Tag Archives: yosemite

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

Trees and Peninsula, Morning Light

October 1, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light shines on trees growing on a rocky lakeshore peninsula

On many mornings during our photography expedition into the northern Yosemite backcountry, various of us found ourselves photographing this lovely little rock peninsula, with its well-shaped trees. In fact, at times I found myself looking to photograph here… only to find that one of my friends was on the rocks and photographing these elements close up — and who could blame them. In fact, of the three exposures of the island I made within a few minutes on this morning before heading off around the lake, I think that there are other photographers in two of them! Fortunately, this one seemed to have the right combination of light and form.

The peninsula and its trees are only part of the story here. There are reflections, of course, though I composed the image to minimize them to some extent. And there is the beautiful backlight fringing the needs of the trees, an element that I find hard to resist. I’m also interested in the more distant and higher granite slopes in the far background, on which sparse and thinning trees ascend toward an unseen ridge. The same light that backlights the near trees, also backlights the trees on the granite slopes, and it also lights the atmospheric haze enough to soften the features of this mountain.

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

Subalpine Lake, Forest, and Ridges

September 30, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on a forested subalpine lake backed by alpine peaks and ridges, Yosemite National Park

When photographing or even when just looking at the world as a photographer, there are certain things that consistently get my attention — and several of them appear in this straightforward Sierra scene. I’m a sucker for layers, and there we have quite a few: the foreground forest trees, the lake with its reflecting water, the forest rising up the slopes on the opposite shore toward a granite dome, and across a deep canyon that is not directly visible there are high, alpine peaks whose features are muted in the atmospheric haze. And, yes, that haze is another thing that I often look for when making photographs.

Like many photographers, I also have an eye for juxtapositions and relationships between shapes and angles and curves and lines. If I recall correctly, the first thing that drew my attention about this scene was not the obvious lake but was instead the relationship between the granite knob just beyond the lake and the shapes of the high ridge in the distance. In fact, I made a series of photographs of those two things at different times of day and from somewhat different locations. All of that aside, the photograph also portrays a more natural sort of light than the warm and saturated light that we often photograph closer to sunrise and sunset.

Commentary, Morning Musings, Photographers, Photographs: Photographers

Pick the Right Friends… (Morning Musings 9/29/14)

September 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

G Dan Mitchell Photographing in the Sierra Nevada

If you are ever in the wilderness and you want someone to take a photograph of you, you could hand your smartphone to the nearest person and hope for the best. However, I have a few suggestions (slightly tongue-in-cheek) that might improve the odds:

Arrange to be in the company of one of the best landscape photographers working today. (Yeah, that’s you, Charlie Cramer.)
Make a photograph of him at work and hope that this inspires him to photograph you doing the same thing.
Be sure to place yourself so that dramatic golden hour light hits you in partial profile.
Be sure to position yourself against an appropriate background.
Gaze attentively and thoughtfully into the distance. ;-)

Bonus hint: Be sure to level your tripod first, or your photographer friends may never let you live it down. ;-)

Here’s a photograph of Charlie at work, too

In all seriousness, when you are out shooting, do photograph your fellow photographers. Each of us needs photographs of ourselves, and a photograph by a friend (or of a friend) is a special thing.

Thanks, Charlie!

Morning Musings are somewhat irregular posts in which I write about whatever is on my mind at the moment.

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

Lake Shore, Autumn Bilberry

September 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A harbinger of Sierra Nevada autumn, red bilberry plants carpet the shoreline of a sub-alpine lake

This photograph evokes, for me, that special feeling of the end of summer in the high country, when the awareness of the changing seasons is heightened and there is an odd combination of relaxation as the pace of mountain life slows and a feeling that the time of year when access to such places is easy is rapidly coming to an end — and that in a matter of weeks places like this one will be snow-covered and largely inaccessible for another year. It is also a time, perhaps for these very reasons, when the recognition of the natural cycles of seasons and lives becomes more acute.

The red carpet on the close ground along the shoreline consists of small bilberry plants. This small plant is normally easy to overlook. It stands perhaps an inch tall, often in clusters in clear areas along lakes and among trees. During the summer it is, frankly, just another little green thing among many. But in September it transforms into something that you cannot help noticing, especially if you look across a patch into the sun — backlit bilberry suddenly becomes flaming red. Beyond the near shore, trees scattered along a rocky peninsula and small islands catch the last warm and soft light of an “almost-autumn” evening.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: yosemite

Trees and Peninsula, Morning Light

Subalpine Lake, Forest, and Ridges

Pick the Right Friends… (Morning Musings 9/29/14)

Lake Shore, Autumn Bilberry

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