Tag Archives: dense

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

Aspen Grove, White Trunks

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Aspen Grove, White Trunks
A dense stand of small, nearly leafless aspen trees with white trunks

Aspen Grove, White Trunks. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dense stand of small, nearly leafless aspen trees with white trunks

This little grove of aspens and I have a long acquaintance. The grove isn’t anything that you would probably notice, even if you found it and pass right by. It is much like many thousands of other aspen groves in the Sierra Nevada… and many thousands more across the western US. But it is one of “my” groves, and I stop there pretty much every year at some point.

The trees in this spot are not terribly large, in fact they might seem larger in the photograph than they actually are. The grove is very close and dense, and if I step inside and try to walk around I have to duck and squeeze between trees. I usually prefer to photograph it up close, using a wide-angle lens, and from just beyond its edge, where the brighter light falls on the trunks. Ideally, as on this day, a bit of overcast reduces contrast a bit and fills in the shadows. it is always a challenge, though usually a pleasant one, to try to find workable compositions in the dense complexity of these groves. It often initially looks like the process should be obvious and easy, but once I start framing things up I invariably discover little “deal-breakers” in the composition — a dark branch, a distracting background, an unfortunate juxtaposition of branches. But eventually, with patience and persistence, things can fall together.

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

Bare Aspen Grove

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Bare Aspen Grove
A dense grove of slender white aspen trees after most leaves have fallen

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

A dense grove of slender white aspen trees after most leaves have fallen

Quite naturally, in autumn our attention turns to the fall color transition, which in the Eastern Sierra Nevada and nearby areas mostly means aspen trees. And this transition can be quite spectacular if you are in the right place on the right day and in the right conditions. The colors — ranging from yellow through orange to red — are often intense, and the biggest groves cover whole hillsides, snake up and down the mountains, and may be reflected in subalpine lakes. But this show is brief, and it ends before the month of October is over.

Fortunately, this isn’t the only condition in which aspens are a worthy photographic subject! In fact, as the last colorful leaves drop my feelings are often mixed — I hate to see the show end, but I also can start to look at the trees in other interesting ways. Bare aspen trees are an interesting subject on their own, suggesting both winter and the end of the warm season… and the prospect of the spring rebirth a few months from now. I know this particular little grove quite well, and I make it a point to visit every season, sometimes more than once. This year I passed by when almost all of the leaves had fallen, revealing the start, nearly white trunks and their fascinating combination of order and complexity.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Alder Thicket And Stream

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Alder Thicket And Stream
A small stream flows through the dense foliage of an alder thicket in Northern California redwood country

Alder Thicket And Stream. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small stream flows through the dense foliage of an alder thicket in Northern California redwood country

It was my first evening in redwood country, and I had only a few hours and little idea where to start, so I headed to Redwood National Park (part of the larger “State and National Parks” complex) and turned up a road toward a well-known grove of redwoods. I only stopped there briefly, deciding instead to explore further up the road even though I really had almost no idea what I would find up there. I finally broke out of the redwood forest at a couple of clearings from which I was able to get a broader overview of the surroundings. (It did occur to me that the larger one was likely there only because redwoods had been cleared from it many years ago.)

I now had a bit of a schedule to follow, as I hoped to find a place to photograph the last light of the day and then continue on to my lodgings in Crescent City. However, I often find it hard to resist a detour, especially when it looks like it might go somewhere interesting, so I turned off onto a side road that quickly dead-ended at the bottom of a canyon where a small creek flowed and the foliage grew very thickly. This was not actually a redwood forest location — at least not in this immediate spot — but the more open light among the alder trees supported lush undergrowth around this little creek.

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: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Redwood and Rhododendron

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Redwood and Rhododendron
A curving rhodendron with a few spring blooms in dense North Coast redwood forest

Redwood and Rhododendron. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A curving rhododendron with a few spring blooms in dense North Coast redwood forest

I mentioned earlier that this was probably my first “serious” trip to photograph the redwood forests in the Redwood National and State Parks are of far-northern California. When I travel to a new location like this I tend to do only enough research to point me in the right direction. For example, I checked maps and I figured out that there are four main parks, and I looked up a hike or two. But I did not, and I generally do not, do extensive research and planning. For me a big part of the adventure is the discovery part, where I poke around, use my instincts, make mistakes, and take interesting turns… and see what develops. There is a method to my madness — I think this helps me more quickly develop a person orientation to the place.

So on this morning I headed to the closest park, Jedediah Smith State Park. I found what looked like it might be a road through the park. It was. Sort of. It turned into gravel and then came to a locked gate just past the park entrance. So I backed up, retreated, and tried going around the park to the other side. Eventually I found a nice hike of a few miles to a big grove of old-growth trees, but first I came across this beautiful little spot where there were a few rhododendrons just beginning to bloom.

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 | LinkedIn | Email

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