Tag Archives: yosemite

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

Pine Forest, Evening

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Pine Forest, Evening
“Pine Forest, Evening” — A High Sierra pine forest in soft evening light.

This is an example of what a photographer friend has called “quiet photographs.” There’s no astonishing sunset, no peak piercing the clouds, no spectacular waterfall… just a quiet scene of the sort that characterizes much of our experience in the wild. I love those over-the-top astonishing moments, but I equally love the quiet, still moments and scenes like this one.

This particular scene is along the edge of Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park’s high country. No one else was there (hard to believe?) and the sun had just set. These trees, the ubiquitous lodgepole pines, stand near the edge of the the open meadow, and the meadow hasn’t entirely given up to them yet, as you can see from the open spacing of the trees and the short green foliage along the ground.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning Forest

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Morning Forest
“Morning Forest” — An “imaginary landscape” photograph of a foggy morning forest scene, using in-camera motion bur.

From time to time I experiment with ways to portray the landscape in a more abstract fashion. I often refer to these photographs as “imaginary landscapes.” While the line between “real” and “imaginary” can be pretty fuzzy in photography, these photographs make no pretense of portraying the objective facts of the scene. (To be clear, no photograph is fully objective, but I digress…)

In this case I used intentional (or perhaps unintentional — you decide) techniques to blur the details of the scene, leaving the biggest elements intact but leaving a lot to the imagination. The original scene is the edge of the forest next to a small lake on a foggy morning.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Trees, Evening Light

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Trees, Evening Light
“Trees, Evening Light” — A row of pine trees at the edge of a subalpine meadow catches the last evening light.

Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows, in the park’s high country, gets special and quite changeable evening light. The meadow runs roughly east-west, so the setting sun sends its light along the meadow’s length. As the sunset develops, long shadows play across the landscape, interrupted by bits of warm light here and there.

I suspect that most people looking at this photograph may get a sense of calm and stillness. That’s not inaccurate, but photographing this ephemeral light is quite different from photographing more static subjects. In fact, I was working madly to grab this frame before the last bit of warm light on the trees was consumed by the encroaching shadows.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Morning Alpenglow, Sierra Crest

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Morning Alpenglow, Sierra Crest
“Morning Alpenglow, Sierra Crest” — Before sunrise, alpenglow subtly colors peaks of the Sierra Crest on the Yosemite boundary.

We usually think of “alpenglow” as an evening thing, probably because that’s when almost everyone who visits the mountains sees this post-sunset soft and colorful light on the highest peaks. But it is just as much a feature of the early morning, though you’ll have to rise early to see it!

Before dawn I walked the short distance from my tent to this nearby pond. I had scouted it the previous evening and was sure that it was a good place to photograph the reflection of the morning light on the Sierra Crest. The direct sunlight had not yet arrived, as sunrise was still a few minutes away, but the highest peaks were turning softly pink.

Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.