Category Archives: Photographs: Fall

Photographs of fall color

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Reflections

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Aspen Reflections
Autumn aspen trees reflected in an eastrern Sierra Nevada pond.

Aspen Reflections. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees reflected in an eastrern Sierra Nevada pond.

Each year at about this time I ask, “Is it ever too early to start thinking about fall color?” The answer, of course, is no. Autumn is my favorite season for all kinds of reasons — the colors, of course, but also the return of cooler temperatures and “interesting” weather and shorter daylight hours. The period between Labor Day and the arrival of late-autumn snow is my favorite time in the Sierra. There’s nothing as beautiful as a late-September or early-October day in the high country.

As a person who has photographed Eastern Sierra aspens a lot — and who has written a book on the subject — the way I see this subject has evolved over the years. While I’m still impressed by a hillside completely full of colorful trees, I am constantly looking for other ways to photograph this subject. Here I aimed the camera down toward the surface of an Eastern Sierra pond, framing to exclude anything but the brilliant colors of a grove on the other side of the water.

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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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Conifers And Scrub Aspens

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Conifers And Scrub Aspens
Conifers among small autumn aspen trees, eastern Sierra Nevada.

Conifers And Scrub Aspens. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Conifers among small autumn aspen trees, eastern Sierra Nevada.

This should be my final Sierra Nevada photograph that I’ll share in 2019… but expect more in the coming year! I’m using the term “scrub aspen” to refer to these small trees, even though it isn’t widely used. When we think of autumn aspen trees the taller and often straighter trees come to mind. But in the Sierra these trees come in an amazing range of shapes and sizes. Although they are rare, you can find the same tall and straight trees that you might associate with groves in places like Colorado, but trees that are more twisted are more common here. Many are not that large, and in some rocky areas they may be no taller than you are.

These smaller “scrub aspens” growing on rocky slopes frequently seem to be among the first to change colors in the fall. In fact, these were already fully covered in colorful leaves even though it was just a few days into October. (I generally regard the peak of Sierra aspen color as coming around the second week of the month.) I photographed this scene late in the day, when the sun had dropped behind the peaks of the Sierra crest, leaving this valley in shadow.

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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Pond, Tree

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Autumn Pond, Tree
Autumn colors on a small tree in a wetlands pond

Autumn Pond, Tree. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn colors on a small tree in a wetlands pond.

Central Valley landscapes such as this one often cause me to stop and consider what this area was once like. Today it is mostly agricultural land, marked of into neat squares with water coming from extensive irrigation systems, cut through by roads and highways connecting the increasingly populous cities of the area. But not much more than 100 years ago it was a very different place. One reminder for me is a description that John Muir wrote in the 1800s, remarking on vast fields of wildflowers that he saw as he walked (!) to the Yosemite Sierra. Historically, many parts of the Valley were also quite wet places, with marshy lowlands fed by many rivers and creeks draining from the mountains. (Much of this water is now captured, channelled, and devoted to agriculture.)

Fortunately, some remnants of the old marshlands (and even the original grassland prairie) have been protected. Many of the marshlands were protected, as I understand it, as part of the wildlife refuge program. One of the reasons for this is that hunters did not want to see all of the waterfowl disappear. Recently I read that there is yet another practical benefit to these places — birds that stay in them are less likely to feed on winter crops! In any case, these places now help protect remaining migratory bird populations… and they provide beautiful reflections for landscape photographers!

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Nature

Three Trees, Fog

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Three Trees, Fog
Three trees on a foggy Central Valley late-autumn morning

Three Trees, Fog. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three trees on a foggy Central Valley late-autumn morning.

This group of trees, and especially the central one, have gradually become “old friends” of mine when I photograph in California’s Great Central Valley each winter. (If you photograph frequently in a favorite location, I’ll bet that you have some similar personal favorites!) Every time I pass by here, coming around a particular curve in the road, I spot the first tree and begin considering how it relates visually to the elements behind it, primarily including the other two “mirror image” trees.

The conditions in the photograph are fairly typical of late-autumn up and down this great valley, which stretches hundreds of miles from the southern end (where roads lead over mountains to the LA Basin) to the north (where Mount Shasta looms). When the conditions are right (or “wrong” if you live out there and it is the thirtieth day of them!) the damp air is very still and tule fog forms. This fog is dense but not deep — you might not be able to see more than a hundred feet in front of you but you can look up and see the sun or stars. The fog completely transforms this landscape, eliminating the sense of grand space and scale and instead producing a sense of intimacy and mystery.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.