Wilderness Lake, Late Season Light. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Hazy, late-season light at a Yosemite backcountry lake showing signs of autumn color.
On this first day of autumn I am queuing up this photograph to appear on my website a day later. (Some of you may see it on social media on the equinox.) The photograph provokes the question: When does fall actually start, anyway? It might seem like the objective answer would be obvious, but perhaps not as much as we would think. One definition — the most common one — says that fall, or autumn, beings on the date of the autumnal equinox when the sun is again directly overhead at the equator. However, I’m aware of at least two other ways of looking at this. One refers to so-called “meteorological fall,” which I understand to be the months of September, October, and November. (I’ve always felt that these were the months of autumn.) Another method, which also makes a lot of sense, starts and ends the seasons on so-called “cross quarter days,” the days midway between equinox and solstice.
This photograph falls into this gap and illustrates the conundrum. I made the photograph a few years ago when a group of use spent a few days photographing this backcountry Yosemite Lake and its surroundings… near the start of September. The astronomers will tell you it was still summer, but the meteorologists and backcountry travels will note that the scene had a distinctly autumnal quality, especially from the lovely red bilberry plants in the foreground. Whatever system you follow, there was no question that this was a day more full of the sensations of autumn than of summer.
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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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