Tag Archives: autumn

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

Aspen Trees, Conway Summit, Fall

October 18, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 7 Comments

Aspen trees in peak color at Conway Summit along highway 395 in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

I isolated this small bit of near-psychedelic color from the extensive aspen groves at Conway Summit, along highway 395 just north of Lee Vining and Mono Lake along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada range. When I visited the grove this past weekend the colors seemed to be essentially at their peak with alternating rows of red, orange, gold, and even a few lime green trees marching up the slopes toward the Dunderberg area high above.

If you hit it at the right moment, the aspen color at this location is second to none, and a bonus for many is that it is so accessible, being right alongside the highway. Brilliant colors can occur on both sides of the summit, but those on the north side seem to me to be more varied, and it is a bit easier and safer to find a place to stop alongside the road.

The lighting during my visit was “interesting” – which often means good but with some challenges. From my point of view, the best light at Conway Summit, at least when it comes to photographing aspen color, occurs fairly late in the afternoon when the sun gets low in the sky and can backlight the groves of trees. However, because of the backdrop of Sierra Nevada peaks the interval of good light can be short – and it is distinctly before actual sunset. The “interesting” element during this visit was that clouds were building over the crest. This produces some spectacular sky conditions at times, but it also cast shadows across the trees that dulled the colors and lowered contrast. Now a bit of this can be a good thing, and too much backlight can be a bit difficult to handle. By scoping out perhaps three of four possible compositions from my position, I could wait until the “good light” hit one or another of them, swing the camera around in that direction, and work quickly while the light lasted. For this detail shot of a colorful section of the aspen groves just below my position I had what can perhaps be the very best light for such subjects – a bit of directional light from behind filtered through clouds.

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Commentary, Locations

Aspen Update 10/17/11

October 17, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

I’m back from my second trip to the eastern Sierra in as many weeks, and I’d like to share a bit of what I observed.

A week ago I visited and/or photographed several areas including Bishop Creek, Rock Creek, McGee Creek, a few areas around Mammoth Lakes, and Lee Vining Canyon. I also got reports from others who were there at the same time, and their reports tended to be in line with what I saw that week, namely that the trees that had been turning were interrupted by the early winter-like storm, dropping leaves or turning brown/black, and that lower elevation trees were mostly still green. At that time my hunch was that not much more was going to happen up high, but that the many green trees would provide color over the following couple of weeks.

This week I visited the portion of Bishop Creek in the South Lake drainage, areas on and near Glacier Lodge Road, the north section of the June Lakes loop near Parker Lake, Lee Vining Canyon, and Conway Summit. This visit confirmed some of my expectations from the previous week but also offered some surprises.

The thought that the loss of higher elevation leaves might mean that they were done for the season turned out to be not quite correct. This week I saw a surprising amount of color up high. In many places along the eastern escarpment I saw groves of brightly color trees marching right up many ridges.
Although I did not return to North Lake, I even heard reports that it had improved. (Though the person sharing the report pointed out that this would likely not be an exceptional year there.)
The color of the middle and lower level trees seems to be progressing very quickly. I was expecting middle elevation trees to turn by this week, but I was surprised by how low the color extended. If forced to make a prediction, I might guess that the season is going to run its course a bit faster than usual this year. (Stable weather this week – especially if the winds are light – might sustain things a bit longer.)

I feel like every aspen season has its own “personality” – whether it starts gradually or suddenly, early or a bit later, whether it is interrupted by weather events, and how long it lasts. The personality of this year’s eastern Sierra aspen season seems to include the storm that interrupted the early color up high, followed by a very rapid development of color about a week later.

I need to offer a few disclaimers. First, I only visited a small percentage of the places where aspen color may be found in a typical season. Second, while I can make some guesses about how things will evolve going forward, no one really knows. Third, if you are going to head out there to photograph the aspens this season, I urge you to check others sources of information on the conditions before you go.

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

Fallen Aspen Branch, Snow

October 11, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 7 Comments

Time to share aspen photos again! Each fall when the aspens change colors I head to the eastern Sierra to go aspen hunting! I made my first foray of the season this past weekend. I visited a number of the usual places – Bishop Creek, McGee Creek, Rock Creek, and Lee Vining Canyon. I’ve come to think that every aspen color season has a personality, defined by how and when and with what intensity the color appears, along with the related issues of the changing weather.

This year I think (from what I’ve heard) that the higher elevation trees were just changing colors about a week ago… before a strong early season storm came across the Sierra, dropping temperatures and quite a bit of snow. Over the weekend I saw up to about one foot of snow in places, which is an unusual amount for so early in the season. The aspen color was not exactly astonishing, and I think that the weather may be at least partially to blame. It seems that many of the mature colorful leaves were knocked down by the storm, and others that might now be colorful instead turned black and brown. While there was some interesting color, in many places I saw trees with leaves missing or trees that were almost fully still green.

The good news to take away from this is that since the lower elevation trees are still very green, there should be some fine aspen color very soon.

But I’ve often thought that a single leaf can be enough to make a photograph, and sometimes the single leaf can make a more effective image than a huge, colorful grove spanning many acres. So when I find that the color isn’t what I expected, one response is simply to look harder. As I walked along the road that passes North Lake, many of the subjects that I might have expected to photograph were nowhere to be seen. There were not large, spectacularly colorful trees. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground. So I looked harder… and one of the subjects I noticed was this single, small branch full of intensely colorful leaves lying on the snow.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

Autumn Color, Yosemite Valley

September 19, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Autumn colors on trees and meadows, Yosemite Valley.

These colors are a feature of late October and perhaps the very beginning of November in Yosemite Valley. In the right conditions, the browns and golds and oranges of these drying meadows and the leaves of these trees can be almost as spectacular as any other fall foliage.

A few years ago I discovered that here in California I can sustain the fall color season for months if I just look in the right places. What it might lack compared to the intensity of east coast hardwood forests, it makes up for in variety and length. I can often find early signs of the approaching fall by the beginning of September or even the end of August in the higher portions of the Sierra, as certain plants complete their growth cycle and start to die back. (Even in the coast ranges, there are a few trees that can get “fall” color during the heat of August.) By late September the pattern is clear at all high elevation locations in the Sierra, and then the tremendous aspen color show begins close to the start of October, extending a good way through the month. After that the lower elevations hills and mountains start to change – and that is what we see in this photograph from Yosemite Valley at 4000′ of elevation. But closer to sea level in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere the show is still to come, and colors can continue all the way through November if you know where to look.

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