Tag Archives: bare

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

Nearly Bare Aspens

2 Comments
Nearly Bare Aspens
Aspen trees with only a few leaves remaining, Great Basin National Park

Nearly Bare Aspens. Great Basin National Park, Nevada. September 27, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Aspen trees with only a few leaves remaining, Great Basin National Park

In this post I continue, at least a bit, the theme of my last post: the varied rate of fall color change. In the previous post I wrote about the variations in the eastern Sierra Nevada — how early the first signs of color can occur, how late in the season it may be when the final aspen leaves fall, and the varying rates at which the colors arrive, even in limited geographical areas of the range. But if you stretch your horizons beyond the Sierra the variations are even greater.

We first “discovered” this a few years back when we visited Utah in the fall. I often make a point of not doing too much research before visiting a new area, and often this has the advantage of letting me discover the place on my own terms. On the downside, sometimes I miss the timing a bit! On that Utah trip I assumed that the colors might change on the schedule I’m used to in the Sierra… and we ended up arriving too late for the best aspen color. On the trip where I made this photograph I assumed that, since the location is virtually on the Nevada-Utah border, color would come earlier, and I arrived about a week before the end of September. In fact, the color change was underway, though still not quite peaking. But in a few spots, including the little grove where I made this photograph, some trees had almost completed their fall color season already!

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Grove of Slender Aspens, Autumn

Leave a comment
Grove of Slender Aspens, Autumn
An eastern Sierra grove of slender aspens with a hint of fall color remaining

Grove of Slender Aspens, Autumn. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 10, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An eastern Sierra grove of slender aspens with a hint of fall color remaining

There are interesting subtleties to the autumn transition of aspen color in the eastern Sierra. Unlike forests in some other areas, where the trees are more similar across wide areas, and thus tend to change colors at the same time, in the Sierra the color change has many variations of region, climate, moisture, and elevation. It is quite possible to arrive at a grove to find that almost all of the leaves have fallen… only to visit another grove not too far away where the color change is still getting underway.

This is a somewhat unusual little grove. The trees are very slender and crowded closely tighter. They are also, generally, smaller than those in the more-or-less typical Sierra aspen grove, where trees may be larger but also tend to be bent and even misshapen. These slender trees stand tall and straight, and at the time I made the photograph they had lost nearly all of their leaves, leaving a somewhat ghostly forest of bare trunks.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

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

Dormant Oaks

Leave a comment
Dormant Oaks
Winter-dormant oak trees in Yosemite Valley

Dormant Oaks. Yosemite Valley, California. February 26, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter-dormant oak trees in Yosemite Valley

Many things characterize Yosemite Valley. To a first-time visitor the cliffs, famous prominent peaks, and waterfalls are the main attraction — and the most common subjects of photographs. Spend a bit more time there and your awareness of other things increases: the river and its many tributaries, the forests and meadows, the boulder piles along the edges of the Valley. If your visits encompass more than one season your conception of the place expands to include not only the sunny summers but also the colorful autumn, the cold and occasional snow of winter, and the water-everywhere season of spring.

For me the oak trees are a big part of what makes the Valley the Valley, from their brilliant new growth in late spring, through autumn’s color change, to their bare and skeletal winter forms. I was photographing something else in one of the Valley’s meadows early on this morning, at a time when the first light was just beginning to touch the upper rim. I took a short break from my subject and just looked around, spotting this dense and detailed by of oak branch texture, form, and color nearby.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Late Winter, Sierra Foothils

Leave a comment
Late Winter, Sierra Foothils
Bare trees, new grass, overlapping hills, and late-winter haze in the Sierra Nevada foothills

Late Winter, Sierra Foothills. Near Mariposa, California. February 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Bare trees, new grass, overlapping hills, and late-winter haze in the Sierra Nevada foothills

Back in late February we spent a few days in Yosemite Valley in connection with the opening of the 2016 Yosemite Renaissance show in The Valley. While we were there we also photographed in the Valley, which is always a pleasure in winter, a time of year full of special subjects and conditions.

We left the Valley to head home and had time to take a round about route that would take us past one of our favorite migratory bird locations at sunset, so we wandered a bit in the Sierra foothills around Mariposa. While driving one back road we spotted this landscape of bare trees, brand new grasses, and hills receding into the winter haze.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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