Tag Archives: autumn

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

Aspen Copse, Autumn

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Aspen Copse, Autumn
A stand of colorful Sierra Nevada autumn aspen trees against a rock face.

Aspen Copse, Autumn. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A stand of colorful Sierra Nevada autumn aspen trees against a rock face.

There are many ways to look at aspen trees. The autumn colors themselves are striking, whether you look at individual leaves, small groups of trees, or an entire forest. But the other distinct annual phases have their charms, too — the bare winter trunks and branches, the springtime eruption of new growth, the “quaking” green leaves of summer. Beyond that, I’m fascinated by the larger patterns of how groves of these trees spread across the landscape, sometimes seeming to “flow” across it, and at others to dot it in isolated groups.

This little group of trees is connected to several of those modes of seeing. This year groves like this on in the Eastern Sierra seemed a bit more likely to include the beautiful orange and yellow colors. The trees in the photo are part of a much larger pattern — this copse extends a line of trees that extends along and beyond the shore of a like, almost surrounding it and flowing above and below it. It lies right up against a rock face, and by early autumn the trees remain it its shadow well into the late morning, providing soft light that intensifies the color of the leaves.

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 and Amazon.

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

Autumn Colors and Morning Reflections

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Autumn Colors and Morning Reflections
Colorful autumn aspen tree line the shoreline of an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake.

Autumn Colors and Morning Reflections. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful autumn aspen tree line the shoreline of an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake.

This year’s fall Sierra Nevada photography has been challenging in several ways. The pandemic has changed our travel routines, of course. But the unprecedented wildfire season in the West has impacted photography, too. Autumn wildfire smoke has always been present here — it is one of the causes of the lovely soft light during this season — but this year large areas have been blanketed with an oppressive pall for weeks. When I arrived in the Eastern Sierra recently the smoke was so bad that, for example, I could barely see Mono Lake as I drove past it. I continued far south to where is was less awful, but it was a factor during the entirety of my visit.

The day before I made this photograph the smoke had abated a bit. It was inescapable but thin enough to let in sunshine. But late that day a bank of thick smoke descended on my campsite, and I wondered what the morning would bring. It brought more smoke. I went to a familiar nearby location and thought about how to mostly exclude distant views of the smoke-draped landscape. I decided to focus on some very red trees along the shoreline of a familiar lake, mostly framing photographs to emphasize the trees and de-emphasize the longer views.

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Thinning Tule Fog, Morning

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Thinning Tule Fog, Morning
Autumn trees begin to emerge from thinning morning tule fog, Central Valley.

Thinning Tule Fog, Morning. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn trees begin to emerge from thinning morning tule fog, Central Valley.

As I post this photograph and text it is mid-September, although the post is being queued up for the first day of October. Most of you will see it on October 1. (If you see it earlier, use your imagination!) The onset of autumn in my part of California always seems to take longer than I expect, even after decades of experiencing it. For many years I subconsciously felt that it began when school started again “in the fall,” even though the start dates usually occurred while it was still late summer. This association with fall led me to expect to see fall weather in September, but September in most of California feels much more like summer. I still struggle with this seasonal displacement.

But if you are seeing this on October 1, it now actually is fall, and even though we typically have some warm days ahead of us — and usually the real rains are at least a month away — the change is now becoming more obvious. The nights last longer than the days, mornings are cool, the clouds from incoming Pacific systems start to pass overhead, and the aspens are turning in the Sierra Nevada. This is my favorite season — the time of soft light and clouds and autumn colors. This photograph comes from a late-autumn day in California’s Central Valley, as morning tule fog began to thin. (Note: This is a reworking of an image posted previously.)

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 and Amazon.

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

Autumn Forest

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Autumn Forest
Autumn oak leaves add color to a dark forest scene, Yosemite Valley.

Autumn Forest. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn oak leaves add color to a dark forest scene, Yosemite Valley.

This seems like an interesting location to me for several reasons. It is in Yosemite Valley, and in a place where many people often stop, park, and get out of their cars to gaze at an iconic feature of this place. As they do, they look right past and over this fascinating bit of forest. I do not necessarily critique them for this, as I did not pay attention to it the first times I’visited either — it is too easy to be distracted by those icons!

This section of forest is relatively dense, at least on the scale of the Sierra Nevada. Ferns and other plants grow on the ground between the trees, and walking through here can be slightly challenging as you step around this growth and the old branch that have fallen from the trees. It is also a spot where the park has applied more modern thinking about fire — in other words, the area was burned in a management fire designed to thin out that unnaturally thick growth. A closer look reveals that the bases of many of the trees have been charred. But they survived and this forest is now in improved health.

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 and Amazon.

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.