Tag Archives: aspen

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

Aspens and Sage Brush, Evening

October 25, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

High desert aspen groves on sage-covered eastern Sierra hills

I’m continuing with one more characteristic eastern Sierra autumn photograph, though perhaps not the most common sort of view of the subject. The photograph does include some small groves of aspen trees in fall colors, but they are dwarfed by the immense scale of the rolling eastern Sierra foothills, covered by high desert sage brush, and cut with valleys containing creeks draining the eastern slopes of the range. I made this photograph in the early evening, just before sunset, as the low angle sun was sweeping across the crest and casting light and shadow almost parallel to the slope of the hills.

We usually look for fall aspen color in country that is higher and/or wetter — often somewhere up one of the great eastern Sierra canyons or perhaps along a ridge near the crest. But aspens grow in many places, some of which are unexpected or even surprising. They grow a good distance from the Sierra itself, sometimes far out in the high desert, and in areas that hardly seem alpine at all. Sometimes these are smaller trees, seeming to get by on less water and perhaps in a harsher climate, but occasionally they manage to form decent sized groves.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Aspen Slopes, Evening

October 23, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Back-lit aspens along the base of the eastern Sierra Nevada, evening

This eastern Sierra slope is filled with scattered groves of aspen trees, and because of its gentle slope upward to the west it catches the late afternoon light beautifully, backlighting the colorful autumn foliage. I photographed it perhaps a week or so before the peak of its autumn color — on the downside that means that some trees are still green, but it also means that no trees are yet completely bare.

This photograph can illustrate a few ideas about photographing such places. First, this is a location that I know very well, a popular and easily accessible location for seeing and photographing fall aspen color. As I’ve returned to it over the years, I have continued to photograph from the usual locations — but I’ve also poked around the area and I’ve found a few less obvious vantage points. That leads me to the second point, namely that it is often a good idea when photographing such things to try to get a little elevation on the subject. For this image I managed to find a spot that was perhaps a few hundred feet higher than the usual vantage points. Not only did this give a bit more separation to the beautiful ridges with their strips of rim light, but it also helped me avoid flare when shooting directly into the late afternoon sun.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Early Fall Color

October 22, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early fall color from aspens on rocky slopes in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

This is another photograph from my mid-September 2016 fall color reconnaissance trip to Yosemite’s high country and to the eastern Sierra. Initially when I planned this trip is was intended to be primarily a camping, hiking, and photography trip into the late summer Sierra landscape, with the fall color being a distinctly secondary part of my plan. I would typically not begin to actually photography fall color until a couple of weeks later, and the fall color orientation of this trip was to try to get an early idea of how things might shape up by early October. Much to my surprise, a quick visit to the east side of the range turned up enough early color to make aspen photography worthwhile.

I took an overnight trip down the east side, where I camped up in one of the big valleys cutting in toward the Sierra crest, just the kind of place where the aspens grow. One of the spots I visited was this familiar slope, a place where I often photograph in October and where a spectacular range of colors appears and stretches right up this rocky slope toward the summit ridge. Much to my surprise, the central part of this group of trees had already turned golden, though it was still ringed with green trees that I knew would provide excellent color for the next few weeks.

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

Early Fall Aspen Color

October 18, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early fall color among small, high elevation trees east of the Sierra Nevada

Back in the middle of September, several weeks before I would usually begin photographing autumn aspen color in California’s Sierra Nevada, I visited the range for an end-of-summer trip and with the idea that I might do some pre-autumn reconnaissance in order to try get some idea of what the fall color season might bring at the beginning of October. It was my plan to camp in Tuolumne Meadows, hiking and camping and photographing there, but also ventured out a bit further, especially to the east side of the range.

As expected, it wasn’t really fall color season just yet, however I did encounter much more color than I would have expected — enough, in fact, to do more than just look around. Before the trip was done I made “fall” color photographs in several locations on the east side of the range, but I also ventured further east of the Sierra to some high desert areas and other mountains where I’ve been poking around looking for color in the past few years. I had a hunch about one high ridge where I had explored back roads earlier and from which I knew there could be long views, including those back toward the eastern escarpment of the Sierra. Somewhat to my surprise, I found a lot of aspen color out here. Although much of it was in what might be termed “scrub aspens,” the color was impressive and many of the groves stretched into the distance over high mountain ridges.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: aspen

Aspens and Sage Brush, Evening

Aspen Slopes, Evening

Early Fall Color

Early Fall Aspen Color

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