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

Edge of the Shadow, Ten Lakes Basin

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Edge of the Shadow, Ten Lakes Basin

Edge of the Shadow, Ten Lakes Basin. Yosemite National Park, California. August 25, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The shadow from tall cliffs to the west of Ten Lakes Basin moves across a small meadow near the base of the cliffs, Yosemite National Park, California.

Although I have backpacked in the Sierra and in Yosemite for many decades and have visited many parts of the back-country so often that I know individual rocks and trees (!), I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I had not been into the Ten Lakes Basin until my trip in late August. I’ve looked up at the valley through which the trail to the Basin climbs as I’ve driven past on Tioga Pass Road but I’ve always thought of this location as not high enough for me since I prefer the highest sub-alpine terrain.

This little clearing in the forest is located between what some call “lake three and lake four,” the two lakes up the creek from the largest lake in the center of the Basin, which is the one where most people seem to camp. (I camped at “lake three” and had it entirely to myself for two nights.) Because the ridge to the west of the Basin is so high and steep and close to these lakes, the shadow from the ridge begins to block the light quite early in the day.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Michael Frye on fall photography in Yosemite and the Sierra

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Michael Frye has just posted a very useful guide to fall photography in Yosemite and the Sierra at his blog. Frye has a great deal of experience here, especially with The Valley itself – you may know him as the author of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

I was interested to read that he really loves November photography in The Valley – as it is also at the top of my list of great times for photography there. Right at the beginning of the month I love to shoot the fall colors – wonderful big leaf maples, red leaves of dogwood trees, and the brown to golden colors of the oaks and the dry meadows. I find the weather during this month to be some of the most conducive to photography… basically you can run into almost anything: the first real snows of the season, arriving and clearing storms ringing the Valley walls with clouds, beautiful golden light of autumn, waterfalls that may come back to life after autumn rain, and much more.

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

Pine Trees, Edge of the Forest

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Pine Trees, Edge of the Forest

Pine Trees, Edge of the Forest. Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park, California. July 11, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lodgepole pines stand at the edge of the forest next to Tioga Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California.

I have photographed these trees before. They are found at the edge of the meadow along the left side of the road after you leave the forest near the Mono Trail parking lot and enter the meadow at Tioga Pass and approach the entrance station. Several things intrigue me about the trees in this area: they mark the edge of dense forest into which it is difficult to see, few people stop to look at them, they border the meadows, and they sometimes are illuminated late in the day by light reflecting from Mount Dana’s lower slopes to the east.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake

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Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake

Sunset, Mount Conness and Lower Young Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. July 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mount Conness and the shoreline meadow of Lower Young Lake at sunset.

The thin smoke from a wildfire some miles away along the Tuolumne River added some color to the sunset light on the distant ridge whose highest point is Mt. Conness, the tallest peak in along the Yosemite Park border north and west of Tioga Pass. I’ve shot from this spot along the upper shoreline of Lower Young Lake before, in fact the rock along the shoreline was the center point of another photograph I made one misty autumn evening. But this was a different evening; not only because of the somewhat unusual color of the light but also because the small inlet stream was still flowing through the shoreline meadows that still held wildflowers.

On my way back to my tent as darkness fell, I had one of those wonderful serendipitous experiences that happens with surprising frequency in the Sierra. Walking back I happened to take a different route further from the shoreline since that area was quite marshy. As I wandered through a more forested section that I had not been in for a couple years I passed very close to someone’s campsite, and I soon saw two people ahead sitting on a large boulder. I stopped to say “hi” and the older of the two asked, “Are you a photographer?” I offered one of my all-too-frequent wise guy responses, something along the lines of “No, I just like to carry this stuff around so that I look like one.” He looked a bit perplexed, at which point the younger of the two spoke up and said, “Well, he is.”

Turns out that he was photographer Leonard Sussman, and we ended up talking for a good amount of time as the light continued to fade. Leonard is a really interesting fellow, and I was surprised to find out that a “New York photographer” actually came more or less from my stomping grounds in northern California.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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