Photograph: Broken Branches - Yosemite National Park

Broken Branches

Posted on 16 December 2011

Broken Branches

The broken branches of a fallen tree on the ground in the back-country of Yosemite National Park.

These branches belong to what is left of a tree that fell in the area around our campsite in the north east section of the back-country of Yosemite National Park. On a couple of mornings during the time we were there doing photography, I began my morning by wandering a bit through this section of forest, meadow, and dried-up ponds, looking for whatever little miniature landscapes I might find.

Dried and broken branches of fallen and dead trees intrigue me, though they can make very difficult subjects to photograph. Light and color are tricky – too much light and it is difficult to get shadow detail without washing out the highlights; too little light and the subject can go flat and pick up blue tones. And sometimes the patterns are so complex and disorganized as to nearly defy my efforts to make any sort of compositional sense out of them.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Category: Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite
Tags: america, and, back, bilberry, black, branch, broken, california, cone, country, county, dry, fallen, landscape, leaves, monochrome, Mountain, national, nature, needle, nevada, north, pack, park, photo, pine, range, sierra, stick, stock, tree, tuolumne, twig, twisted, usa, white, wilderness, wood, yosemite

2 comments to Broken Branches

Richard Glenn

says:

December 16, 2011 at 7:56 am

Great shot Dan, I love these up close and personal images. The first thing that caught my eye were the three little cones, most likely fir, that are tucked neatly away amounst the branches waiting for their time to come to life, mother nature willing!

G Dan Mitchell

says:

December 18, 2011 at 12:29 pm

Thanks, Richard, both for the post and for sharing your personal observation about the image. There is often a lot to discover in these “intimate landscapes.”

Dan