Aspen Grove and Fallen Leaves. Near Aspendell, California. October 5, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An aspen grove with newly fallen leaves littering the ground – near Aspendell, California.

This is one of a group of photographs I made near the start of the short road to North Lake. I had shot here very early in the morning, gone to North Lake for a bit more shooting, and then stopped here on the way to Sabrina Lake. When I arrived here I first stopped at an extensive aspen grove inside a turn in the road and started shooting there in the shade since the sun had not yet topped the ridge to the southeast. Soon the sun rose high enough to just barely peak over the ridge and I found myself on the border line between sun and shadow. For the next 5-10 minutes I moved down the hillside through the aspen groves trying to stay just ahead of the sun, and shooting the saturated colors in this area between the shadow and the full sun.

keywords: aspen, tree, grove, forest, fall, autumn, color, gold, yellow, branch, trunk, north, lake, aspendell, sabrina, morning, sierra, nevada, mountains, range, california, usa, travel, scenic, landscape, stock

(Note: I’m trying a slightly different approach on the daily photos today. Rather than posting the thumbnail image I am posting a larger version of the photo from my Flickr account.)