Tag Archives: desert

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

Dunderberg Meadows

Image December 6, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Transition zones in the mountains fascinate me — places where one sort of landscape runs into another. In this photograph from the Eastern Sierra Nevada, aspens extend across high desert sagebrush terrain and right into the lowest conifer forests. The demarcation between sagebrush and forest is fairly sudden, but the aspens live in both.

Decades ago my entire notion of the Sierra Nevada revolved around the forest and alpine zones. For that reason, and because I usually approached the range via its gentle west slope, I did not know about this high desert terrain. It is possible that the first time I encountered this zone was when exiting on the east side after a long walk in the high country — and it was a shock to me.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Aspen Transition

Image November 20, 2025 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The colors of autumn aspen trees are so impressive that you might think that photographing them is simple. But there are challenges, at least not if you want the best possible photographs. The intense fall colors present a challenge to modern digital cameras. Very intense colors,like the yellows, reds, and oranges of these trees, can “blow out” the image if you use a “normal” exposure. The color is very intense, especially if the leaves are in direct sunlight. That’s why I often prefer to photograph these trees in soft, filtered light ore even in shade.

These trees are part of a very large grove on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. In this frame you can see trees at almost every stage of the transition, from green leaves to a few that are almost bare. In this case the combination of the Sierra crest to the west (right) and some scattered clouds served to make the light more gentle.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cottonwood and Sandstone

Image November 4, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Right up front, a few things about this photograph. First, it is not recent — I photographed this scene back in 2014. I have been busy reviewing old raw files recently, and this one came up during that process. Second, unlike some of the others resulting from this review, this is a photograph that I have shared before, albeit in a different form. What you see here is a very different crop from the original, and by eliminating some elements from the original image I think I have significantly changed the effect.

The location is a place far out in theUtah backcountry — not exactly inaccessible, but not easy to get to. I was part of a group of a half dozen photographers who four-wheeled it out there and set up camp for days so that we cold photograph the heck out of the area. Sadly, from what I hear, this tree is no longer living, perhaps having succumbed to a drought and heat.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Slot Canyon Narrows

Image October 28, 2025 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

This is the sort of slot canyon “narrows” that most of us imagine when we think of these places. You can literally touch both walls while walking though, and in places the space was just wide enough for me to pass. (I had to be careful to not bump my tripod-mounted camera as I walked through.) In person, such narrow and deep canyons are darker than we render them in photographs, but the light is very soft and beautiful.

I am sort of embarrassed — yet in a way also sort of proud — that I arrived at this place more or less by accident, and not by the usual direct route. I was out “poking around” in this area, and on a hunch I started hiking down an open canyon which soon narrowed into a slot canyon. Eventually I arrived at a junction in the canyon, where this very narrow slot intersected the main canyon.