Sierra Archives - Page 4 of 5

Desert, rocky landscapes, before Sierra Nevada

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Scene notes:

Panning right, the shrublands in the foreground comprises the bottom quarter of the frame. Above, blue sky with stray lower clouds casting shadow on the ground below, rapidly shifting. The wide mountain range, snowy and peaked with sharp jagged cliffs, are partly under a blanket, which transform slowly. ‘Caught’ on the land, they exist only here for any length of time before evaporating elsewhere.
Time-lapse length (30 fps):
12 seconds and 24 frames.

2 of 10 | Sierra Nevada Mountain range and mid-day clouds

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Scene notes:

Towering congestus clouds, benefiting slightly from orographic lift, float from the peaks of the southern Sierra Nevada range. As tall as the mountains they seem to stand on, they transform as they grow and lose energy away from the peaks, evaporating. On these snowy mountains, their shadows travel. Under the blue sky, which is four-fifths of the frame, high Cirrus clouds move the opposing direction.
Time-lapse length (30 fps):
12 seconds and 29 frames.

1 of 10 | Sierra Nevada Mountain range and mid-day clouds

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Scene notes:

Stratiform clouds at mid-level pass far overhead as the camera pans leftward. A yellow foreground of flowers and plants goes in and out of the shade along with the background mountains. A stratus layer on the peaks tumbles and struggles its way over the Sierra Nevada, and a few small clouds of short-lived density play around the altitude of snow and just below the peaks. The view becomes full of more ridge lines of various mountains to the south at the end of the clip. A limited depth of field adds to the clip.
Time-lapse length (30 fps):
13 seconds and 6 frames.

Hetch Hetchy reservoir in half-fog, with a waterfall

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Scene notes:

… in the distance and opposite side of water. The lake is shown from the viewpoint on the hydroelectric dam (out of view) itself. The wind gusts blow on the lake in randomized patterns from the landscape. Comprising four-tenths of the frame, the reservoir holds much of the state’s fresh-water supply and generates significant energy. There are multiple waterfalls visible on the left half of the frame, and fog moves in complex transformations on the erratic direction of wind.
Time-lapse length (30 fps):
12 seconds and 15 frames.

1 of 2 | Late day Yosemite winter transforming into sunset

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Scene notes:

A winter view of Yosemite valley: a very small stratus of fog on El Capitan’s ridge plays slowly as the shadows rise at an also slow pace. The water of Bridalveil Falls still pours near the right of the frame, mostly shadowed by the land at clip’s end. Evergreen trees reside on every surface that is not too steep to grow on, and the valley becomes Tenaya Canyon further out, snow becoming more fulsome.
Time-lapse length (30 fps):
11 seconds and 2 frames.

Sierra Nevada Mountain range and late-day clouds side-lit and flowing off

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Scene notes:

Approximately half the frame is shadowed in a mountain’s shade, with desert plants in the foreground meadow. The clouds flow off the ridge, and every air current can be seen on the outer edges of these clouds, which run aground on the top-left of the frame, billowing, and crawling.
Time-lapse length (30 fps):
11 seconds and 22 frames.

Vast winter viewpoint from Inyo Mountains

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Scene notes:

… landscape below with Sierra Nevada range. On the Inyo range east of the Sierra Nevada, one sees deep into the range to the west, countless peaks spanning north-south. A few at right are under stratus clouds, but the large majority are Cirrus fibratus, dense enough to shade the landscape as they pass over the snowy Bristlecone pine-filled hillsides and slopes, which are some of the oldest trees.
Time-lapse length (30 fps):
12 seconds and 13 frames.

2 of 4 | Under peak color Aspen grove, medium-density clouds float by overhead and on mountains

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Scene notes:

The mountains of the Sierra Nevada range do not entirely catch the low moving clouds on them, which are blowing and slightly billowing and casting shadows on the snowy peaks and cliffs. Below, the peak-coloring of the Aspen grove stretches closer from left to right. With leaves of varying colors from red (afar) to orange (middle ground) and greens with yellow (close). The age of the trees may provide hints as to the varying colors.
Time-lapse length (30 fps):
18 seconds and 4 frames.