Tag Archives: aspens

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: People, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Photographers, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Photographer Patricia Mitchell

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Photographer Patricia Mitchell
Photographer Patricia Mitchell at work in early morning autumn light in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Photographer Patricia Mitchell. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Photographer Patricia Mitchell at work in early morning autumn light in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Someone has a birthday this week, so it seems appropriate to feature a photograph of, um, someone here. Photography is often a solitary activity — one person, a subject, a camera, how to see — and most of the time the two of us photograph alone. But every so often we get a chance to head out together on a trip that involves photography. We had such an occasion earlier this fall — and it has been too long! — when we did a weeklong trip that took us to the Eastern Sierra Nevada and then to Utah and a few nearby locations.

We started in the Sierra, where we headed into the eastern part of the range in search of fall color. Perhaps “search” is the wrong word here, as it is easy to locate! Instead of going to the “usual places” we wandered up some less-travelled roads, including the one that took us to this spot right beneath the eastern escarpment, a place with very few other people where the high desert and the beginnings of true mountain terrain intersect. We arrived on a brilliantly lit morning, with fall color everywhere, and a bit of early snow still on the peaks.

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: Nature

Autumn, Eastern California Mountains

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Autumn, Eastern California Mountains
Early autumn color in mountains east of the Sierra Nevada

Autumn, Eastern California Mountains. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn color in mountains east of the Sierra Nevada.

This was a wonderful day in many ways — as a mountain experience, as photography, and as an exploration. I was in the Eastern Sierra Nevada in mid-September, that post-Labor Day period when the crowds diminish and the weather starts to change convincingly in the direction of autumn, but still with warm and sunny days. On this day I woke very early and decided to head east of the Sierra. I was on the road before dawn, and I ended up exploring an area that was mostly new to me.

I was surprised by the number of aspen trees out here that had already changed colors. In the locations I frequent in the Sierra the change was mostly still a week or two away, but here many trees were already showing peak color. As I explored I found a high overlook — the summit of a low peak — where there were expansive views across layers of receding forested mountain ranges.

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

First Autumn Color

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First Autumn Color
Early season fall color comes to aspen-covered mountains east of the Sierra Nevada

First Autumn Color. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early season fall color comes to aspen-covered mountains east of the Sierra Nevada.

Sometimes heading away from the sure thing reveals wonderful surprises. Sometimes following up on previous explorations works, too. Occasionally the two align. A year to two earlier we had taken a long drive east of the Sierra Nevada on a fall day. We had been photographing autumn color on the east side of the range, and one morning we simply decided to try something different, so we went the opposite direction, ultimately ending up along the Nevada border. On a long, looping drive back toward the Sierra we drove down a long valley where we “discovered” a single, marvelous grove of aspens. We kept going, reaching a junction, and after exploring a bit more took a turn that headed back toward the area near Yosemite. Driving up a long, dry valley I looked west toward a range that stood between us and the Sierra and saw that there were aspens up high on its flanks.

On the trip when I made this photograph I really didn’t think I was likely to find aspens, and my plan was to head out here — again to the east of the Sierra — to do a bit of reconnaissance in preparation for returning a few weeks later during the normal peak of the fall color season. One thing led to another, and I ended up on some backroads passing through the very mountains that I had looked at on that previous visit, and much to my surprise there were already vast groves of aspens that had turned. To make this photograph I drove up to a rather high spot — 4WD was my friend on this little detour — from which I could look down at the forest and across to the highest peaks above them, past the still-green heart-shaped grove in the foreground.

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

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

Shoreline, Fallen Tree, Autumn Aspens

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Shoreline, Fallen Tree, Autumn Aspens
Beyond a dead tree lying in shoreline grasses, an autumn aspen grove rises up a Sierra Nevada hillside

Shoreline, Fallen Tree, Autumn Aspens. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Beyond a dead tree lying in shoreline grasses, an autumn aspen grove rises up a Sierra Nevada hillside

Trying to find different ways to photograph this well-known subject, here I excluded some of the most characteristic features, included both the near and far shorelines, and placed an old fallen tree in the lower part of the frame. If memory serves, that dead tree has been there for a while, and I may have thought of incorporating it during previous visits. The grassy foreground — with grass growing in the lake — produces its own interesting fall colors as it changes from green to brown.

The grove of brilliantly colored aspens across the lake is, at this point, iconic. Indeed, there are frequently quite a few people photographing here. I arrived at an atypical time of day, and on an afternoon when the clouds may have made the conditions seem unpromising to some. As a result there was hardly anyone else there! The clouds worked to my advantage, as they softened the light coming onto the grove from the left, filling the shadows with a bit more light and avoiding the overly bright highlights that are difficult to deal with in full sun.

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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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