Tag Archives: yosemite

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

Forest and Shoreline Boulders

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Forest and Shoreline Boulders
Trees growing on rocky terrain along the edge of a Yosemite wilderness lake.

Forest and Shoreline Boulders. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees growing on rocky terrain along the edge of a Yosemite wilderness lake.

While this scene is at a specific little lake in the Yosemite National Park wilderness, it might as well be just about anywhere in the Sierra, its features are so typical of the Range of Light, at least in this high elevation forest zone. Many of the lakes reside in glacially carved hollows, and as a result there are often rocky areas surrounding them. The most recent glaciers came recently enough that the soil is rather thin in many places, but everywhere meadows and forest live next to these lakes.

Because it appears that I am photographing across the lake toward this shoreline you might imagine a rather small lake. But there was a small peninsula that allowed me to get out into the lake and photograph the shoreline from a rather close distance. (There was a lot larger expanse of water behind me than in front of me!) In addition to the rocks and the reflections, this scene includes one of my favorites — backlit trees, here given a bit of separation from the background mountain by means of some late summer 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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Wilderness Lake, Late Season Light

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Wilderness Lake, Late Season Light
Hazy, late-season light at a Yosemite backcountry lake showing signs of autumn color.

Wilderness Lake, Late Season Light. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Hazy, late-season light at a Yosemite backcountry lake showing signs of autumn color.

On this first day of autumn I am queuing up this photograph to appear on my website a day later. (Some of you may see it on social media on the equinox.) The photograph provokes the question: When does fall actually start, anyway? It might seem like the objective answer would be obvious, but perhaps not as much as we would think. One definition — the most common one — says that fall, or autumn, beings on the date of the autumnal equinox when the sun is again directly overhead at the equator. However, I’m aware of at least two other ways of looking at this. One refers to so-called “meteorological fall,” which I understand to be the months of September, October, and November. (I’ve always felt that these were the months of autumn.) Another method, which also makes a lot of sense, starts and ends the seasons on so-called “cross quarter days,” the days midway between equinox and solstice.

This photograph falls into this gap and illustrates the conundrum. I made the photograph a few years ago when a group of use spent a few days photographing this backcountry Yosemite Lake and its surroundings… near the start of September. The astronomers will tell you it was still summer, but the meteorologists and backcountry travels will note that the scene had a distinctly autumnal quality, especially from the lovely red bilberry plants in the foreground. Whatever system you follow, there was no question that this was a day more full of the sensations of autumn than of summer.

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

Sierra Shoreline, Morning

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Sierra Shoreline, Morning
Reflections and soft morning light on on trees and boulders along the shoreline of a Yosemite wilderness lake.

Sierra Shoreline, Morning. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Reflections and soft morning light on on trees and boulders along the shoreline of a Yosemite wilderness lake.

This photograph brings back a bunch of wonderful and somewhat wistful memories. I made it on a weeklong wilderness trip with a group of photographers with whom I’ve been heading into the Sierra backcountry almost every summer for more than a decade. (The “wistful” part of the memories is largely because the pandemic has prevented us from getting together again this summer.) We typically spend that time exploring some beautiful Sierra location, base-camped long enough to really get to know the place. Every morning we emerge from tents in darkness and head out to photograph for hours. We return to camp in the middle of the morning with stories to tell and chores to take care of. Late in the afternoon we head out into the field again, photographing until the light fades and we return to camp in darkness. The we do the same thing the next day.

This trip took us to a beautiful little forested lake in the Yosemite backcountry, a place I had not visited previously even though I had been in the general area quite a few times. The lake is up high, with expansive views from nearby ridges, and surrounded by forest. On most mornings I did a slow circuit around the lake as the light arrived. This lovely section of shoreline was more or less on the opposite side from our camp, and after photographing it more than once I figured out the light well enough that I was able to photograph it in the soft morning light just before the sun arrived, when the water was still smooth.

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: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Afternoon Haze, Ridges

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Afternoon Haze, Ridges
Forested ridges, silhouetted in the afternoon Sierra haze, on opposite sides of the Tuolumne River Canyon.

Afternoon Haze, Ridges. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Forested ridges, silhouetted in the afternoon Sierra haze, on opposite sides of the Tuolumne River Canyon.

A group of us were camped at a backcountry lake in Yosemite National Park for the better part of a week a few years back. Actually, we’ve done that a few times now that I think of it. This lake is a quiet and gentle place, surrounded by forest, but with a few nearby peaks and on one side a huge vista into and across a deep river canyon. Our little group photographed the heck out of this place, working the landscape morning and evening, and gradually working outwards to learn more of the surroundings.

On this evening I had hiked up from the lake through a narrow band of forest, then continued to ascend across granite slabs through more open country. Arriving at a high point I turned around and looked back over the basin holding “our” little lake and waited for the colorful evening light. Of course “waiting” doesn’t mean sitting and doing nothing — it means photographing other things, including this other tree-covered rocky ridge running down toward the lake and the further landscape whose details are muted by late-season haze. If you look very closely you might just make a sort of “Where’s Waldo” discovery in this scene….

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.