Tag Archives: brown

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

Autumn Oak Leaves, Streambed Rock

November 28, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn oak leaves on stratified streambed rocks, Zion National Park

This is one of those photographs that is not what I was looking for when I made it. We had dropped into a narrow near-slot canyon in the Zion high country, and my thoughts were on photographing the sandy bed of the little canyon along with the steep and sculpted rock and the light reflecting onto them from the narrow strip of skylight above, or perhaps looking for branches against red sandstone. So as I walked up this little canyon and sort of but not quite saw those things I was becoming just a little bit frustrated photographically – the light was colored the way I had hoped, there were footprints in the sand from those who had hiked here before me, and the colorful branches of fall leaves were few and far between and often in places where I could not see a photograph. (Though, as always, I enjoyed the sensations of walking through such a place.)

As often happens, what I really needed to do was let go of my preconceptions about what I thought should be there and instead look around to see what really was there. As soon as I did this I began to look away from the larger-scale elements of the place and see some of the smaller things and how they might make photographs – a few leaves sitting on rock, some remaining ripples in the sand, and so forth. This bit of rock was sitting a foot or two higher than the stream bed and off to one side under some overhanging plants. Unlike most of the rock there, it was strongly stratified and it had a bit of a yellow cast in places. And a few of the yellowish/tan oak leaves were sitting on its surface.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Autumn Detritus, Zion National Park

November 20, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Oak leaves and other autumn material on a rocky streambed in Zion National Park

This mixture of autumn debris was lying on a low shelf near the bottom of a narrow canyon wash in the high country of Zion National Park. We had descended into this wash to look for autumn colors, mostly the red maples and perhaps some cottonwood or box elder trees. It had not been long since the last rain, given the evidence of flow patterns in the sand and occasional wet spots in deeper sections.

The gambel oak trees are quickly becoming a favorite of mine in this area of the Southwest. They are found all over the place and vary from small, bush-like plants to decent sized trees. When fall comes they can put on a quite varied show. Some leaves simply turn the rich brown/tan that you see on some of the leaves in this photograph. Others turn yellow and some take on very bright red colors, especially when the light comes through the leaves from behind. (A photograph from a small canyon in Capitol Reef that I’ll post later shows a more gaudy side of these leaves.) Here the leaves had fallen onto a low sandstone bench just above the stream bed, and the reddish rocks compliment the other autumn colors of this intimate scene.

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

Frost-Rimmed Oak Leaves, Autumn

November 15, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A very cold autumn morning brings a touch of frost to late-fall oak leaves in Yosemite Valley

Earlier this week I had (just barely) enough time for a very quick one-day up-and-back visit to Yosemite Valley. Such a visit, entailing a four-hour drive each way, and beginning with a 3:30 a.m. alarm going off, is not completely fun in all imaginable ways… but I won’t complain in front of people who might regard a visit to this valley as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’m fortunate to live where I’m able to get to such a place and back in a day. The reason for the quick visit was that I had not made my annual “autumn leaves” visit to the Valley. In a typical year I do that right around the first of November (though I often think of it as a Halloween trip!) when the maple, oak, and dogwood leaves can be very colorful. I thought that I had missed the show this year, but over the weekend I heard from friends that there were still leaves in The Valley, so I figured that I would try to get up there for a quick visit.

Having gone there for decades, I no longer go straight for the usual iconic subjects – though I will photograph them when the conditions are extraordinary. Instead, I often end up poking around in odd corners, looking for things that are smaller and less easily seen, but which I associate with The Valley just as much as, say, Half Dome or El Capitan or Yosemite Falls. So, odd as it may seem, when I made my first stop of the day at El Capitan Meadow, with its iconic views of Sentinel Rocks and El Capitan on opposite sides of The Valley… I spent the first 15 minutes with my lens pointed down into a small patch of the Merced River where there were some interesting reflections, and then I wandered off along the river bank in a few inches of snow to photograph close-up views of the wonderful oak leaves rimmed with morning frost. It occurred to me later that some might think it is a bit odd to drive so far to photograph such things!

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Granite

October 18, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Two aspen trees with sparse autumn leaves stand in front of a lichen-covered granite wall.

Photographing this section of rocky hillside along the road the runs past North Lake has become a bit of a habit for me during the past few years. North Lake is a well-known place for photographing fall colors, with good reason. It is in the larger Bishop Creek drainage of the eastern Sierra, one of many places where it is possible to find a lot of autumn aspen color. As a consequence, many people (sometimes too many!) head there to photograph the seasonal color change. I think I first shot there a bit before the most recent upsurge in visits by photographers and photography workshops, so I was able to make some photographs of the general scene in somewhat more solitary conditions.

In recent years, on too many occasions, I have arrived at this lake to find mobs of photographers. Fortunately, for the most part they stop and photograph to same two well-known areas of the lake. Even more fortunately, with a little bit of walking and looking around, one can find a lot of other stuff to photograph here. While the grand views are obvious and spectacular, there are many opportunities for photographing “intimate landscapes” that feature perhaps a few trees, some rocks, a bit of lakeside grass, and so forth. These two trees, almost bare of fall leaves, stood against a bit of cracked cliff that was covered with patches of colorful lichen.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: brown

Autumn Oak Leaves, Streambed Rock

Autumn Detritus, Zion National Park

Frost-Rimmed Oak Leaves, Autumn

Aspens and Granite

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