Category Archives: Locations

Commentary, Locations, News

A Brief Aspen Update (9/28/09)

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Although my main weekend photographic activity involved a short pack trip into the Cathedral Lakes in Yosemite (more later on that), I did manage a quick Sunday afternoon visit to some aspens in the Tioga Pass, Lee Vining, Conway Summit area. With that in mind, here is a short report on what I saw.

  • Tioga Pass – As you head east over Tioga Pass you begin to enter the “aspen zone” of the eastern Sierra. (There are aspens west of the crest, but very few in this area and fewer still along the road.) There are some specimens turning colors in roughly the Ellery Lake area, but the first really colorful trees are near the far end of the section of the road the traverses the headwall of Lee Vining Canyon. These are small trees, but some are quite colorful right now – with other still-green trees promising a bit more color yet to come. From this area I could also see more aspens (and other fall foliage) on higher ridges above the canyon.
  • Lee Vining Canyon – A bit later the large aspen groves down in Lee Vining Canyon will usually put on quite a show – and many of the trees growing in this lower elevation protected area are quite large. However, yesterday there was very little color down in the canyon. I could see a very few trees starting to turn, but that was about it.
  • Lundy Canyon – I did not enter Lundy Canyon on this trip since I had another goal in mind – so what I can report is based entirely on what I could see while driving by on highway 395. High on the ridges above Lundy Canyon there are some very colorful groves of trees. There appeared to also be some down closer to the entrance of the canyon. (I’ll post more concrete information about Lundy as soon as I can find it. Typically Lundy Canyon peaks a bit later than some of the other areas.)
  • Conway Summit – The huge groves of aspens right below the highway to the north of Conway Summit are barely starting to turn colors. I saw a very small number of yellow trees right near the road but the vast majority of the trees here still appear to be green. This bodes well for conditions in a week or so. However, the long view toward Dunderberg Meadow from here shows that the higher trees are changing and colors there may be peaking. (I could not investigate these upper groves more closely since the car I was driving is not equipped for travel on rough gravel roads.) South of Conway Summit there are some large and not very accessible groves that are turning colors quite dramatically, but it is next to impossible to find a place to pull over and photograph them.
  • Virginia Lake – The road to Virginia Lake leaves right from Conway Summit. Based on my visits in previous seasons, the trees along this road, especially up higher, tend to be among earliest to show color and then drop their leaves. I have arrived too late more than once! Yesterday, however, there were many trees showing very good color even along the upper sections of the road. There are also still a good number of green trees, so this show is probably not quite over. The first groves you come to shortly after leaving Conway Summit are currently at different stages of color. There is a parking area along the right side of the road in this area, and the trees parallel to the turnout on the right as you ascend are almost entirely green. However, across the road and just a bit further up there is a large and colorful grove where I photographed. Although there are still green trees here, there are also a few trees that have lost quite a few leaves. Another grove a bit higher alongside a creek at an obvious bend in the road is starting to look quite colorful, though the number of green trees suggests that there is still some good color to come.

UPDATE: For first time visitors to my site arriving via this page… I have posted several other notes on aspen hunting during the 2009 season:

Enjoy!

Locations, News

A few notes on Sierra Nevada fall color progress

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It will be a few more days before I manage to get myself to the Sierra to do the my first fall color photography of the season. I’ll be in the Cathedral Lakes area for a short time (not specifically to photograph aspens though) and then make a quick visit to the “east side” to reconnoiter – and then I’ll be back there a few more times in early October. With this in mind, you can imagine that I’m keeping my eyes open for early information about the color change – and I’m starting to see more posts and even some photographs.

  • The Eastern Sierra Fall Color pool on Flickr now holds many fall color photographs. Up until now the large majority came from previous seasons, but I’m now starting to see some that appear to have been shot in the past couple of days. (Though I have to note that the dates shown on Flickr are not necessarily correct – it would be nice if photographers posting there this season would include a word or two about date and location…)
  • Late last week Greg Boyer posted an on-the-spot Fall Color Update #6. He visited Bishop Creek and notes some prospects for the near future, some conditions that bear watching elsewhere (including brown trees in the large grove across from and above North Lake), and some current color. (You can follow his blog directly.)
  • Cory Freeman has posted a very brief update at his Sierra Impressions blog. He also visited the Bishop Creek drainage late last week, and reading between the lines of his brief report his summary might include: some small trees starting to change color, some color above North Lake, things seem more or less on track. (Apologies to Cory if I got any of this wrong.)
  • Though it is not actually a “fall color report,” an important post at Yosemite Blog reports that there will be some brief road closures this week at Wawona Tunnel that might affect some heading across the Sierra late in the week.
  • Carol Leigh’s Calphoto site is a good source of updated information since quite a few eastern Sierra aspen hunters share updates with her site. (There isn’t a lot there just yet, but it is likely that more frequent reports may begin after this weekend.)
  • Steve Bourelle’s Sierra Visions site includes some fall color updates and his post from September 15 is very much worth reading. Thanks, Steve, for the reminder about the…
  • Parcher’s Resort Fall Color Report – which still seems to indicate that, yes indeed, fall colors are ahead of us. The Parcher’s site reports are actually quite detailed and include photographs that will help those already familiar with the areas judge the progress of the colors.
  • Philip Colla has posted an extensive list of resources for those following the eastern Sierra fall color.

That’s all for now. Let me know if you have other sources that I might want to add to this list, and please share your own reports with me. (Yes, you can be part of the aspen hunters network!)

Commentary, Locations

The aspen hunters network

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Since I recently posted some information here at the blog about photographing the wonderful eastern Sierra Nevada fall colors – chiefly aspens – I’ve received email and comments from a number of readers. I’ll continue to post on the general subject from time to time over the next few weeks, but today I want to share a tip that might be useful in your search for great aspen color, especially if you are not already familiar with the eastern Sierra.

Once you get to the eastern Sierra for the first time, you’ll quickly notice a few things: there are lots of photographers there shooting the aspens, the aspen groves are spread all over the eastern Sierra from Owens Valley up to and beyond the highest road access, and aspen conditions vary wildly depending upon a whole range of factors. Sometimes it can feel like everyone else must be finding great aspens to photograph but that you just aren’t in the right place at the right time.

A few years ago I figured out that there is a sort of ad hoc spontaneous information network that springs up on the “east side” during aspen season. You are seeing the beginnings of it already when you read my blog and those of others posting aspen hunting advice, speculation, and current reports. But another component of this occurs on the scene.

Despite all of the predictions and reports about the aspens, in the end no one knows for certain which areas will peak when or which will be great this year or fail to produce – there are a ton of variables that make this less than completely predictable. Fortunately, with so many photographers in the eastern Sierra, the word can spread fast.

While I don’t recommend going around and pestering photographers who are intently focusing on photographing a particular scene, I do recommend saying “hi” and generally being friendly with other photographers you meet. In addition to making some new friends and maybe picking up a tip or two, quite often each photographer knows a bit about the evolving puzzle of where to find the best color. I often ask, “How is the photography going? Where have you been shooting?” In many cases, the answers can help you start to develop a picture of how the aspen color is evolving and where to look for it. You might get an answer like “I was up at Sabrina yesterday and wind had blown down many of the leaves, but I just talked to someone who says that the color at the upper end of North Lake is great – but this morning I saw 12 vans carrying workshop participants up there! While I was at Sabrina I met a woman who said she had found a great grove along the road up McGee Canyon…”

Speak to enough other photographers in the field and you’ll pick up a ton of useful information. In addition, you have a pretty good chance of running into other photographers at the restaurant in the evening or in your campground, at coffee shops very early in the morning, or even at places like the Whoa Nellie Deli or Starbucks, etc during the day. Some folks even set up impromptu meetings during the “boring light” midday hours – watch on various photo forums and you may pick up on some of these.

And if you see me up there shooting, please do say “hi!”

Commentary, Locations, News, Photographers

Michael Frye on fall photography in Yosemite and the Sierra

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Michael Frye has just posted a very useful guide to fall photography in Yosemite and the Sierra at his blog. Frye has a great deal of experience here, especially with The Valley itself – you may know him as the author of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

I was interested to read that he really loves November photography in The Valley – as it is also at the top of my list of great times for photography there. Right at the beginning of the month I love to shoot the fall colors – wonderful big leaf maples, red leaves of dogwood trees, and the brown to golden colors of the oaks and the dry meadows. I find the weather during this month to be some of the most conducive to photography… basically you can run into almost anything: the first real snows of the season, arriving and clearing storms ringing the Valley walls with clouds, beautiful golden light of autumn, waterfalls that may come back to life after autumn rain, and much more.