Tag Archives: autumn

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

Red Leaves

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Red Leaves
Red autumn leaves, photographed on a Santa Clara Valley trail.

Red Leaves. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Red autumn leaves, photographed on a Santa Clara Valley trail.

These intensely colorful autumn leaves were along a footpath that I sometimes follow on my neighborhood walks — a regular event during the pandemic era. Mostly I follow sidewalks, but there is a fascinating detour that follow the route of an abandoned rail line that was eventually taken over and upgraded into a walking and cycling path. The foliage along the route is a combination of trees hanging over the fences of nearby properties and newer plantings that are part of the landscaping of this path. I came upon these leaves late on a slightly cloudy day, when the soft light beautifully illuminated the leaves.

The photograph is — once again! — a reminder that we don’t always have to travel to faraway places to make photographs, and that often there are subjects right in our neighborhoods. Carrying a camera in these places tends to make me more attentive to items of visual interest that I would likely not pay much attention to otherwise.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Big Sur Morning Surf

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Big Sur Morning Surf
Pacific Ocean surf crashes ashore on a foggy autumn morning along the Big Sur coast.

Big Sur Morning Surf. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pacific Ocean surf crashes ashore on a foggy autumn morning along the Big Sur coast.

This photograph comes from my early November visit to the upper portions of California’s rugged Big Sur Coast, an area I can visit on short notice. On this visit I left home before dawn, photographed there a few hours, and returned home for a late lunch. Yeah, I’m trying to rub it in… These visits usually feature a combination of stops at familiar locations, where I look for new or different conditions, and the ongoing search for new locations and perspectives that I have not previously photographed.

This photograph mostly fits the first of those two categories. I made the photograph at a location where I frequently stop. The spot features a long view of a beautiful subject beyond rugged rocks and a small bay that is often full of agitated water. On this morning the surf was so wild that I decided to focus on it instead of the larger view. Every few moments a huge wave would crash against this outcropping sending water and spray up into the line of sunlight coming over the tops of the mountains to my left.

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

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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

Solitary Aspen, Dark Forest

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Solitary Aspen, Dark Forest
A small autumn aspen tree in the light in front of dark forest.

Solitary Aspen, Dark Forest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small autumn aspen tree in the light in front of dark forest.

There is something about solitary trees standing against some sort of background. A friend has referred to them as “brave little tree” photographs — something I now think about every time I make one or see one. Landscape photography doesn’t always come quite this close to eliciting metaphorical associations, but I can certainly understand how one could make this association with these subjects. On a more prosaic note, from a purely compositional perspective, a single central subject posed against a larger and contrasting background often works visually, too.

This photograph was also an extra reminder to me about why I like to photograph non-iconic subjects. (Though I do have to admit that the solitary tree is a sort of generic icon, if that makes sense.) I rediscovered this photograph recently while reviewing some raw files from a couple of years ago. I usually record location information as I work on photographs, but with this one I could not even determine exactly where I made it! By sequencing the files before and after this exposure I was able to narrow it down to one very large drainage, but I don’t actually recall making the photograph! I I had worked with the file back when it was new, but I wasn’t fully satisfied with the result. When I came back to it I saw it in a somewhat different way, and I saw how to apply some newer post-processing tools to get the result I was after.

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

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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 Grove and Rocky Hill

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Aspen Grove and Rocky Hill
A small aspen grove and a rocky hill, high in the Buttermilks.

Aspen Grove and Rocky Hill. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small aspen grove and a rocky hill, high in the Buttermilks.

This photograph comes from “Buttermilk Country” (also known as “The Buttermilks”) in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, an area perhaps best know to climbers for its innumerable bouldering opportunities. I’ve long wondered about the name, but in the past I had only speculated idly that something about the formations here somehow suggested “buttermilk” to visitors… though it is very hard to see any logic in that. I finally looked it up, and apparently the name goes back to the 1870s when a dairy supposedly operated in the area. (It seems like an odd place for a dairy, but I confess that my dairy experience is… limited.)

The area interests me photographically on a number of counts. Perhaps most obviously, it sits right beneath one of the most magnificent sections of the Sierra crest, and open views of these mountains are available throughout the region. Additionally, the rounded boulders and other formations that attract climbers are plentiful and quite different than the usual east side terrain. It also is one of those wonderful Eastern Sierra interfaces between the high desert and the beginnings of the more alpine world. That latter is what we were looking for when we visited recently, navigating far enough on some of the rough roads that we got to where the small aspen groves begin. It was a lovely morning — a dusting of new snow was on the nearby mountains, brilliant sun was shining, and a bit of haze accentuated the distance between near and far subjects.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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