Twilight, Tuolumne River and Tuolumne Meadows, Sierra Crest
Twilight, Tuolumne River and Tuolumne Meadows, Sierra Crest. Yosemite National Park, California. July 10, 2009. © Copyright G DanMitchell – all rights reserved.
Light from lenticular cloud-filled twilight sky illuminates Tuolumne Meadows and the Tuolumne River with Lembert Dome, Mount Dana, and Mount Gibbs beyond, Yosemite National Park, California.
Yes, one more in the series – perhaps the final one, but we’ll see. I suppose it could be titled, “It ain’t over until it’s over.”
After the astonishing colors of the brightest moments of the sunset fade, one might think that the show is over – but frequently it isn’t over yet. I remember the time I first learned that when shooting evening scenes like this one should never leave until it is too dark to photograph any more! This “lesson” happened a bit further west in Tuolumne Meadows some years ago. I was photographing in the evening, shooting across the transitory early-season lake that forms there during in wet years. Another photographer was nearby shooting the same beautiful evening, and I remember him remarking that some of his favorite photographs actually came after the intense light of sunset and during the time when the light almost begins to feel more like night than day.
Two wonderful things can happen at this hour. First, you can still get some very unexpected “color surprises” even after the show seems to be over. (I learned this a second time a few years later after packing up at the summit of Lembert Dome and heading down – only to be surprised by a wonderful and completely unexpected suffusion of beautiful light, and having to quickly unpack and squeeze of a couple shots.) Second, as astonishing as the brilliant colors are that precede this darker time, this is the hour for some very wonderful deep and subtle colors that you just won’t see at any other time of 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.G Dan Mitchell Photography
keywords: Keywords yosemite, national, park, california, usa, sierra nevada, summer, tuolumne, tioga, meadows, river, forest, tree, gravel, bar, plants, grass, smooth, twilight, evening, dusk, lenticular, clouds, sky, lembert, dome, mount, dana, gibbs, mammoth, peak, kuna, crest, ridge, sierra nevada, range, landscape, scenic, travel, rock, boulder, stock
G Dan Mitchell :: Jul.20.2009
Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite
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