Sierra Wave Clouds Above Owens Valley, Dawn. Owens Valley, California. October 16, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Sierra wave clouds building at dawn are reflected in the waters of an Owens Valley lake.
On this morning I was up well before dawn – I checked out of my motel in Bishop, California and was on the road while it was still dark, with a semi-plan of photographing aspen trees around dawn up in the northern portion of the June Lakes Loop. As I headed north out of Bishop and through Round Valley, the very first light arrived and I saw the dim outlines of Sierra wave clouds forming over and just east of the crest. Now, this was an interesting development!
As I continued north and the light increased, the clouds began to interest me more than the possibility of photographing more aspens – I could do that later, but such clouds are unpredictable and transitory. I could see that subtle color was beginning to appear along the edges of the clouds even though it was not yet sunrise, and I decided that I needed to find some landscape feature – almost any would do! – that could serve as a foil to these clouds so that I could photograph them as they began to pick up sunrise color.
A week earlier I had photographed at some small lakes out in Owens Valley, and it occurred to me that if I could get there in time that they might reflect the clouds nicely, though I was a bit concerned about how the lake and the mountains and the clouds would actually align. But not having any better ideas and having very little time, I decided to make the lake my goal and without much further thought took the turnoff, parked my car near the largest lake, grabbed my gear, and headed across the sage brush landscape to the shore of the lake. My initial thought that I might be able to include the Sierra range in the image with the clouds clearly wasn’t going to work due to their relative positions, so I circled a bit further around the shore of the lake and instead composed a scene that excluded all but the tiniest bit of the peaks of the Sierra.
G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Hi, Randi! It was good to meet you, too. And thanks for feeding my ego by recognizing my name! ;-)
That was quite a hike. Somehow I had gotten the idea that it was only about a mile to the lake, but it certainly seemed farther by the time I got up there. I managed one interesting shot on the way up and then made a few more of the far end of the lake and the giant Parker canyon above. Hope you got some good photographs as well.
Thanks for your comment on this photo – glad you like it. When I saw these clouds I pretty much decided that almost any foreground would do, but I was happy when I managed to make it back to this familiar lake in time to use it as the foil to the beautiful sky.
Dan
Dan – I met you on Sunday on the trail to Parker Lake in the June Loop. That was a wonderful surprise. I love the clouds and light in this image. I was looking forward to see what you captured that day. I look forward to seeing more stunning images created by you.
Thanks
Randi
I have always enjoyed looking at your images. This one is really nicely done. It just shows what you can do by getting out of bed before the sunrise.
Yes, indeed! The landscape photographer is often up very early. At least this time of year the sun rises a bit later and I get to sleep in until… 5:00 a.m. or so!
Dan
Really striking form and color!
Chloe M.
Richard, thanks for noting that! There is an old saying that I can only loosely paraphrase that is approximately: “Fortune favors those who are prepared.”
While some of my photographs are the result of a specific plan made in advance, many are actually more the result of a combination of something akin to hunting along with good fortune. With both of these, having some knowledge (or, sometimes, intuition) about what might happen and when and where to find it has helped a lot.
And you are sure right about the astonishing number of alternatives from which to choose. On this morning I could as easily have found a compelling subject in at least three other directions from where I stood, and there were many other possibilities with completely different subjects had I ended up somewhere else.
Dan
Your knowledge of the topography and landscape of the area certainly gives you a huge advantage along with much needed cooperation from mother nature in many of your images. The Sierra’s give a photogrpher so many alternatives from which to choose. This is just spectacular!!!