I like today’s Flak Photo image by Luc Rabaey a lot… I’ve played around with combining multiple images as they occur in reflective and transparent surfaces, but this one works on a bunch of level – the human element, the compositional element, and the conceptual.
Category Archives: Commentary
Be Cautious About Sierra Fall Color Reports!
I just read the following from a photography blog that I enjoy reading:
Fall Color Report The Weekend of October 13-14 is your best bet for fall color in the Eastern Sierra. Most of the big trees are near peak color, but with the unusual weather patterns we’ve been having, it might not last long. Another storm could end it all, or two weeks of warm weather could make it last and last. It’s anyone’s guess. Last week’s storms burned out or blew off the leaves at higher elevations, and – Rich Seiling [West Coast Imaging blog]
(With tongue planted firmly in cheek…) I’ll agree that the “weekend of October 13-14 is your best bet for fall color in the Eastern Sierra”… of all of the weekends remaining this year.
But that doesn’t mean it will be good, especially if you are looking for aspens. I’ve hit many of the classic aspen spots during the past two weeks, and while I did find some good color this past weekend, and while there are certainly going to be a few OK spots left, the vast majority of the eastern Sierra aspen color is all gone. As of last weekend the trees up high were largely bare or, if they had any leaves they were brown or black. In the places where I did see good color last weekend, the groves were almost uniformly reaching the end of the show. And that was last weekend.
If you are going anyway… don’t bother going high. Check out lower canyons, especially a bit farther north along the range. Enjoy other types of all color if you can’t find aspens: golden grasses in meadows and pastures, non-aspen trees turning color in Owens Valley and similar areas, dogwoods in the western Sierra (along the highway 120 entrance to Yosemite, for example), western foothill color, and a dusting of autumn snow on the higher peaks.
October is my favorite time of year in the Sierra, and in a normal year there might still be quite a few aspens turning this weekend. But this isn’t a normal year, and I’m afraid that the aspen show is pretty much over.
Sierra Fall Colors: Fading Fast
I’m back from another weekend chasing aspens and other icons of fall in the eastern Sierra. I’ll post more on this later, but for now I just want to say that if you are thinking of going to see this fall’s aspens… go immediately! It is already too late in many places, but if you hurry you can still find a few good stand – mostly in low altitude groves.
Fall Color in the Eastern Sierra
Last weekend I was in the eastern Sierra Nevada chasing fall aspen colors. Photos will appear here soon – in the meantime I have posted a few at my dan’s outside and gallery sites.
Timing is everything when it comes to photographing the aspens as they turn from green to yellow, gold, and red in the Sierra. Many factors affect the exact timing – some are large scale patterns that may be somewhat predictable, some are related to specific locations and can be learned over time, while others are ephemeral and cannot be predicted.
This year the macro issue is the dry (extremely dry in the southern Sierra) conditions of the past season. The summer growth cycle peaked early, was short, and was weaker than in most years. Frankly, I don’t really yet understand the specific effects of this on the aspens. I do know that certain other plants seemed to be in a fall-like state much earlier this year, but I cannot say that this was the case with aspens based on a few Sierra trips as recent as last week.
I’m beginning to learn some of the regular patterns. For example, in the past I’ve arrived too late to see great color in the extensive stands on top of Monitor Pass. After trying a few times I figured out that they tend to peak a week or so before many nearby lower stands such as those in Hope Valley. (They looked pretty good last week, and I’m guessing they’ll be past prime by this weekend.) I also have missed the small aspens in upper Virginia Lake canyon several times. Even though I went earlier this year they had already lost their leaves… while most other aspens in the Sierra hadn’t even turned!
There there are the “ephemeral” and unexpected immediate conditions. For example, it is apparently snowing today in the Sierra and on the east slope and I hear it was earlier quite windy. There is a good chance that groves that were exposed to the wind may have lost quite a few leaves. On the other hand, the snow and wind may provide an opportunity for photos juxtaposing colorful aspen leaves and white snow.
I’ll be going back up there – very soon – and I’ll have more to say and show when I return.