Tag Archives: aspen

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

Aspens and Dome, Eastern Sierra

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Aspens and Dome, Eastern Sierra
A line of autumn aspen trees in front of a rocky dome, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Aspens and Dome, Eastern Sierra. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A line of autumn aspen trees in front of a rocky dome, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This photograph comes from a morning of Eastern Sierra exploration into an area that I would not typically go to for fall color photography — not because there is no fall color there to photograph, but because it isn’t exactly the most accessible place to find it. For sure, there are easier places to find the color nearby. We put the 4Runner in 4WD and slowly tracked up toward the base of the range, eventually gaining enough elevation that there were aspens, the sort that live in harmony with surrounding high desert foliage of rabbitbrush and sage.

It was a beautiful morning of the sort that you’ll only find here in autumn. A weak storm has been through a few days earlier, and there was a dusting of snow on the highest Sierra crest peaks and behind us, across Owens Valley, on the White Mountains. Despite the recent storm the morning warmed nicely, and the sunlight was warm as we photographed. Here a small row of aspens, midway through the color change process, stood against a small, rocky dome, and beyond that in the haze-obscured distance were higher hills rising toward the summit of the range.

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

The Last Leaves

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The Last Leaves
An aspen tree with a few remaining autum leaves, against a cliff face wtih snow.

The Last Leaves. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Aspen trees with a few remaining autumn leaves, against a cliff face with snow.

The Sierra Nevada experience of the past year-and-a-half or so has been… strange. Everything has changed since our world was turned upside down in March of 2020, and my ability to visit and photograph my favorite mountain range has not been an exception. During the first summer we saw many locations simply shut down, and I didn’t really get into the Sierra until the very end of that summer — but only for very brief visits and one aborted pack trip that I had to cancel as a result of the intense wildfire smoke. By last winter I was again able to more comfortably get to non-Sierra locations including Death Valley, where it was possible to work in relative isolation, but the Sierra remained difficult to access. I got up there a few times later in the season, but it wasn’t until this fall that I felt that I was beginning to reconnect with this landscape.

In mid-October we put together an actual road trip. It began with a couple of nights in the Eastern Sierra before continuing on to Southwest Utah, another location that I hadn’t been to in far too long. This brief autumn Sierra visit (which followed another visit a week earlier) was a bit later than usual, and we ended up visiting a few places that I usually overlook… and heading to a few “old friends” even though they were past their prime. I made this photograph in one of those places, a location where the colors are usually spectacular a bit earlier in the season. I knew that wouldn’t be the case this time, so we went there a bit later in the day after photographing more promising morning subjects. We arrived, made a quick stop, and I spotted this small group of trees in the shadow of a cliff. They were nearly at the end of their color transition and most of the leaves were gone, but those that remained glowed in the bit of light arriving over the top of the cliff.

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

Shades of Autumn

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Shades of Autumn
A scene of dense vegetation with fall color, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Shades of Autumn. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A scene of dense vegetation with fall color, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

On this day I came upon a dense grove of small aspen trees mixed with some autumn-colored mountain willows with their slightly less flamboyant brownish fall color. At the time I arrived the trees were in the shadow of the tall mountains nearby, and the light had a bit of a blue quality. It was also soft and diffused, leading to an absence of very bright highlights and filling the shadows with light, too. The aspen leaves stood out a bit from the background with they yellow color.

Looking for some kind of order and structure in such dense subjects is a challenge, one that forces the photographer to look beyond the obvious ways of seeing. Subtle lines in the dense and complex texture can be enough to direct the eye. Slight contrasts in luminosity or color become important. And the lack of a single strong central subject lets the eye wander about the frame and take in the complexity of the scene.

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

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

Aspen Grove in Back Light

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Aspen Grove in Back Light
Bright back-light accentuates the colors of autumn Sierra Nevada aspen trees.

Aspen Grove in Back Light. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Bright back-light accentuates the colors of autumn Sierra Nevada aspen trees.

This grove of small aspens presented a photographic problem. Due to Sierra Nevada wildfires, smoke had drifted across the entire range from west to east. There was an ugly haze in the sky that obscured any distant features and which discolored the light. Often in such conditions I will photograph with black and white in mind since that can actually take advantage of the haze in some situations. However, although it is possible to photograph fall color in black and white, this grove’s intense colors called for, well, a color photograph.

The solution had two parts. First, I used a longer lens to exclude the larger landscape, leaving only the small grove of trees in a little valley below my position. Second, I positioned myself where the sun was directly behind the grove, and the back-light lit the leaves from behind, almost making them glow and intensifying the autumn colors.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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.