Tag Archives: canyon

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

Two Red Leaves

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Two Red Leaves
A pair of very red autumn aspen leaves in a grove in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Two Red Leaves. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pair of very red autumn aspen leaves in a grove in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This pair of leaves reminds me a bit of the photograph on the cover of my book, California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra. Like that photograph, this one was made while getting “up close and personal” with autumn aspen leaves, wandering around inside of a very colorful grove in the Eastern Sierra.

Although my opportunities to photograph fall color this year were limited by wildfire conditions and the challenges of traveling during the pandemic, I did get to the “East Side” for a few productive days. In fact, given the challenges while I was there (which I have described in other recent posts) I’m actually pretty happy with the results. It certainly helped that I managed to arrive at peak color at the location where I ended up, and that this year seemed to produce much more colorful trees than usual, with lots of orange and red colors.

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

Dark Forest and Pond

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Dark Forest and Pond
Beyond a small subalpine pond, dark forest rises into rocky terrain, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Dark Forest and Pond. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Beyond a small subalpine pond, dark forest rises into rocky terrain, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

The main fall color show in the Eastern Sierra Nevada (and in other higher portions of the range) comes from the October aspen color. But this most certainly is not the only Sierra Nevada Fall color. I always mark the start of the color season by the corn lilies taking on yellow and brown hues, and not long after that the bilberry plants turn areas (often around lakes) deep red in just the right light. Willows are some of the first plants to get real yellow leaves. Grasses begin to transition from green to yellow to brown.

Most of the autumn colors in this photograph are a bit more subtle than the brilliant aspen leaves. The beds of grass are well along on that transition from green through yellow to tan and brown. A few small plants along the base of the rocks are showing yellow. And beyond that, the overall sense is that of a scene of end-of-season quiet and stillness. There were fewer people than usual up in this area due to fires and the pandemic, and as I continued photographing into the dusk hours I was almost the only person left here when I arrived, and by the time I finished I had the silence of this scene to myself.

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: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Fractured Canyon Wall

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Fractured Canyon Wall
Fractured canyon wall detail.

Fractured Canyon Wall. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fractured canyon wall detail.

With this photograph I believe I’ll conclude my nostalgic return to photographs from my 2012 autumn visits to Utah. It was a special autumn for my in Utah, as I was able to visit twice for a period adding up to almost a full month. On the second visit I was able to travel into some out-of-the-way locations, a few of which were shared with me by people who live and photograph there. That was quite a privilege. It has been too long since I’ve photographed there. Perhaps I can return next year?

This is simply a bit of canyon wall, and the specific location is hardly relevant at all — you can find rock like this all over Utah. Part of what attracted me to this little vignette was the boundary between darker old rock and the lighter rock below where some of the older material has obviously broken away. The surface of the upper, darker area is fascinating to me, and a close look reveals remarkable colors, textures, and shapes on its surface.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sierra Showers

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Sierra Showers
“Sierra Showers” — Afternoon thundershower clouds reflected in the surface of a raindrop-dappled alpine lake, Kings Canyon National Park.

As I was getting ready to post this photograph I was pondering, as usual, what to write about it. As I considered the focus of what I ended up writing here today it occurred to me that this one photograph could be the starting point for an entire book. (Don’t worry, I’ll keep this post considerably shorter than that.) It could naturally lead to subjects including my visits and return visits to certain locations in the Sierra, the experience of spending long periods in the backcountry, what and how to see there, the sensory experiences of things like afternoon rain, how non-iconic subjects evoke these things, my good fortune in photographing the backcountry in the company of good friends during the last decade, and much more…

But that’s far too much for this post, so I’ll just share a little background. A group of five of us isolated ourselves at a very high backcountry location for a week back in 2013. We photographed morning and evening every day, in very diverse conditions, and we hung out together through the slower midday hours. There were many lakes nearby, and on this afternoon I had walked the short distance to one of them and was photographing when the afternoon showers began. For me, this photograph conjures up all of the associations I have with that trip and with afternoons like this one.

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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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