Tag Archives: wildfire

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

Wildfire, Forest, and Ridge

November 9, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning wildfire smoke settles among forest trees below a burned ridge

Yes, another photograph of wildfire smoke, made on a late October morning along the Glacier Point road, where a fire had been smoldering for weeks just to the east and south of the road.I arrived well after dawn, but still at a reasonably early hour when the winds had not yet stirred the fog that had settled into valleys and among the forest trees. The fog stretched a good distance across the low valley east of my vantage point, and the combination of the foreground trees and the thinner trees running up the ridge caught my attention.

This photographic subject is a bit magical. At this early hour, when the smoke is backlit, everything seems to glow. Although the still air permitted the smoke to pool in low places and among the trees overnight, by this time of the morning the air begins to move and the smoke drifts among the forest trees. And this ephemeral landscape of smoke is in constant motion, changing as a bit of wind passes through, as the angle of the sun changes throughout the day, and as it drifts among these trees. I made a small number of exposures of this precise composition, and when I look at them know I can see that each differs from the others in important ways.

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

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

Morning Wildfire Smoke

November 4, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning wildfire smoke settles into a Sierra Nevada valley

I arrived at this point in the early morning while the sun was still very low in the sky and before the day’s breezes had begun to pick up. A wildfire had burned across this section of the Yosemite high country starting quite a few weeks ago, and by now it had transformed from a raging inferno that was rapidly chewing up the landscape into a slow-burning fire that continued to do the beneficial work of eliminating years of build-up of undergrowth. The latter, while smoky and disruptive, is a natural part of the normal forest ecology.

From this overlook I could take in the few back toward the valley where the fire was burning. At this early hour the smoke was mostly settled in from the previous night, layered in among the trees at the bottom of valleys. Like a river only much slower and less tangible, the smoke drifted down the bottom of the valley and followed the natural contours of the land. As I photographed and the sun rose higher, the air began to move a bit more. The smoke started to diffuse and rise, and before long it had come up to my position and it was time to go.

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

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

Morning Light On Wildfire Smoke

November 2, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light on wildfire smoke drifting among forest trees

For a day that I began with only a vague plan (photograph Glacier Point at dawn) that I managed to miss (distracted by dogwood trees), I ended up with quite a photographic haul before it was over. I have a very early morning photograph of a lovely forest scene with autumn colors, a series of photographs of beautiful and mysterious drifting smoke along Glacier Point Road, several photographs of the autumn scene in Yosemite Valley, and finally a small set of photographs of sunset light on snow-dusted granite along Tioga Pass Road. All told, it turned out to be a rather remarkable day!

The least expected subject also turned out to be the one that produced the largest number of photographs — the early morning wildfire smoke that had settled down in valleys and among the trees overnight. If I had arrived at Glacier Point when I originally planned I might have missed this in darkness. Yet again, I got lucky, and after a delay brought about by my inability to resist stopping to photograph another forest scene I arrived here at just the right moment. The air was still and the smoke was barely moving among the trees in this large valley below my location. I had a good long time to stand and take it in and then work the scene carefully, with photographs ranging from those including the full scene to others, like this one, that zeroed in on small elements of it. Several things attracted me about this particular scene: the beams of lighting the smoke drifting through the trees at the bottom of the frame, the zigzag pattern produced by forest and smoke, the tall and thin trees on the far ridge, and the bits of Yosemite granite domes barely visible in the distance through the smoke.

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

Wildfire, Forest, Early Morning

November 1, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning smoke from a wildfire drifts through a Yosemite National Park forest

This is the second in what will almost certainly be a series of photographs I made of this wildfire in late October. The fire — the Empire Fire — started in the region south of Yosemite Valley, covering terrain ranging from the Bridal Veil Creek area to the broad valley east of Glacier Point Road, and in many places burning right along that driving route. At one point the road had been closed, but by the time of my visit it had reopened. The fire was not longer spreading rapidly, but was instead in that slow-burning phase that may actually be beneficial to Sierra forests.

I ended up here almost by accident. I originally planned to be at Glacier Point by dawn, but other photographic subjects distracted and ultimately delayed me. By the time I arrived here the sun had cleared the mountains of the Sierra crest and the light was reaching down into the valley. But the air was still on this morning and the smoke settled and drifted slowly among the trees and mountains. I found a position well above the smoke and spent almost an hour looking for the beauty in this scene, one that might initially conjure up thoughts of destruction, but which eventually does have a kind of stark beauty. As the morning continued, the wind began to gradually pick up, the smoke rose to and above my position (making breathing difficult) and eventually the smoke simply began to uniformly obscure the landscape — and I moved on.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: wildfire

Wildfire, Forest, and Ridge

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Morning Wildfire Smoke

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Wildfire, Forest, Early Morning

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

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