Small Aspens, Boulders. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. September 18, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn color comes to small aspen trees among Eastern Sierra Nevada boulders

There are many ways to “see” aspens, especially during the season when they briefly take on their transitional fall colors. Whole slopes filled with masses of their color are always an impressive sight. Larger views in which the aspens appear scattered within the landscape produce a different effect. The shapes of the white trunks might be the subject. We can move in close and focus on branches or even individual leaves. In some cases, the trees can act as a foil to other elements of the mountain landscape — conifer trees, the sky, flowing water. In this case, the color is, I think, a foil to the shapes, colors, and textures of granite boulders.

I made this photograph quite early in the Sierra color season, when the first trees were changing — somewhat earlier than usual this year, or so it seemed. While the largest trees were still nearly uniformly green, smaller trees and those growing in more marginal dry and rock areas were already taking on fall color. These trees are small, growing among rocks, and comprise just a few trees growing in an area that is mostly filled with conifers. In some ways, this makes their coloration even more striking than if they had been simply two trees among hundreds of aspens.

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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