Tag Archives: eastern

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake, Morning

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Mono Lake, Morning
“Mono Lake, Morning” — Pahoa and Negit islands silhouetted against early morning lake reflections with desert mountains in the distance.

I have shared a few other Mono Lake photos made at this elevated location some distance from the lake. This camera position gives a different and broader sense of the lake and its surroundings. It is a huge body of water — there’s far more water on the far side of the islands than between them and the near shore. The desert mountains are many miles beyond the far edge of the lake. All in all, Mono Basin is a place of immense space and great distances.

I photographed very early in the morning. I had gone to this location to photograph something else, but by turning my camera 180 degrees the lake was in the frame. It was a generally clear morning with some high clouds, but the great distances still turned the atmosphere a bit blue with haze, and that haze mutes the details of the distant basin and mountains.

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: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Reflections

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Autumn Reflections
“Autumn Reflections” — Autumn colors reflected on the surface of an Eastern Sierra Nevada pond.

There are several things I like about this little scene, even though it is perhaps not the most shocking and dynamic photograph you have ever seen. For one, I like the range of autumn colors it contains. Yes, there are intense aspens, but there are also the subtle colors of the smaller plants along the shoreline of the pond. The reflection also pleases me — it becomes a sort of geometric abstraction of the detailed forms in the upper half of the image.

This is not a particularly wild or inaccessible location. In fact, the pond is at an intake for a hydropower system, and it is frequented by anglers, who fortunately were not in my photograph! But the fact is that autumn color is nearly everywhere in the Eastern Sierra, and the trees can be just as colorful in place like this as anywhere else.

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: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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

High Desert Autumn Aspens

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High Desert Autumn Aspens
“High Desert Autumn Aspens” — Autumn aspen trees along a high desert creek descending from the Sierra Nevada.

This is a bit of a different sort of aspen photograph from me — not the first one like it but there aren’t many others. After photographing at another location at sunrise I packed up and went exploring in the foothills below the eastern escarpment of the range. (The base of the range is visible at the top of the frame.) This area feels less like “the mountains” and more like high desert. It is less steep, drier, and covered with what we sometimes refer to as sagebrush country.

I made this photograph in direct sunlight and the trees are not even backlit. The light comes from the side, and that does highlight the color of the leaves a bit, but this is closer to what aspen trees look like in “normal” light. This little line of trees grows along the course of a small stream that comes from much higher up in the mountains. The little stream brings just enough moisture to this dry area to support the trees and other plants.

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 | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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

Tall Autumn Aspens

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Tall Autumn Aspens
“Tall Autumn Aspens” — A tall grove of aspens with bright autumn colors, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This grove showed an interesting pattern — most of the color in the frame comes from short trees along the edge of a clearing, while the white trunks of older and taller trees extend on up toward the top of the frame. Straight trees like these are the exception in much of the Sierra, and we often see shorter aspen trees that are twisted and bent. I suspect that the extra light from the nearby clearing is one reason that these trees grew taller.

Once again, this is a photograph made in the soft light. I came into this canyon late in the afternoon, and soon the shadows from very tall ridges in the west moved across the landscape. The soft light allows the details in darker areas to emerge a bit, and that nearby clearing diffused a bit more reflected light into the scene.

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 | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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