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: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Coastal Lagoon, Burned Hills

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Coastal Lagoon, Burned Hills
A coastal lagoon between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, backed by distant burned hills.

Coastal Lagoon, Burned Hills. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A coastal lagoon between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, backed by distant burned hills.

This is a photograph that tells a story, one that may not be immediately apparent. But once you see it you may connect it to a larger story affecting California and the west right now, a story that is beginning to affect the entire planet it concerning ways. It is a photograph of a small lagoon along the Pacific Coast Highway just north of Santa Cruz, California. This is a place I have visited for years — decades, actually — and it is usually a lovely, bucolic landscape. I made the photograph in spring, and even during this very dry year the vegetation is thick and lush and the lagoon remains wet, supporting plant and animal life.

But take a closer look at the ridge in the distance. It belongs to what we loosely refer to as the “Santa Cruz Mountains,” the range lying between the South San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The top of the ridge is covered with… the black remnants of a forest that was destroyed in last year’s tremendous lightning-causes wildfires. In places near this location the fire burned almost all the way to the ocean. Fires have always been part of the California environment, but what has happened in the past few years is unsustainable. Due to drought and high temperatures linked to human caused global climate change, the state is incredibly dry and any fire, even the sort that would have been quickly extinguished in the past, can take off and quickly get out of control.

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 | 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.