Tag Archives: dense

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, North Lake Road

October 12, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Fallen leaves in an aspen grove along the road to North Lake, Sierra Nevada, California.

This photograph of a grove of large and small aspens with much undergrowth and fallen leaves was made on a morning of beautiful soft and diffused light as a weather front was moving in and light rain was starting. In this light the harsh highlights of the bright leaves are softened and the shadows open up (since the sky becomes one giant light box) so that details become more apparent and the colorful trees and leaves can almost glow.

This grove is beside a road used by many photographers to get to one of the most popular and iconic fall color locations in the eastern Sierra. As I worked alone, or nearly so, in this small grove on a gentle hillside, five minutes up the road perhaps 50 or 60 photographers were lined up side by side at the end of a lake to make the same photograph. In fairness, the subject of their photographs is a very beautiful and compelling one… but I urge photographers to look beyond the “same old, same old,” and to slow down and search out subjects and compositions that only become apparent with time and some contemplation.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Aspen and Fern Covered Hillside, Sierra Nevada

October 7, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Colorful autumn aspen trees and ferns cover a rocky hillside along Bishop Creek, Sierra Nevada, California.

And the series of photographs of wild autumn aspen color from the eastern Sierra Nevada continues… This photograph was made along Bishop Creek. The colors in this area when I was there were the most intense fall colors that I can remember seeing in the Sierra. At first I thought perhaps it was just me, but others have been writing the same thing about this. Not only were the aspens “on fire,” but the overcast and light rain also served to intensify their colors and the colors of the other brown and green plants.

This hillside above the banks of Bishop Creek was covered with dense aspens and ferns, and both were well along in the seasonal color transformation that occurs between the end of summer and when the first snow falls. Speaking of “dense,” this is one of a series of photographs in which I tried to work with these very densely vegetated scenes in an attempt to try to capture the lush and almost overgrown character of these areas.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Lodgepole Forest, First Light

August 17, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light touches the tops of lodgepole pines in a lakeside forest, Yosemite National Park, California.

This bit of dense lodgepole pine forest is on the far shore of an easily-visited lake along Tioga Pass Road, and I like to photograph it when the morning light is just starting to make its way over the tops of the surrounding mountains and it begins to touch the first trees along the lake shore.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Detail, White Bark Pine

August 12, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Detail of dense growth of a white bark pine tree in the high country near Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park.

I photographed this dense growth of white bark pine in a high meadow not far from Tioga Pass, after venturing out into (and around, given the wet conditions!) this area very early in the morning. Although it isn’t apparent in this very close-up photograph, this was a rather unique tree. It had grown up around a large boulder and taken on the boulder’s shape since the branches followed the outline of the boulder almost exactly – it almost looked like the boulder was covered with a “tree blanket.”

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: dense

Aspen Grove, North Lake Road

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Aspen and Fern Covered Hillside, Sierra Nevada

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Lodgepole Forest, First Light

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Detail, White Bark Pine

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

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