Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Color, East of the Sierra

Image November 2, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fall color spreads across hillsides in mountains east of the Sierra Nevada.

After photographing autumn color in the Eastern Sierra for a few decades, I still return every year and remain fascinated by the subject. After all of this time I “discover” new subjects and new ways to see old ones every time. But eventually I figured out there’s more to fall color than just the familiar locations, and I branched out in various ways. Now I occasionally head east from the Sierra, toward basin and range country. I’m not certain whether this location qualifies geologically as basin and range, but it most assuredly is not the Sierra.

Over the past few years I’ve explored this area, going beyond even the parts of it that are somewhat known to photographers — heading out on some narrow little dirt tracks just to see where they go. This fall I ended up on a narrow road that descended toward a canyon, and across the valley was one of the more extensive blankets of autumn color that I’ve seen in California. The trees are not large, but they stretch on for great distances.

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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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Woman in Museum Doorway

Image November 1, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A woman stands in a doorway to an empty gallery, Uffizi Museum, Florence.

Most of this museum in Florence, Italy consists of galleries filled with some of the culture’s greatest art. There is so much of it that it is truly overwhelming, and eventually it becomes Impossible to register all of it. But then something odd happened. We walked to this door and on the other side was simple an empty room with a spot of light glowing on the far wall. I stopped to photograph the light and quickly realized that the people passing in and out of the doorway were a more interesting subject — including this woman who pauses and twisted her body around to look backwards.

In much of landscape — thought not quite all of it — we often have time to think about what we are photographing and how to photograph it. We can move the tripod a bit to improve the composition, perhaps try more than one version and multiple variations of exposure and composition. One of the things that fascinates me about photographing urban subjects is that scenes happen so quickly, often assembling themselves spontaneously and then disappearing just as quickly — and the photographer has to work quickly and instinctively

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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.

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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.

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

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Autumn Color, East of the Sierra

Woman in Museum Doorway

Aspen Quintet

Aspens and Cliff, Autumn

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