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

Layered Groves

Image October 26, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Parallel rows of Eastern Sierra Nevada aspen trees in varying stages of color.

So, how good has this Eastern Sierra autumn color season been… or not been? To be honest, that is a tough question to answer. If it was the first time you’ve been there for the annual changing of the aspen (and other vegetation) and you got to the right spots at the right time in the right conditions… there’s every chance that you found it to be incredible. And, to be honest, even when the entire range doesn’t light up with autumn color, you can find great color in the area you are visiting and all is good. After seeing quite a few autumn color change cycles in the Sierra, for me this one was just OK. But, odd as it may sound, that has its pluses, too. One of them is that it gives me good reason to look more closely and to look in different places… and to remember that the experience of autumn is not just about colorful leaves.

I visited this spot a couple times during the eight days I spent in the Eastern Sierra over a period of a couple of weeks. On my first visit most of the trees were still green, and I had looked forward to returning a bit later when those green trees transitioned. Surprisingly, when I returned perhaps a week later I found that most of the trees here had already lost their leaves or that the leaves had simply turned brown. But I don’t give up easily! Late in the day, with the low-angle light coming from the right direction, it was possible to frame compositions that juxtaposed the bare trees with those that still held some color. I made this photograph just a few minutes before the sun dropped behind the Sierra crest to the west.

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

Bare Aspen Grove

Image October 25, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A grove of small and nearly bare autumn aspen trees.

We went to this location on a very early morning during the first half of October, a morning whose cold temperatures reminded us in the clearest terms that summer had now passed. I selected the spot for a couple of reasons: it can provide a beautiful long view of a section of the Sierra Nevada crest at dawn and there are aspens in the non-Sierra location. As the sun came up we discovered that wildfire smoke and clouds to the east would make this dawn less than the most spectacular we had seen. The sun also revealed that most of the aspens here had already lost their colorful leaves, despite the relatively early date.

If you are out there photographing enough you’ll find that the days of stupendously beautiful conditions are counterbalanced by other days that are less spectacular. (The good news is that if you are out often enough you will find the former enough to excuse the latter!) This was, at least in terms of what I originally had in mind to photograph, a morning that didn’t provide what I had hoped for. Yet, in many such situations, a look around and will frequently reveal something else, sometimes unexpected, that may make a worthy photograph. Immediately below our position on small ridge the aspen forest descended a small valley, and as I looked more closely at the nearly-leafless trees I feel that the groves of stark, bare trunks might be a good subject.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Panorama, First Light

Image October 24, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The very first dawn light touches the tips of peaks in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This photograph comes from our weeklong expedition into the John Muir Wilderness back at the end of August and the first few days of September. To recap, “we” are a group of photographers who photograph the Sierra backcountry every year. (The group’s history dates back almost two decades, and I’ve been coming along for about ten years.) This year we were sponsored by Yosemite Renaissance, so we were accompanied by a several other artists connected with that organization. We typically set up a backcountry base camp in a “target-rich” location, and then spend a week getting to know the place and photographing the heck out of it.

I made this photograph mere steps from my tent. I got up before dawn, wandered around looking at subjects in the quiet pre-dawn light, and finally arrived back at this lakeside location as the first light touched the tops of the peaks. An advantage of staying in one location for a period of time is that you can scout a lot, determining best times and angles and finding lots of potential subjects. This one was on that list — I had visited it previously when the light was less conducive to photography, filed the location away along with a mental note about timing, and then returned a few days later at the appointed time.

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

First Fall Color

Image October 23, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An eastern Sierra Nevada aspen grove with first signs of autumn color.

One of the risks of starting my annual Eastern Sierra fall aspen color hunt a bit early is that I just might arrive too early for the color! That was mostly the case this year, when I made my first aspen-focused trip right at the beginning of October. The timing of the color transition can vary a bit from year to year, but I usually bet on the start of widespread color coming near the end of the first week of the month. Last year it came earlier — I photographed large groves of small trees at a location near the Sierra near the end of September, and I found good color close to the start of the month. That experience led me to start early this year.

There was some color when I arrived on October 2, but it was not widespread. Some of the higher elevation “scrub aspen” growing on rocky soil were changing to yellow, but most of the larger trees were still green. There were a few notable exceptions where groves had changed. More common were sights like this one — mostly green trees, leaning toward the lighter “lime green” color that comes before the transition, plus a few actual yellow leaves. This particular grove presented me with a special lighting situation. The trees were in the shaded bottom of a deep canyon, but across the canyon and beyond my camera position there was a large open slope that lay in direct sunlight. This rocky terrain reflected the warmer-colored light directly into the grove, giving a bit more light to the trees along its edge.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Layered Groves

Bare Aspen Grove

Panorama, First Light

First Fall Color

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