Tag Archives: autumn

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cottonwoods and Red Rock Canyon

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Cottonwoods and Red Rock Canyon
An old cottonwood and a grove of smaller trees in front of the sandstone walls of Zion Canyon.

Cottonwoods and Red Rock Canyon. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old cottonwood and a grove of smaller trees in front of the sandstone walls of Zion Canyon.

There are at least two stories behind this photograph — maybe more. The first one involves a situation familiar to many photographers. When we go into these places carrying a backpack of gear, with a big camera on a tripod hanging over our shoulder, we aren’t exactly in stealth mode. And because lots of people in such places are trying to figure out how to make photographs to record their wonder… sometimes our presence draws them in our direction. I had wandered over to the bank of the Virgin River to photograph something and, sure enough, lots of other folks started showing up in what had been a pretty empty spot. I finished photographing there and headed back toward where I came from, looked back, and saw this big old tree towering above and decided it was worth a photograph. But now there were a few dozen people among those trees!

I made a mental note to remember the tree and come back to it later on as I continued up the canyon. When I did return the crowd had departed and I was able to get the scene I wanted. I’m generally not big on shooting with wide angle lenses, often preferring to limit the composition by using longer lenses and their narrower angle-of-view. But in the confines of a red rock canyon, a large tree like this cottonwood often towers above you, even if you have some space to move back. These big, old cottonwood trees fascinate me, and their varieties of form and setting seem almost infinite.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

The Last Leaves

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The Last Leaves
An aspen tree with a few remaining autum leaves, against a cliff face wtih snow.

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

Aspen trees with a few remaining autumn leaves, against a cliff face with snow.

The Sierra Nevada experience of the past year-and-a-half or so has been… strange. Everything has changed since our world was turned upside down in March of 2020, and my ability to visit and photograph my favorite mountain range has not been an exception. During the first summer we saw many locations simply shut down, and I didn’t really get into the Sierra until the very end of that summer — but only for very brief visits and one aborted pack trip that I had to cancel as a result of the intense wildfire smoke. By last winter I was again able to more comfortably get to non-Sierra locations including Death Valley, where it was possible to work in relative isolation, but the Sierra remained difficult to access. I got up there a few times later in the season, but it wasn’t until this fall that I felt that I was beginning to reconnect with this landscape.

In mid-October we put together an actual road trip. It began with a couple of nights in the Eastern Sierra before continuing on to Southwest Utah, another location that I hadn’t been to in far too long. This brief autumn Sierra visit (which followed another visit a week earlier) was a bit later than usual, and we ended up visiting a few places that I usually overlook… and heading to a few “old friends” even though they were past their prime. I made this photograph in one of those places, a location where the colors are usually spectacular a bit earlier in the season. I knew that wouldn’t be the case this time, so we went there a bit later in the day after photographing more promising morning subjects. We arrived, made a quick stop, and I spotted this small group of trees in the shadow of a cliff. They were nearly at the end of their color transition and most of the leaves were gone, but those that remained glowed in the bit of light arriving over the top of the cliff.

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, Photographs: Owens Valley

White Mountains, Autumn Storm

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White Mountains, Autumn Storm
An autumn storm drops snow on the summit of the White Mountains.

White Mountains, Autumn Storm. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An autumn storm drops snow on the summit of the White Mountains.

Autumn is fascinating time of transition in the Sierra Nevada. One day it can be sunny a warm, with the landscape filled with the golden and brown tones of fall — perhaps the most inviting form of the Sierra landscape. The next day something resembling winter sweeps in, the wind rises and the skies turn gray, and snow falls among the peaks. While summer is the time of easy access to most of the range, I’ve always had a great fondness for autumn in the Sierra — it is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year there.

We had ascended high on the giant fan at the base of the range above Bishop, looking for new perspectives and for aspen groves a bit more off the beaten track. The previous day and night had brought an early weather front through the range, closing some of the passes, and laying down a few inches of snow on the highest regions. From our position we looked back across foothill formations and the Owens Valley toward the immense White Mountains, a range that is just as high as the Sierra, where new snow coated the cloud-covered 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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Four Trees, Owens Valley And The Sierra

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Four Trees, Owens Valley And The Sierra
Four Owens Valley trees in evening light, against the shadowed backdrop of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada.

Four Trees, Owens Valley And The Sierra. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Four Owens Valley trees in evening light, against the shadowed backdrop of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada.

Our recent travels ultimately took us to Utah, but we began with an obligatory visit to the Eastern Sierra Nevada. It doesn’t really seem like autumn until I have renewed my acquaintance with the autumnal transformation of the aspen trees. I had been up there a week earlier, so this was a shorter visit, but it gave us enough time to do a bit of exploring, visiting some spots that we don’t typically visit.

On our final evening before continuing to the east we decided to do a bit of wandering in Owen’s Valley, and our random ride eventually brought us to this spot just as the last sunlight was coming over the Sierra crest and angling across the Valley. We had headed out this direction for an almost entirely unrelated reason, but once there this row of four trees distracted us, and we quickly worked the light before it was gone. (This was one of those landscape-photography-as-action-photography moments — that shadow line was approaching quickly as I made my exposures, and before long the trees were no longer in the sun.) From this vantage point the immensity and abruptness of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra is clear — the wall of peaks, here embellished with a trace of autumn snow, towers above Owens Valley.

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.