Tag Archives: autumn

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Trunks, Bishop Creek

November 5, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of closely spaced aspen trunks in an autumn grove in the Bishop Creek, California area.

While the truly wild peak colors of the aspen trees are hard to resist, I also like the trees at other stages. This scene shows one other sort of condition that appeals to me as well. The trees might be described as being “past peak,” since most of the leaves have fallen and the bare trunks and branches are now becoming more visible. However, this opens up the light within the groves and gives a better view of the dense arrangement of trunks and branches, and the smaller number of leaves almost stand out more distinctly than the overwhelming masses of them that are seen a bit earlier in the season.

This photograph was made in mid-October. I had visited this area the previous week, but had been almost a bit disappointed by the color at that time. An early October series of cold winter-like storms had passed over the Sierra, leaving a beautiful coating of snow… but also bringing down many of the colorful leaves and turning others black or brown. But one week later, as if to compensate, up and down the east side of the Sierra the colors suddenly went wild.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Dense Aspen Grove, Bishop Creek

October 31, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft light filters through the canopy of a dense aspen grove near Bishop Creek, California.

I think that these dense aspen forest scenes ended up being something of a theme for me this fall. In this one I tried to find as dense an example of aspen forest as I could locate and then to make a photograph that may perhaps evoke the combination of diffused light coming down through the depleted canopy of yellow leaves and the very tightly packed trees. The trees in this grove are relatively small and closely packed – so close, in fact, that in places it is very hard to move among them. I used an ultra-wide lens to try to both bring as much of this detail into the frame and to let me work very close to the nearest trees. The closest tree is probably no more than about a foot from the camera.

Working in such close quarters, very small changes in camera position end up having large effects on the composition. In the end I found myself repositioning the camera and tripod by fractions of an inch from side to side. Although it isn’t easy to see in this small jpg version, the complex detail of branches and leaves eventually recedes into the distance near the far edge of the grove and the grove becomes a bit lighter along that farthest fringe.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Mount Humphreys and the Sierra Crest, Dawn

October 30, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Dawn light falls on the snow-dusted summit of Mount Humphreys and the Sierra Crest above Bishop, California.

On this morning I paused along highway 168 on my way to photograph fall aspen color in the Bishop Creek Canyon area to photograph the first light on the Buttermilk Range and along the section of the Sierra crest near Mt. Humphreys and Center Peak. My main reason for stopping here was to photograph the Buttermilks, the rocky hills along the giant “fan” rising from Bishop toward the base of the escarpment of the eastern Sierra. The plan was to find a good vantage point, put a long lens on the camera, and then pick out various features of the range as the edge of the first light hit them.

With that in mind, I was set up here before dawn and standing around in the cold morning air waiting for the light to arrive. Obviously, before the dawn light can get down to the elevation of the Buttermilks it must first hit the peaks of the crest, and who can resist that kind of light? The very first light that just touched the tip of Mount Humphreys, near the right side of the frame, was almost too intense in comparison to the shadowed lower slopes, so I continued to wait until the light, still very saturated with color, illuminated the full upper faces of the crest and began to light up the lower peaks to the east.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Color, South Fork Bishop Creek

October 29, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Brilliant peak autumn color in aspen groves along the south fork of Bishop Creek, eastern Sierra Nevada.

One week earlier I had visited this same area only to find a mixture of trees that had lost their leaves during a series of early fall snow storms and trees that were essentially still fully green. What a difference a week made! This fall it seemed that once the color change started, it moved quickly. Not only were these middle elevation trees in full autumn color, but in many places the color extended all the way down to the edge of Owens Valley.

These trees are along the south fork of Bishop Creek, off of the road to South Lake, and not far from so-called “Mist” or “Misty” falls. (I’m skeptical about this waterfall – it gives every appearance of having been constructed by redirecting water to a place where it would not likely flow naturally. I’ll welcome accurate information about that.) Perhaps because these trees grow in a fairly open and wide valley, many of them have managed to grow rather tall and quite straight, in contrast to a number of other Sierra groves that consist of small and often twisted trees. The rows of trees angle up slopes from the creek in the valley bottom and seem to be arranged in diagonal groves that ascend the hillside.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: autumn

Dense Aspen Grove, Bishop Creek

Mount Humphreys and the Sierra Crest, Dawn

Aspen Color, South Fork Bishop Creek

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