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

Bare Aspen Thicket

Image November 1, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Stark trunks in a dense and nearly bare aspen thicket east of the Sierra Nevada.

This isn’t the first time I’ve recounted the story of this photograph — it is one of a few that I made on a morning that took us to a high location east of the Sierra where photographs of the nearby aspens ended up being a bit more successful than the anticipated long shots of the Sierra crest at dawn. We were — of course! — up and on the road from our Eastern Sierra camp before dawn, heading east from US 395 into the high desert country. It was cold — below 10 degrees Fahrenheit along the way — and we arrived to find the atmosphere a bit too affected by wildfire smoke that muted and colored the long views in ways that were not quite what we had in mind.

Fortunately, as is so often the case, there were other things to see and photograph. Among these subjects was this thick grove of aspen trees standing in a broad valley below our position. These trees had actually been the other subject I was thinking of when I headed to this spot but, as I suspected, they were well past their prime autumn color. (Some trees out this way change color earlier than those in the Sierra.) But the dense pattern of light colored trunks and branches, with but a few remaining leaves, provided an interesting and complex subject before the direct dawn sunlight arrived at this location.

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: People, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Photographers

Charles Cramer In The Field

Image October 31, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Photographer Charles Cramer at work in the Eastern Sierra Nevada backcountry.

I made this photograph of friend and photographer Charles “Charlie” Cramer at work in the John Muir Wilderness this past summer during our (more or less) annual group foray into the backcountry for a week or so of photography. I think that several of us found ourselves in more or less this spot… because backlight is wonderful and the sun was just clearing the ridge on the other side of this small lake.

For those who may not know about such things, a word or two about some elements of the photograph. The little rectangular object in his hands is a so-called “framing card” or “framing tool” — a very useful thing to have when you are looking for compositions, since it literally puts a frame around what you are looking at. (There are several jokes about these objects. For example, you really need to carry two of them — the landscape- and portrait-mode versions. And why does Charlie carry larger versions than I use? His are appropriately sized for medium format photography, while mine are for full frame cameras.) And what’s with Charlie standing in the bright sun without a hat! “Welllll…” (as he might say)… the hat was in use just a moment earlier as a sunshade to block stray light from the front of the lens. All joking aside, one wonderful side benefit of going into the field with other photographers is that we often manage to photograph one another!

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

Aspen Grove, Fall Color

Image October 30, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shorter aspen trees at the edge of the grove, near the peak of Eastern Sierra Nevada fall color.

Over a few decades of photographing fall aspen color I have learned a few things, some of them seemingly contradictory. First, despite the annual attempts to figure out “when the color season will start,” it usually starts at pretty much the same time each year. (There are some variations, notably when the range experiences weather extremes such as drought or record-breaking precipitation.) Second, once a season gets underway there are many factors that can affect its progress — changes in temperature, the amount of moisture in the soil, elevation, storms (or lack of same), wind, and so forth. I’m still trying to decide how to characterize the 2019 aspen color season. Once underway it seemed, well, “odd.” In many places the color came early and didn’t last long, while in others there was great color. (For anyone still wondering, the aspen color season is essentially over now — but there’s always next year!)

I had first passed by this spot a week earlier — too early, as it turned out, but that was no surprise as I was there during the first few days of October. There certainly can be color that early, but better prospects typically come around a week into the month. I returned again the following week, but on our first attempt we got distracted by other subjects and by the time we arrived at this spot the light had changed and the trees were in full sun — which washed out the colors. So we came back the following morning, taking care to arrive a bit earlier than necessary, thus leaving time to find camera positions while the soft light still prevailed.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Pinnacles, Mono Basin, Morning

Image October 29, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Rocky pinnacles above the immense Mono Basin, early morning.

As I have written before, my visits to the Eastern Sierra to photograph autumn color often lead me to other non-autumn subjects in the area, and frequently subjects further east than these mountains. That was the case again this autumn, and on more than one occasion I got up early in the morning and left the Sierra to explore the western edge of the basin-and-range country to the east.

The photograph doesn’t give this away, but it was a very cold morning! Temperatures at our campsite in a canyon on the east side were below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and as we headed out into the more open high desert landscape to the east we saw the thermometer drop to as low as 9 degrees! We arrived at a high overlook before dawn, witnessed the first light on the eastern Sierra crest, and realized that there was quite a bit of wildfire haze floating around. That left me focusing on closer subjects or at least including nearer subjects as foreground to the more distant views. Below our position an impressive set of small buttes stood on the gentle slopes above the distant Mono Basin and the hills beyond.

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