Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

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

Autumn Light and Color

Image November 3, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Light through seasonal haze illuminates autumn trees in Yosemite Valley.

I have a few seasonal rituals, things I do and places I go every year. Visiting Yosemite Valley during its fall color season is high on the list. The Valley has color, but it comes later than the Eastern Sierra aspen transition. So I made one of my epic one-day up-and-back visits earlier this week. The plan: up hours before dawn, a four-hour drive to arrive just after sunrise, a few hours of morning photography, midday naps, more late-day photography… and then the four-hour drive back home again..

It is exhausting, but it is also exhilarating to see the peak color there once again, to renew my acquaintance with familiar subjects, and to investigate a few new ones. I know this specific location quite well — and if you visit the Valley much you probably know it, too. A gap in the Valley’s cliffs to the south-southwest allows beams of light to reach the valley floor and progress across the meadow and trees. I made a plan to be there for this light, and I made this photograph just as the light passed across this group of black oaks.

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.

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

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

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

Aspen Quintet

Image October 31, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Five aspen trees inside a dense grove with autumn leaves.

I love wandering in dense aspen groves, especially the sort with small, twisty trees. They look like they should be easy to photograph — after all, they are filled with white trunks, the light filters through the colorful canopy, and underfoot there are leaves and all sorts of other goodies. But once I enter the grove, it inevitably turns out to be harder than expected to find the elusive ideal subjects and compositions. A bit of bright sky overwhelms the trees, a distracting branch or boulder enters the frame, the colors are lovely but can’t be corralled into a composition, the undergrowth is too thick to traverse.

But I eventually I do find something that works and avoids (at least mostly) the pitfalls described above. I think that this little group of five white-trunk aspens is one that works. The trunks stand clear enough of the background details that their shapes are clearly visible. The background has no spots of intense daylight, and the colors range from green through golden-yellow to a bit of orange.

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

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

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

Aspens and Cliff, Autumn

Image October 30, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small copse of autumn aspens, surrounded by green plants and brush and backed by a rocky cliff.

This photograph comes from a location that I have visited for years, initially mostly for one particular view that I would rarely try to photograph these days. But it turns out — as always! — that there are other things to see and photograph close to this “one thing,” and I continue to enjoy going back and photographing them. Every time I go I discover something new.

This little group of trees, however, doesn’t really fit into that “something new” category, since I have photographed them before. Years ago, intrigued by the juxtaposition of trees and rocks, I tried to photograph them from very close up. I had some success, but it was eventually unsatisfying. The main issue was with camera angles — I ended up with two choices: either photographs of small elements in the scene (somewhat successful) or angling up to take in the whole tree (less successful!). But it turns out that I can work from a much greater distance and narrow the amount of cliff included behind the trees.

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

Morning View of the Sierra Crest

Image October 28, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn view of Sierra Nevada crest peaks in the Yosemite region.

For several years I have been exploring areas east of the Sierra Nevada, partly because they are interesting (and often surprising) in their own right, but also because they sometimes afford interesting views of the Sierra crest and eastern escarpment. I often end up out here during my autumn explorations, perhaps because they are more likely to put me in a vehicle than on foot — but also because there are surprisingly impressive examples of autumn color out here.

I have spent more than a few very cold mornings in this area, waiting in the predawn dark for the first light to strike the distant peaks. Here it comes from behind me, over my left shoulder. It takes a while for the sun to clear the ridges behind me and illuminate the valleys and ridges between here and the Sierra. The peaks in this photograph stretch from the Ritter-Banner summits to some of the highest backcountry peaks in Yosemite National Park.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Light and Color

Aspen Quintet

Aspens and Cliff, Autumn

Morning View of the Sierra Crest

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.