Tag Archives: california

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

Aspen Leaves and Branches

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Aspen Leaves and Branches
A cluster of colorful autumn leaves on the branches of an Eastern Sierra aspen tree.

Aspen Leaves and Branches. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cluster of colorful autumn leaves on the branches of an Eastern Sierra aspen tree.

The fall color countdown continues with this (likely) second-to-last aspen color photograph from this year’s crop. To recap, this was a very strange year for California autumn aspen photography, with the pandemic and the historic wildfires both disrupting the usual plans. I was on the east side of the Sierra exactly twice this season. The first trip was pre-autumn, when I went over to try to join friends for a short socially-distanced backpack trip… but ran into extreme wildfire smoke and decided to cancel after two nights of roadside camping. The second was a short trip in early October to visit the aspens. The aspen colors were exceptional during this visit, but it was also cut short by wildfire smoke.

This photograph is a bit unusual among my series of close-ups of aspen leaves in that it includes more or the branches than usual. This branch is quite dark, but the notion that aspen bark is white isn’t quite correct. It can be, in the right situations and in the right groves. But it can also be yellowish or brownish, and young branches can have some rather un-aspen-like bark, at least as measured against our preconceptions.

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

Marin Hills Fog

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Marin Hills Fog
Pacific ocean fog drifts among forested ridges north of San Francisco.

Marin Hills Fog. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pacific ocean fog drifts among forested ridges north of San Francisco.

This is a reworking/rethinking of an older photograph from 2013. The previous interpretation was black and white — at that time I was shying away from cloudy, foggy images with a blue cast, but I’ve come to accept and like them now. (Going to black and white is often an attractive option when I can’t quite see how to make it work in color.) Somewhat unusual for me, I also may have darkened some elements of this version of the image. Perhaps a bit of darkness seems appropriate in this time of sheltering-in-place…

I made the photograph on a quick day trip across the Golden Gate Bridge and a ways north up the coast. My recollection is that I followed coastal roads up to about Stinson Beach, stopped there to grab a a bite, and then decided to take a hillier route back home. It reached a sufficient elevation to get me up onto the shoulder of a ridge where I was above the bank of fog extending back out over the Pacific Ocean.

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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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: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Nature

Mountains, Lake, Autumn Sky

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Mountains, Lake, Autumn Sky
Luminous autumn atmosphere above California mountains and lake.

Mountains, Lake, Autumn Sky. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Luminous autumn atmosphere above California mountains and lake.

While this may not seem like a typical “fall photograph,” that is how I’m describing it here. Allow me to explain. For decades I have been intrigued by autumn light — perhaps even longer than I’ve been attentive to fall foliage colors. Many years ago I recognized that there was something different about it, though I could not quite put my finger on it. Although I still don’t claim to fully understand it, something (or some things) change in the the autumn atmosphere in my part of the world — something about the luminous quality of the slightly hazy atmosphere, likely complemented by the lower angle of the sun creates an unmistakable effect.

On the day I made this photograph I had arrived before dawn in California’s Great Central Valley to visit some favorite locations and subjects. It was early (perhaps too early) in the season for them, so after enjoying a morning there I eventually decided to head home early, not sticking around until sunset. As a result I passed this location in the early afternoon instead of in the dark… and I could not resist stopping to make a few photographs.

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.

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

Twin Leaves

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Twin Leaves
“Twin Leaves” — Two autumn aspen leaves in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Continuing the countdown to the end of this year’s batch of Eastern Sierra fall aspen color, here is another vertical format close-up of a pair of beautiful leaves, photographed in the soft light of a colorful grove still in the morning shadows of a nearby ridge. This soft light filled in the shadows, lowered the contrast, and produced lovely saturated colors.

These leaves, here mostly positioned against a background of very out of focus trees with a few leaves around the edge, are illustrative of what I found during by brief fall color foray this year — a whole lot of great color and more reds and oranges than I usually encounter.

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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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