Tag Archives: alpine

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Red and Orange Aspen Leaves

October 24, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Intensely colorful red and orange autumn aspen leaves in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

Late in the day on this rainy eastern Sierra fall day I headed for a small dirt side road that I know of in the Bishop Creek drainage. Along this road are a few special aspen groves that I have photographed in the past, including one with very slender trees and sometimes fiery colors. This time I was there a bit earlier than in the past and, ironically, the leaves on these trees were so thick that they didn’t lend themselves to the photograph I had in mind. I did make a few photograph of these trees – one of which will likely appear here before long – but then I decided to try something other than what originally brought me to this spot.

I put the 135mm f/2 lens on the camera – perhaps not a typical landscape lens, but quite nice for shooting close images of leaves and creating soft background blur – and went hunting for small groups of leaves with appropriate backgrounds. Because it was late in the day and in an area where the sun drops behind ridges fairly early and overcast and raining intermittently, the light was really interesting. While this light can mute some colors, it also fills in the shadows a bit and can intensify the colors of bright subjects like the aspen leaves.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, Near Sabrina Lake

October 23, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Bright yellow-gold leaves of autumn Sierra Nevada aspen trees near Sabrina Lake, California.

I visited this small grove on a couple occasions during this weekend of eastern Sierra fall photography. I had primarily stopped to photograph a large nearby grove of very bright and colorful trees, but the arrangement of these tree trunks caught my attention and I spent some time shooting the subject in fading evening light and gentle rain.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Morning Fog on Hot Creek, Mount Morrison

October 22, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 11 Comments

Finding this shot was just about as random a process as I can imagine. I was in the eastern Sierra to photograph aspens, and staying in Mammoth Lakes. I woke up very early without a really solid idea of where I’d shoot that morning, but started out heading for Rock Creek, where I had seen great aspen color a week earlier. As I left Mammoth and headed south on highway 395 I noticed low fog out in Owens Valley – Crowley Lake was pretty much covered and it appeared that there were bits of fog here and there above creeks and springs in the valley. This started to look more interesting to me than photographing aspens again, so I changed plans and headed out into Owens Valley, not knowing precisely where or what I might find but thinking it would involve fog and mist and early morning light.

I first stopped and photographed near a small pond along side the road. After shooting here a bit – mostly shots pointing back toward the Sierra crest – I recalled that I had been on some gravel roads a bit further north of my position, and I decided to do a bit of exploring. I turned off on the first road going north and followed it until I found another interesting road that dropped down into a small valley and crossed a creek on an old rickety bridge – I later figured out that this was Hot Creek. A cloud of mist and fog was lying above the path of the creek, periodically thickening and thinning, and because it was not deep the morning sun was still somewhat lighting the scene through the fog. At times the peaks of the Sierra crest would gradually resolve through the fog. I set up and waited and made some exposures as the fog rose and fell, increased and decreased.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Mount Morgan and Slopes of McGee Mountain, Morning

October 18, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning light on the lower slopes of McGee Mountain, the McGee Creek Canyon area and snow-capped Mount Morgan, with Owens Valley sagebrush and hills in the foreground.

I began my early morning shoot in Owens Valley near a small lake further to the east where I wanted to photograph dawn light. I had a plan to shoot a few other subjects in the valley and back toward the Sierra crest as the sun rose and the light changed, and part of this plan included driving along a gravel road I know to a spot where I had photographed before to try to combine the high desert sagebrush and rolling hills with some of the tall and rugged, snow-topped peaks along the escarpment of the eastern Sierra. I found a spot in the general area of where I wanted to photograph and then wandered off down a small dirt track to find a location that would put the foreground shadow across the lower part of the frame.

The area of the Sierra in this photograph includes the sunlit lower slopes of McGee Mountain on the right, McGee Creek Canyon beyond that, and ridges leading to the snow-capped summit of Mount Morgan. I’m not certain whether they are visible in this photograph, but beyond that lies Pioneer Basin (on the other side of the crest) and a group of four peaks named for the “Railroad Barons” of the 1800s: Crocker, Stanford, Huntington, and Hopkins.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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