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The Valley, Morning Sun And Clouds

The Valley, Morning Sun And Clouds
Clouds from a passing weather front break up over Yosemite Valley as sun rises above Sentinel Dome

The Valley, Morning Sun And Clouds. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clouds from a passing weather front break up over Yosemite Valley as sun rises above Sentinel Dome

I confess that I’m often tempted to title photographs of this subject, “Yet Another Clearing Storm.” The subject is, to say the least, done a lot! The location is accessible, the view is tremendous (even if you’ve seen it a hundred times), storms clear in dramatic fashion. Sometimes I just have to stop and photograph it. Again. This does, however, bring to mind the famous comment that one photographer offered when asked by a neophyte if he had any advice about photographing from Tunnel View: “Don’t,” he replied. Yet we do. It can be a sort of guilty pleasure, and on a number of beautiful winter evenings I’ve run into friends there.

The light on this morning was something of a surprise — given what I had seen in the first predawn light I expected gray overcast. But as I came down toward the Valley I began to see hopeful signs — a bit of a glow from the east that suggested breaks beyond the edge of the cloud shield. I arrived here just before the clouds began to open up. I almost didn’t photograph — I first walked over without my equipment thinking it might be a quick stop before moving on. But it soon began to look more and more like the light might become even more interesting, so I raced back to my car and grabbed my camera, lenses, and tripod. Soon the morning sun rose over Sentinel Dome, intermittently breaking through the clouds and sending beams of soft light across and into the Valley.


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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Sentinel Dome, Sunrise And Clouds

Sentinel Dome, Sunrise And Clouds
Rays of morning sun above Sentinel Dome cross a ridge and illuminate forest and clouds

Sentinel Dome, Sunrise And Clouds. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rays of morning sun above Sentinel Dome cross a ridge and illuminate forest and clouds

You can spend quite a few photography days without finding special light, and then unexpectedly run headfirst into something remarkable. That was the story on this late April visit to Yosemite Valley to photograph the transition from winter to spring. (I had photographed in cold and snow there a week prior, but now the snow was gone and the weather was warming.) The first two days were fine — typical spring days in the Valley — but it was challenging to find special light. Then on my final morning luck was with me. When I started for the Valley well before sunrise I could see that the sky was clouded over, and it promised to be a gray morning. But as I drove I started to see some light sneaking in under the clouds, and I guessed that the cover might be breaking up by the time I got to the Valley.

I arrived at the first good view of the Valley just as the sun was coming up. The Valley was still mostly gray and cloud-shrouded, but the clouds to the east were thinner and breaking up. Before long the clouds thinned even more and the sunlight began to break through. The big view was still too gray for my taste at this point, so I put a long lens on the camera and began to look for small sections of the scene with dramatic light. Beyond Bridal Veil Fall the sun had just risen above the top of Sentinel Dome, and its light was streaming down across ridges and through trees.


See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Yosemite Forest, Spring

Yosemite Forest, Spring
Spring plants sprout among the conifers in Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Forest, Spring. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring plants sprout among the conifers in Yosemite Valley

This photograph is the result of some aimless wandering and of finally visiting a spot that I have wondered about for years. Most of my landscape photography is done early and late in the day, and when the days get longer this can leave me with a lot of free midday time. What I do during those hours varies. If I am camping I may take that time for camp chores, otherwise known as eating, reading, and napping. When I’m in the gigantic landscape of Death Valley I may use this as travel time. On this recent set of visits to Yosemite Valley I used it as hiking time — either with my full complement of photography equipment or perhaps with a smaller camera and a couple of lenses. (Sometimes it is a relief to leave the “big gear” behind for a while!)

Although the light wasn’t favorable at this time of day, I decided to head up the Valley on foot towards a place where the shadows of towering cliffs would block the harsh daytime light a bit earlier in the day. I got there and saw a sigh I had seen before for something called “the fen.” I know that word from literary sources, but I had never (after all these decades!) bothered to investigate it in the Valley. I was in no hurry, so I wandered off in that direction. One of the features of the area is rather dense and, in some ways, lush vegetation. I looked, I finished, I wandered off to look at something else. But in the back of my mind I was thinking about these trees, and a bit later when the cliff shadows had lengthened enough to reach this spot I returned and made this photograph. While big, iconic features evoke Yosemite for us — and with good reason — for me these quiet little out-of-the-way spots in the forest are just as important in defining the place.


See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon

Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon
Morning light on clearing clouds, Merced River Canyon and Lower Yosemite Valley

Clearing Clouds, Merced River Canyon. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on clearing clouds, Merced River Canyon and Lower Yosemite Valley

Yes, another photograph in the “Bierstadt morning” series, as I’ve come to think of it. (Albert Bierstadt was a renowned 19th-century landscape painter whose work in Yosemite is famous. His paintings, while true to the subjective experience of the place, relied on enhanced effects of color, light, perspective, and atmosphere.) As I have written, this morning started cloudy and gray but quickly transformed into a marvel of clouds, mists, and light that continued well into the mid-morning hours.

I began photographing in a location overlooking the main valley, but then decided to head up to this area, where I was thinking of several possible subjects. As I watched the play of light and atmosphere I decided to forego some of the intimate landscape opportunities and intend go for this large-scale scene looking up the valley of the Merced River. Working from one of the more obvious spots in the park, I set up and spent an hour or so watching the constant transformations of the scene as clouds opened, light appeared and moved across the scene, fog came and went, and more.


See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email


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