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

Aspen Color

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Aspen Color
Colorful autumn aspen trees in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Aspen Color. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful autumn aspen trees in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

On the surface, at least, this is a very simple photograph… so it gets a simple title: Aspen Color. The trees are part of a large (and both popular and accessible) grove in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. Like so many others, I stop here each autumn, and I’ve spent a lot of time staring at the trees rising from a creek to far up the surrounding slopes, almost committing to memory the general scene and many of its details. While many Sierra Nevada aspen trees tend to be short and somewhat twisted, at least by comparison to those familiar groves to Colorado trees standing straight and tall, in places in the Sierra you can find those big, stout, and tall trees. This grove is one of those places, though there are plenty of the smaller trees mixed in, too.

On the day I made this photograph the colors in the larger grove varied from deep green to extremely bright yellow/gold, with a few bits of red-orange visible here and there. The latter colors first caught my attention in the spot shown in the photograph. The reddish color was subtle and only in a small area, but it was the starting point for the idea of the photograph. It is hard to make some sort of order out of such complex detail, but the idea was to place a complete tree along the left side of the frame, put that bit of red-orange at lower right, and to include some of the leaves that had not yet lost their green tint.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Hillside Aspen Color

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Hillside Aspen Color
A grove of colorful autumn aspen trees on a hillside shared with brush and conifers

Hillside Aspen Color. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of colorful autumn aspen trees on a hillside shared with brush and conifers

This little grove of slender aspens is high on a rocky hillside. It is a grove that I know pretty well, having watched it for many seasons while photographing more accessible aspens nearby. I’ve been attracted to its position, high on the southern slopes of this valley, in a position to catch early sun coming over the higher ridge top. Usually, by the time the other nearby trees that are my primary target are in full color, these trees have dropped many of their leaves. But this season seemed slightly unusual in one way — in such places it has been common to find isolated groups of still-colorful trees that usually drop leaves by this time.

Making this photograph required the use of a type of lens that not every landscape photographer considers using, namely a rather long telephoto — this particular lens is a 100-400mm zoom, which provides quite a narrow angle-of-view on a full frame camera. There are lots of things that often appeal to me about using longer focal lengths for landscape photography, but in this case it was a pretty practical matter: the trees were at a great distance and there was no realistic way to move closer!

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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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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

Yellow Trees, Red Brush

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Yellow Trees, Red Brush
A few yellow aspen trees, surrounded by red undergrowth, cling to a rocky face

Yellow Trees, Red Brush. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A few yellow aspen trees, surrounded by red undergrowth, cling to a rocky face

I’m far from the first person to photograph this little group of trees, backed by a rough granite and standing among smaller plants that turn a deep reddish color in the fall. Given that these trees are just a few of many thousands standing near this spot, it still surprises me to see them photographed — and recognizable! — among so many other trees. They aren’t hard to see, but they aren’t exactly obvious either, and there are a few factors that might lead to them being passed without stopping.

If anything, it is probably the short, reddish undergrowth that contributes to their visibility — there are trees like these all over the Sierra, but most are not set against rocks and the red plants like this. I photographed the little scene when the area was in shadow — often my favorite light for aspen photography. This light is softer and it tends to fill the shadows, making the effect less stark.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook |
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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

Autumn Color, Sierra Nevada Crest

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Autumn Color, Sierra Nevada Crest
Mountainsides of autumn aspen color rise toward the Sierra Nevada crest

Autumn Color, Sierra Nevada Crest. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mountainsides of autumn aspen color rise toward the Sierra Nevada crest

I had a whole bunch of other photographs (late-summer in the Sierra, European travel/street photography) queued up to post right about now… but fall color is currently happening, and it seems better to post the timely stuff. With that in mind, here is another Sierra Nevada fall color photograph, with others to come shortly. By the way, if you are wondering when to go to the Eastern Sierra to see (mostly) aspen fall color, the core season generally includes about the first three weeks of October, with the middle week often being the most reliable. So, as of today… there is still time!

This is probably a familiar scene to those who travel around the Sierra Nevada’s east side in October to search for aspen color. This valley and these peaks are in one of the more popular locations — though, in truth, you can find good aspen color up and down the east side of the range and in a few places west of the crest, too. I’m most often in this particular spot quite early in the day, but I made this photograph later in the afternoon, when backlight illuminated and highlighted the aspen colors, a few clouds cast moving shadows across the scene, and a gentle haze softened the details of the highest peaks.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 | Twitter | Facebook |
Email

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