Tag Archives: deciduous

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

Autumn Forest and Creek

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Autumn Forest and Creek
A creek flows beneath autumn trees in the White Mountains of New Hampshire

Autumn Forest and Creek. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A creek flows beneath autumn trees in the White Mountains of New Hampshire

This is a photograph of another branch of the creek that was featured in a recent photograph. The creek in the previous photograph flowed under a bridge to join the creek seen here. Both flowed down gentle rocky sloped though a quiet hardwood forest that was perhaps just past the prime color. On a day when crowds were visiting the more famous sites in this mountain range, it was pleasant to stop here in the still quiet for a while.

People from the Northeast who have me advice on this trip recommended several thing. Some had to do with timing, some with the typical transitions of the color. Others were about locations — and as a first-time visitor to this area I needed that advice. In addition to pointing out some of the must-see locations, almost everyone also said to get off the main roads and poke around some of the backroads, especially the smaller gravel routes. This was one of those, a road that we followed on a whim — and we ended up off the beaten path in places that are not as frequently visited.

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.

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

Peak New England Color

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Peak New England Color
A White Moutains forest of almost-exclusively hardwood trees at the peak of fall color.

Peak New England Color. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A White Moutains forest of almost-exclusively hardwood trees at the peak of fall color.

This photograph, if nothing else, illustrates some aspects of how New England fall color is different from what I usually photograph in California, particularly in the Sierra Nevada. Out here the colors tend to be relatively uniform, usually yellow to brown, broken by occasional examples of other colors. For example, the great majority of our aspens turn yellow/gold, which is why the occasional red and orange exceptions attract so much attention. And the Sierra trees are far less likely to appear in huge, mountain-covering stands — they more typically line the bottom of a valley, run upslope along a gully or other feature, and are surrounded by green conifers.

So what differences can we see here? First, the hardwoods vastly outnumber the sparse conifer trees. (I like the contrast the latter provide, however.) The hardwood forest stretches for great distances — that area of the photograph is quite large but it is only a small portion of the fall-colored trees I could see here. The tree color is also much more diverse, here including every shade from green through orange and red.

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.

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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

Tree-Filled Valley

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Tree-Filled Valley
A New Hampshire valley full of trees in a rainbow of autumn color.

Tree-Filled Valley. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A New Hampshire valley full of trees in a rainbow of autumn color.

We ended up at this location more or less by accident. We had just finished photographing an area that was on our list of places to visit, and as we drove away it was apparent that it was now late enough in the day that a long drive to another location was out of the question. Earlier we had pass through an area of extensive and quite colorful forest at a time when we could not stop. It was nearby, so we headed that direction… and along the way I saw a sign for a side road. We took it, ended up in a small parking lot near a trail across a bridge, and walked that way.

Later, after walking as far along this trail as slow photographers can go in a short time, we turned around and headed back. Of course, the return walk took even longer since the light was becoming more interesting. Back at the bridge where we had started, the valley along the creek under the bridge was full of trees in various states of color transformation. We stopped and made a few “wall of fall color” photos here before packing it in for the day.

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.

Blog | About | Twitter | 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: Northern California

Forest, White Trunks

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Forest, White Trunks
White trunks in a dense forest of deciduous trees, Redwood National Park.

Forest, White Trunks. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

White trunks in a dense forest of deciduous trees, Redwood National Park.

It turns out that I have yet one more photograph from our early June visit to the far northern reaches of coastal California and the Redwood National and State parks. I am embarrassed to admit how long it was before I finally went up there to photograph, but since my first visit a few years ago I have been back every spring, usually trying to time my trips to coincide with the blooming of the rhododendrons. We were less than successful in that regard this year, but there is much else to see there, too. And because this was back in the early “maybe the pandemic is about over” period, it felt great to travel a bit more freely once again.

When it comes to trees, the redwood forests are obviously the mail attraction up there. But they are not the only attractions, and in many places all sorts of trees and plant life grow abundantly in this relatively wet climate. I stop at this particular forest of densely-spaced trees with light colored trunks on every visit — I like the challenge of looking for compositions that somehow bring some kind of order to the wild density of this vegetation.

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.

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.