Tag Archives: yosemite

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

Black Oaks, Spring Snow

April 26, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring snow falls on a black oak grove, Yosemite Valley

It is hard to pick a favorite season in Yosemite Valley. Fall brings much cooler temperatures, diminishing crowds, and autumn colors. Winter brings snow and clouds drifting among peaks and across meadows. In spring the waterfalls flow strongly again as rivers rise, and the Valley’s vegetation comes back to life. Perhaps the ideal time is the transition between winter and spring, when on the ideal day you can experience a bit of both seasons. (Identifying the least favorite is easy. That would be summer, on account of the sometimes extreme heat and the frequent crowds of tourists. I generally stay away between June and mid-September.)

This was one of those spring days that briefly felt more like winter. A quick snow storm came through, dropping temperatures and leaving a few inches of snow on trees and on the ground. (It was almost all gone before noon the next day, when spring returned.) These black oak trees, with their graceful trunks and branches, are always lovely, but when snow falls they are special. There was just enough snow to coat the upper branches of these trees, and snow and mist swirled beyond among the cliffs surrounding the Valley.

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

Dead Trees, Snow

April 25, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dead forest trees silhouetted against snow storm clouds swirling around a granite face

I have written before about my long-term process of trying to find ways to photograph the beauty of dead or burned forests, a subject that I was brought up to regard as a tragedy. For decades, Smokey the Bear told me that forest fires were a wholly bad thing, to be avoided at all costs. Eventually we came to understand and (mostly) accept that fire is a normal and even necessary part of the life-cycle of healthy forests, and in places like Yosemite fires are often “managed” rather than suppressed. Currently in the Sierra Nevada the issue is compounded by the sight of millions of trees that fell victim to bark beetles during the recent drought, and whole forests have died in some places. A few dead trees are a normal part of the landscape, but this is unprecedented in the lives of any of us.

This photograph was made on a snowy day in Yosemite Valley, probably the last such day of the current season as winter turns to spring. Beyond the stark trees, a combination of clouds and blowing snow mostly obscured the Valley’s cliff faces. This photograph illustrates something else I figured out about photographing tall trees some years ago. I used to feel that the way to show the vertical scale of tall trees was to move back and show the whole tree, usually in a vertically framed image. I specifically recall the day when I figured out that there is another way. I was photographing in the coast redwood forest north of San Francisco, where I was unable to move back to get the tree-encompassing distance. I realized that I could do the exact opposite of what I had been doing — use a panoramic framing that does not show the whole tree, but instead implies by absence that subject is too tall to fit in the camera’s frame.

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

Oak Trees, Snow, Clouds

April 23, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tall winter oak trees silhouetted against granite cliffs and snow-storm clouds

Recently I spent a few more days in Yosemite, mostly in Yosemite Valley, working on my Yosemite Renaissances artist-in-residence project. We have settled on a theme for the exhibit, which will open on June 2, with a June 9 public reception. Since the timeline extended, I’ve decided to go beyond winter images and instead look at the transition from winter to spring. Hence, the title: “Transitions: Winter To Spring.” A group of friends and fellow photographers will also be part of the exhibit, and I’ll share more information very soon.

This week probably (though you can never be totally certain) marked the final real winter weather of the season in the Valley. A quick weather front swept through with surprising amounts of precipitation over a brief period, and it was cold enough for snow in the Valley. The snow wasn’t deep, but the cold temperatures allowed it to cover everything, including these lovely old black oak trees, photographed here against the background of clouds and mist and some of the rocky walls of The Valley.

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

Conifer Bark

April 21, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Close-up of conifer tree bark, Yosemite Valley

I’ve spent a total of perhaps a bit more than a week-and-a-half in Yosemite so far this season, beginning back in late February when I spent an unusually cold and snowy week mostly in Yosemite Valley photographing various aspects of the winter landscape. (An artist-in-residency through the Yosemite Renaissance was an important reason for that visit.) I was back again this past week, mostly thinking that I would be experience the “spring” half of the annual winter to spring transition — but once again arriving to snowy conditions. Yet the signs of spring were everywhere, too. Annual plants are poking up, here and there one can find a few early wildflowers, the dogwoods are just starting to leaf out, and the waterfalls are running strongly.

We often think of the “landscape” as being the immense scale of things in the natural world. But the grand landscape is the sum of many small components, and landscape photography has long paid attention to them individually, too. In a place like Yosemite, with its iconic big features, you might have to remind yourself to go look for the small things. One one recent day with so-so midday light, I put on my camera pack, grabbed my tripod, and just wandered slowly off into the forest, stopping frequently to consider my surroundings. Near the farthest point on this walk, I left the trail and walked into the forest and, for no particular reason, came upon a tree that seemed not all that different from all of the surrounding trees until I looked a bit closer and saw these remarkable bark patterns.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: yosemite

Black Oaks, Spring Snow

Dead Trees, Snow

Oak Trees, Snow, Clouds

Conifer Bark

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