Tag Archives: brush

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

Aspen Transition

Image November 20, 2025 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The colors of autumn aspen trees are so impressive that you might think that photographing them is simple. But there are challenges, at least not if you want the best possible photographs. The intense fall colors present a challenge to modern digital cameras. Very intense colors,like the yellows, reds, and oranges of these trees, can “blow out” the image if you use a “normal” exposure. The color is very intense, especially if the leaves are in direct sunlight. That’s why I often prefer to photograph these trees in soft, filtered light ore even in shade.

These trees are part of a very large grove on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. In this frame you can see trees at almost every stage of the transition, from green leaves to a few that are almost bare. In this case the combination of the Sierra crest to the west (right) and some scattered clouds served to make the light more gentle.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Morning Fog, Geese, and Trees

Image March 8, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Few things are as thrilling as a flock of geese lifting off all at once on a winter morning shortly after dawn. They erupt suddenly, generally without warning, in a mass of sound and flapping wings, and then spread out across the landscape as they turn and circle or perhaps head off into the distance. A few moments later, the morning is once again quiet.

I made this photograph early in the morning, shortly after sunrise when the light was still warmly colored by the newly-risen sun. A bit of fog was rising from the wetlands ponds, and the hills of the western Central Valley were visible in the distance.

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” from Heyday Books, is available directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Wetland Plants, Tule Fog

Image January 27, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

We arrived here well before sunrise, paused long enough to assemble our photography gear, and then started on a slow drive along narrow gravel levee roads through a landscape of wetlands and scattered trees. Tule fog was still drifting about, but it was thinning and the clouds overhead in the colorful sky were visible. Before long we arrived at a spot along the west side of the ponds, where we had a view to the east and the light of dawn.

In the winter this is a slow and quiet place… except for the many thousands of migratory birds who arrive here every fall and leave right before spring. Most of them were off in distant parts of the landscape when I stopped here, so this became a pure landscape photograph featuring the colors of the predawn sky and the thinning fog drifting across the ponds.

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: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Ponderosa Pines, Mono Lake

Image December 15, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I reached this spot on a lonely gravel road that branched off from the main route heading southeast from Mono Lake toward some slightly higher sections of the basin. This group of ponderosa pines includes the last trees that manage to grow here, and beyond this point it was all dry sagebrush country. In the distance you can make out Mono Lake and distant mountains beyond its far shore.

There is an immense ponderosa pine forest in this area. It is my understanding that it may even be the biggest stand of these trees. They extend from here all the way over to highway 395 far to the south of the lake. Near the spot where I made the photograph I found many dead trees, apparently the victims of a long ago wildfire.