Mount Humphreys, Dawn

Mount Humphreys, Dawn
Cloud banners blow from the summit pf snow-dusted Mount Humpreys in autumn dawn light

Mount Humphreys, Dawn. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 10, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cloud banners blow from the summit pf snow-dusted Mount Humpreys in autumn dawn light

This photograph is from a spectacular landscape in the easter Sierra above the town of Bishop, in what is sometimes called Buttermilk Country, or just plain “the Buttermilks.” Here the land rises gradually and steadily from the Owens Valley lowlands near the town, first gradually, then building into the eroded and rounded rocky hills like those catching the sun in the center of this photograph, and finally culminating in the alpine peaks of the Sierra Nevada Crest. The tallest peak in the photograph is Mount Humphreys.

As is typical at this autumn time of year, I was in the eastern Sierra to photograph fall color — which mostly means aspen trees. My recollection is that we started up toward the mountains from Bishop very early in the morning, before sunrise, and then decided that the dawn light on the eastern face of the Sierra offered more possibilities than yet more aspen photographs — besides, the aspens would still be there after this sunrise light was gone! We left the main road and followed gravel tracks that I know from previous visits and arrived at this spot with its view of foreground hills and crest peaks just as the dawn light show began.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

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