Tag Archives: devils

Basalt Columns and Lichen

Basalt Columns and Lichen
Yellow lichen growing on the basalt columns of Devils Postpile National Monument

Basalt Columns and Lichen. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Yellow lichen growing on the basalt columns of Devils Postpile National Monument

This is the second of two photographs that “reemerged” from a recent look back to raw files from a trip to Devil’s Postpile National Monument a few years ago. The first was, in essence, a “new” photograph in that I had not taken it through my post-processing workflow back when I first captured the image. At the time I was more interested in one or two other photographs from the session, so I left it behind. But when I went back and looked again this year I “discovered” it anew, and now it did not seem a like file to simply archive! This one has a different story. I did finalize a photograph of this image shortly after I made the exposure. But now, some years later, I see it differently than I did originally… so here is a new interpretation of the subject.

To rehash the old story in brief, we ended up at Devil’s Postpile essentially by accident… after sleeping in and enjoying a leisurely breakfast rather than heading out into the pre-dawn cold as I usually do. And when we got to Devil’s Postpile, at first I wasn’t even going to photograph! The geometric forms of the “post pile” are fascinating, and they are even more interesting in soft light and when sections of the formation are isolated, here with a long lens. The pattern of columns in this scene reminds me of various things — the pipes of an organ, some sort of stairway, and so forth.


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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Basalt Columns

Basalt Columns
Basalt columns at Devil’s Postpile National Monument.

Basalt Columns. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Basalt columns at Devil’s Postpile National Monument.

The existence of this photograph can be credited to two women. The first is my wife Patricia Mitchell. We were in the Eastern Sierra in a the autumn a few years ago to photograph fall colors. On this morning we were supposed to get up early and go photograph aspens, but we were lazy — we slept in and enjoyed breakfast, which is not the typical photographer’s ritual. Devil’s Postpile seemed like a potential option for photography a bit later in the morning, so that’s where we went. Arriving, I wasn’t so sure — there were crowds and the early light was gone — and initially I was going to leave my camera behind and just walk over and take a look… but “someone” urged me to bring the camera gear along just in case.

The second woman who played an (unknown to her) role in the appearance of this photograph is friend and photographer Franka Mlikota Gabler. She recently shared a set of lovely photographs of this location, and these photographs got me thinking about my one visit to the place… and inspired me to back into the raw file archive, where I found this photograph from that lazy morning when I almost left my camera behind.


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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Basalt Columns and Lichen

Basalt Columns and Lichen
Yellow lichen growing on the basalt columns of Devils Postpile National Monument

Basalt Columns and Lichen. Devils Postpile National Monument, California. October 9, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Yellow lichen growing on the basalt columns of Devils Postpile National Monument

This is one of several photographs I made of the Postpile on this autumn morning, and every time I post one more I get to tell a bit of a story on myself. Landscape photographers often get up very early, sometimes many hours before sunrise. On this morning we had plans to do just that, and if we had gotten up on time we would likely have gone of to photograph aspens somewhere. But we overslept! It had been a long week, the drive to the east side of the range the evening before had been a long one, and we had arrived late. So rather than waking up hours before sunrise, it was probably more like an hour after sunrise.

We were initially a bit disappointed at losing a sunrise, but we decided to just take it easy, and soon we sat down to a nice civilized breakfast — also something of an anomaly for early morning photographers. Eventually we decided to wander out and just go up to Devils Postpile, which wasn’t far away. Arriving well after the supposed good light, I was going to just leave my camera equipment in the car, but Patty persuaded me to take it. And was I glad I did. Here the sun rises behind the face of the postpile, which was still in shadow, though receiving some reflected light from behind us and from the blue sky. I had a short time to work in this lovely soft light before the sun finally peeked over the top and I found myself photographing straight into its light.


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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Columns and Lichen

Columns and Lichen
Basalt columns and bright yellow lichen, Devils Postpile National Monument

Columns and Lichen. Devils Postpile National Monument, California. October 9, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Basalt columns and bright yellow lichen, Devils Postpile National Monument

This photograph is probably the result of at least one accident. We had gone to the Eastern Sierra for a few days to photograph fall color, arriving late in the evening, tired and ready to sleep. We discussed how early we would get up the next morning, but I managed to remain vague about my plans, secretly hoping that I might not wake up on “photographer time,” but perhaps actually sleep in a bit! In fact, that is what happened — and it was probably a good thing since I was tired after three busy weeks including several previous trips over the crest to photograph on the east side of the range.

Of course, once we got up late we still had to figure out what we would photograph. Obviously dawn light was out of the question, and it seemed like we might not get out until the best early and soft light for aspen color had passed. We hatched a very general plan to head over to Devils Postpile National Monument, though I didn’t have real high hopes for it. However, once we arrived we realized that we had actually come at just the right time. This feature, at this time of year, doesn’t get sunlight very early. When we arrived the face was still in beautiful, soft, shaded light but the surroundings were reflecting some light onto the columns. That’s what I call a “happy accident!”


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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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