Autumn Black Oak Leaves and Branches, Sky. Yosemite Valley, California. October 31, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Autumn black oak branches and leaves silhouetted against blue sky, Yosemite Valley, California.
Believe it or not, one of the difficult things about photographing in the Sierra Nevada is… the weather is too nice! Sometimes for weeks on end it seems that you might see only perfect blue skies… boring perfect blue skies! When I visited Yosemite around Halloween this year to photograph fall color in the Valley I was really hoping for the same sort of “awful” weather I had last year – two days of rain and mist and clouds. Instead I got weather that seemed more like late summer than autumn.
So, what the heck, if the shapes and colors of the Valley’s oaks appear overhead with the “perfect blue sky” as a backdrop perhaps I’m supposed to photograph them against the perfect blue sky. All joking aside, I was attracted to the intense and saturated of the color of the sparse leaves on this tree, made all the more intense by the sun shining through their translucent shapes from behind and the almost monochrome shapes of the branches, and contrasted with the deep blue of the sky.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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Finally at last and not a minute too soon! I gather some clouds will be rolling in this week but I have to work and won’t be able to enjoy them. I’m hoping that next week over Thanksgiving break I will be able too though.
And just for fun, I just ordered two new toys for my camera from Singh-Ray. I bought a 3 stop reverse grad that should be great for sunrise and sunset shots. And I bought their gold and blue polarizer. I can’t wait to try this stuff out!
Yeah, blue sky is enough to drive a photographer mad! :-)
Don’t worry – we’re moving into the “interesting” weather time of year now.
I am so sick of clear sunny days I cold just scream. Like you said, its boring. Blue sky. Clear sunny blue sky. What I wouldn’t give for a cloud once in a while, let a lone a real storm with thunderheads and everything that could make for some real dramatic sky. What a difference that would make for photography. Oh my.