Tag Archives: bishop

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

Autumn Evening, Aspen Grove

Image November 9, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Quiet light in a grove of autumn aspen trees in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

These “evening”quiet light” aspen scenes really appeal to me. While the colors can be extremely intense in full daylight, especially when the trees are back-lit, the soft light lowers the contrast level and allows the details in the shadows to emerge and the leaf colors to be a bit more true. (We have to scale back the exposure quite a bit to avoid blowing out the red channel in digital photographs of colorful leaves in full sun.) The whole atmosphere changes at these times, too. It is often cool and quiet and still.

How to compose such photographs is an interesting question. To some extent, I work pretty subjectively in this regard, just looking at the scene and thinking about balance and primary subject and then doing a bit of quiet analysis and “edge patrol.” But “when I know, I know.” Here I was looking for the even spread of trunks across the scene, but I also like the little “mountain” of yellow leaves in the foreground… and the visually dissonant presence of the small, green conifer adds just a bit of tension.

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.

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

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

Aspen Quintet

Image October 31, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Five aspen trees inside a dense grove with autumn leaves.

I love wandering in dense aspen groves, especially the sort with small, twisty trees. They look like they should be easy to photograph — after all, they are filled with white trunks, the light filters through the colorful canopy, and underfoot there are leaves and all sorts of other goodies. But once I enter the grove, it inevitably turns out to be harder than expected to find the elusive ideal subjects and compositions. A bit of bright sky overwhelms the trees, a distracting branch or boulder enters the frame, the colors are lovely but can’t be corralled into a composition, the undergrowth is too thick to traverse.

But I eventually I do find something that works and avoids (at least mostly) the pitfalls described above. I think that this little group of five white-trunk aspens is one that works. The trunks stand clear enough of the background details that their shapes are clearly visible. The background has no spots of intense daylight, and the colors range from green through golden-yellow to a bit of orange.

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

Aspens and Cliff, Autumn

Image October 30, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small copse of autumn aspens, surrounded by green plants and brush and backed by a rocky cliff.

This photograph comes from a location that I have visited for years, initially mostly for one particular view that I would rarely try to photograph these days. But it turns out — as always! — that there are other things to see and photograph close to this “one thing,” and I continue to enjoy going back and photographing them. Every time I go I discover something new.

This little group of trees, however, doesn’t really fit into that “something new” category, since I have photographed them before. Years ago, intrigued by the juxtaposition of trees and rocks, I tried to photograph them from very close up. I had some success, but it was eventually unsatisfying. The main issue was with camera angles — I ended up with two choices: either photographs of small elements in the scene (somewhat successful) or angling up to take in the whole tree (less successful!). But it turns out that I can work from a much greater distance and narrow the amount of cliff included behind the trees.

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

Bare Aspen Trees

Image October 21, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A grove of Sierra Nevada aspen trees that have lost their autumn leaves.

This is not the first time I have photographed this little cluster of aspens growing very high up on a rocky hillside, though I think I finally found a way to photograph it the way I had in mind. Perhaps because the trees grow in rocky terrain, they seem to lose their leaves before other nearby trees. At the right time of day, given their elevated position, they are brightly lit by backlight as the sun tops the ridge beyond. The good light doesn’t last long here, and this time I think I hit it just right.

While I’m on the subject of aspens, I still have a pretty good number of Eastern Sierra fall color photographs to share from this year’s explorations. Over the next week or two I’ll mix them in with more photographs from our summer in Europe… and it won’t be all that long before I focus again on some of my other favorite cool season subjects: birds from the Central Valley, low elevation color from the western slopes of the Sierra and elsewhere… and perhaps a few surprises.

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

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: bishop

Autumn Evening, Aspen Grove

Aspen Quintet

Aspens and Cliff, Autumn

Bare Aspen Trees

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