Tag Archives: autumn

“AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” Day (Morning Musings for 8/18/14)

August 18, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

Late summer morning fog clears about oak and grass-covered California hills. (And yes, it is the same image I shared earlier as today’s daily photograph.)

I first encountered “AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” day — which is my own invention, so don’t try to look it up! — many years ago on a Sierra Nevada backpacking trip. I recall the day specifically, even though it was decades ago. At the time I didn’t know quite what it was even though I clearly sensed the symptoms. As we hiked, we passed an expansive, remote meadow in which a large group of deer were feeding. It was a summer day by the calendar, but it felt different from all of the previous days of that summer. The day was windy and we felt compelled to wear warmer clothes than on other days on this trip. After that I began to notice it more regularly and pay attention to it, and I am now aware of its arrival every year.

It comes unannounced and not on any specific day. For me it typically shows up on a day in the middle of August, at a point when we are just a bit closer to the end of summer than to its beginning. I suspect that its arrival is a rather subjective thing, and that it varies by location and each person’s exposure and sensitivity to natural patterns — though this week when I pointed out its arrival to my wife while we were walking, she agreed that she felt it, too.

I cannot quite put my finger on what it is that I sense, even though I’m certain that it is here when I do sense it. I think that the quality of light has something to do with it, and yesterday we both agreed that it made sense to speak of this light as being somehow “softer.” I know it when I see it, and when I then pay attention to the light I detect a certain loss of clarity in the atmosphere, almost as if there is a bit more of a luminous haze.

But it isn’t just the light. One August I was backpacking across a meadow in the Yosemite Sierra and suddenly becoming aware of it. Again, although I recognized what I was feeling, I wasn’t completely clear about the specific cause, though I had a very clear sense that it had to do with a change in the sound quality of the wind and the way it carried across space. More recently I experienced it while hiking though a place much like that in the photograph accompanying this post, and as I hiked I tried to understand as many aspects of it as I could. The morning breeze had a crisp edge, even though the sunlight was warm. There was a glowing haze as morning fog cleared. I walked past piles of fallen oak leaves and noticed a faint sweet, musty autumn fragrance, and as I walked on them I felt and heard their crunch. I wondered whether it might be that, at some subconscious level, I was aware that the sun was now a bit lower in the sky, or if I was more aware that seasonal plants had stopped growing and were now in decline.

On this day, whenever it arrives and without any doubt, I have a certain awareness of the inevitable approach of autumn and the fading away of summer. Until this day I live in the patterns of summer, taking the warm weather for granted, complaining about the heat, and making summer plans and perhaps putting them off, comfortable in the knowledge that there is plenty of summer left. I watch my vegetable garden grow and anticipate the ripening of vegetables and fruit. But then, on “AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” day, my perspective switches — now summer is no longer coming nor here, but instead coming to an end. Summer things must be done soon. It is time to plant a fall garden. And out there on the horizon of my thinking now are autumn and then winter… my favorite seasons of the year.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.© Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Commentary, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Thinking Aloud

Is It Ever Too Early To Dream of Aspen Color?

July 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Small stands of aspens with autumn leaves stand in front of a talus slope, eastern Sierra Nevada.

Is it ever too early to dream of aspen color? In a word, no.

Every summer around this time I start to think about fall color, and for me that primarily means eastern Sierra Nevada aspen color. I’m not quite sure what triggers the thoughts. Sometimes when I’m in the Sierra — and I am not there right now — it can be some nearly imperceptible changes in the light, the atmosphere, the patterns of annual growth, or even the sound of the wind. It might also be something as simple as my now innate “tuning in” to annual cycles, something that I think we are all more able to do than we might imagine.

On hot northern California days like this one, it certainly does not feel at all like autumn. Yet, I know that the first real signs of the seasonally change will appear high in the Sierra in barely 8 weeks, and the aspen color will arrive only a few weeks after that.

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

Aspen Grove, Autumn Snow

January 8, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Autumn snow blankets a grove of nearly bare aspen trees

We began this year’s main eastern Sierra “aspen chasing” trip on a day when an early season snow storm closed all of the passes that are not designated at being “all-season,” so Tioga, Sonora, and Ebbetts were all closed. Our best alternative was to cross on highway 88 over Carson Pass. Not that this is a bad thing! Carson features large stands of aspens on the west side of the pass and then the descent through aspen-filled Hope Valley on the east side. From there we headed down through Markleeville and up over Monitor Pass, which also has large aspen stands near its summit. After descending, we headed south on highway 395 toward Bishop, with light rain or snow falling all day – in my view, perfect conditions for autumn photography!

Along the way we made plenty of stops and a few side excursions to explore various side canyons, many of which I know fairly well from past visits. This photograph was made on one of those side roads, and this particular stand of aspen trees is one that I know very well. I’ve stopped here every year for some time now, in conditions ranging from almost fully green trees (too early!) to bare trees (too late!), and in sun and clouds and wind and snow. This time we found that the little grove was close to the highest elevation of the remaining colorful trees, so we stopped and I spent a little time photographing inside the grove… in lightly falling snow and a very cold wind.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

White-faced Ibis

January 1, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A white-faced ibis feeding in a shallow pond, California Central Valley

As a relative newbie to serious bird photograph, I recall my first “discovery” of the white-faced ibis. On an early visit to a California Central Valley wildlife refuge I had been astonished by the huge numbers of birds passing by overhead, and frankly I made a lot of photographs without any idea of what I was capturing. (I still don’t always know for sure – in November I thought I had photographed Ross’s geese, only to be surprised to find that a closer inspection of the photos revealed them to be snow geese.) I recall one morning out near the levee of a major Sacramento Valley river when I saw a beautiful group of birds approaching in dawn light and I managed to get a very nice photograph of “some birds” overhead – and later a friend remarked, “Those are tundra swans!” I’d never even heard of tundra swans before, much less looked for them.

So my first ibis photographs were accidents. I recall photographing a very impressive wedge of black birds flying overhead a few years ago, and then discovering as I worked on the files in post that the birds had surprising (to me!) long and curved bills. I had no idea what this meant, but I was intrigued. I eventually asked a friend who suggested that they might be white-faced ibises. This, like quite a few bird names, confused me, since I had never seen such a bird with a white face. It turns out that I had seen them… but the “white-faced” stage is, as I found out just last week, a seasonal thing! In late November of this year I returned to one of my bird photography haunts and found a very large number of these ibises in one area of the refuge I visited. And not only were there many of them, but they were rather close to my position – so I ended up with a nice basic set of photographs of this particular kind of bird. This specimen was feeding in grasses in shallow water, and as it poked around looking for something to eat it would regularly immerse its beak almost up to its head. I like several things about this particular shot – the red eye is clearly visible, and the interesting feather coloration on this one is interesting. (It can range from black to quite colorful.)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: autumn

“AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” Day (Morning Musings for 8/18/14)

Is It Ever Too Early To Dream of Aspen Color?

Aspen Grove, Autumn Snow

White-faced Ibis

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