The light in this location is unusual for the Sierra — for geographic reasons that I’ll explain below. This forest of autumn aspen trees is on the east slope of the range, at what I think of as a middle elevation. Here the high desert sage country meets aspens and a few conifers, then transitions as the terrain rises until the forest is mostly conifers. The shallow angle and steady rise let us view one of the bigger aspen stands in the Sierra.
About that special geography… In many places the eastern front of the Sierra is quite steep, and some of the most precipitous mountain faces in the range are along this side. But in this location the rise is more steady and gentle and it begins at a higher elevation. Consequently, late in the day when I made this photograph the light streaming between peaks to the west comes in at about the same angle as the slope — and long shadows and beams of late-day sunlight spread across the landscape.
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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