Tag Archives: creek

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

Tall Autumn Aspen Trees

Image October 30, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tall aspen trees with long, white trunks on an Eastern Sierra Nevada hillside.

The large grove of which these trees are a part is one that I’ve photographed for a long time. For the Sierra, it is a very large expanse of aspens, and they rise from a valley up the lower slopes of rock-strewn mountains. Most of then I have photographed them earlier in the season where the more colorful trees are mixed in with trees that are still green. But this time I visited later in October, and virtually the entire hillside was yellow, gold, and red. Note also the tall and straight aspen trunks — many Sierra aspens are much shorter.

I photographed these trees, as I often do, in soft, shaded light. The sun had not risen above the ridge behind them, so there were still fully in shadow — though the sunny edge of that shadow was rapidly approaching as I worked! Photographing aspens in these conditions reveals the difference between our own visual perception and what the camera “sees.” Looking at the scene you would say you saw colorful aspen leaves and white or gray trunks. But a photograph made in these conditions renders the trunks intensely blue. So the photographer faces a quandary for which there are several possible answers. One is to “go with the blue,” with the risk that viewers will be struck by what seems like unnaturally intense blue tones. Another is to shift the yellow/blue balance in post to produce something that better approximates the experience of looking directly at the trees.

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: New England

Conifers and Hardwoods, Autumn

Image October 28, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A mixed stand of conifers and colorful autumn hardwood trees, New England.

Near the spot where I made this photograph, a carpet of wildly colorful hardwood trees was draped across valleys and ridges. It was quite a sight, but it was also very difficult to photograph it. One of the challenges of photographing in this part of New England comes from the very forest that produces those colors. The darned trees grow so close together and come right up to the edge of roadways, making it very difficult if not impossible to make photographs of longer views from many locations. That was definitely the situation here — lots of colorful trees, but lots of things standing between me and those trees.

It eventually occurred to me to use the blockages as part of the photograph. in this case there were conifer trees growing nearby and among the hardwoods, and once I thought about how I liked the effect of the muted green conifers against the riotous hardwood colors it seemed to make sense to juxtapose the two types of trees in this photograph. If nothing else, this photograph serves as a record of those qualities.

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

Aspens, High Desert Valley

Image October 27, 2022 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Autumn aspen trees line a creek through a high desert canyon, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Heading across the Sierra early in the third week of October, I wasn’t certain what kind of aspen color I would encounter. There’s always some color at this point in the season, but in many years it has been diminished by wind and passing early weather fronts. But it seemed that these influences were muted this year, and as I approached Sonora Pass I was encouraged by seeing much more color than I expected. I turned south after crossing the pass I headed south where the forests of the Eastern Sierra begins to meet the high desert sage country. As I passed this small valley — where I had not really paid attention to the color potential in the past — I caught a flash of bright color below. I quickly turned around and backtracked to locate a better camera position.

Getting just the right conditions for these trees that grow along shallow canyons like this one is tricky, especially on the eastern slopes of the Sierra. Typical daytime light is often quite harsh, though that diminishes a bit with autumn’s lowering sun angles. But this time I got lucky, and broken clouds created patterns of light and shadow on the sage-covered hills. I set up and waited for the light to show up in the right places, and eventually it lit up the trees in the Vally and produced alternating light and dark patterns in the hills and mountains beyond.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New England

Leaves, Boulders in the Stream

Image October 24, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn leaves lie on builders in the middle of a White Mountains forest stream.

After we stopped here to photograph a couple of lonely creeks passing though hardwood forest along a remote backroad I looked around for smaller subjects within the larger scene that had originally convinced me to stop. I had been looking at the forest as a whole, set off by the stream following a path bending beneath the canopy of trees. Eventually I thought to look more or less at my feet, where I noticed fallen leaves on boulders around which the creeks flowed.

Photographing these dense forest scenes in the Northeast can be something of a challenge. I’m used to more open forests that I see on the West Coast, where the light shines in between the trees, and the view extends some distance. In New England the trees are smaller and grow more densely, and it is often difficult to see more than a few feet into the woods, and even more difficult to find a view that without a trunk, branch, or stick intruding into the frame. All of this is by way of saying that it was not at all easy to isolate this little scene!

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

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: creek

Tall Autumn Aspen Trees

Conifers and Hardwoods, Autumn

Aspens, High Desert Valley

Leaves, Boulders in the Stream

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