Tag Archives: eastern

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

Aspen Copse, Autumn

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Aspen Copse, Autumn
A stand of colorful Sierra Nevada autumn aspen trees against a rock face.

Aspen Copse, Autumn. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A stand of colorful Sierra Nevada autumn aspen trees against a rock face.

There are many ways to look at aspen trees. The autumn colors themselves are striking, whether you look at individual leaves, small groups of trees, or an entire forest. But the other distinct annual phases have their charms, too — the bare winter trunks and branches, the springtime eruption of new growth, the “quaking” green leaves of summer. Beyond that, I’m fascinated by the larger patterns of how groves of these trees spread across the landscape, sometimes seeming to “flow” across it, and at others to dot it in isolated groups.

This little group of trees is connected to several of those modes of seeing. This year groves like this on in the Eastern Sierra seemed a bit more likely to include the beautiful orange and yellow colors. The trees in the photo are part of a much larger pattern — this copse extends a line of trees that extends along and beyond the shore of a like, almost surrounding it and flowing above and below it. It lies right up against a rock face, and by early autumn the trees remain it its shadow well into the late morning, providing soft light that intensifies the color of the leaves.

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

Autumn Colors and Morning Reflections

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Autumn Colors and Morning Reflections
Colorful autumn aspen tree line the shoreline of an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake.

Autumn Colors and Morning Reflections. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful autumn aspen tree line the shoreline of an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake.

This year’s fall Sierra Nevada photography has been challenging in several ways. The pandemic has changed our travel routines, of course. But the unprecedented wildfire season in the West has impacted photography, too. Autumn wildfire smoke has always been present here — it is one of the causes of the lovely soft light during this season — but this year large areas have been blanketed with an oppressive pall for weeks. When I arrived in the Eastern Sierra recently the smoke was so bad that, for example, I could barely see Mono Lake as I drove past it. I continued far south to where is was less awful, but it was a factor during the entirety of my visit.

The day before I made this photograph the smoke had abated a bit. It was inescapable but thin enough to let in sunshine. But late that day a bank of thick smoke descended on my campsite, and I wondered what the morning would bring. It brought more smoke. I went to a familiar nearby location and thought about how to mostly exclude distant views of the smoke-draped landscape. I decided to focus on some very red trees along the shoreline of a familiar lake, mostly framing photographs to emphasize the trees and de-emphasize the longer views.

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

Three Aspens, Granite

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Three Aspens, Granite
Three autumn aspen trees standing against a granite wall, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Three Aspens, Granite. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three autumn aspen trees standing against a granite wall, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Those of us who have spent a lot of time in the Sierra — and the story is similar for other locations — gradually accumulate “personal spots” that might not make much of an impression on others but which we greet like old friends each year. Mine include a particular rock outcropping in Tuolumne Meadows, a particular flat rock in the Yosemite backcountry where I’ve frequently placed my cook stove, a small grove of trees nestled in a bend along an Eastern Sierra road, a high and barren lake in the Southern Sierra, and quite a few more. I’ll bet you have a few such places of your own.

This little group of three slender aspen trees set against a jumble of rocks s is one of those spots. It is very accessible, but there’s an excellent chance that if you were nearby you passed without noticing. Yet virtually every autumn I end up stopping and photographing them again. (Yes, there are other photographs of them in my collection.) They are “the same,” yet they are also different every time I visit — the leaves may be green, yellow, a combination, or gone. The light may be intense in the morning or soft and blue in late-day shadows. So I return, and I photograph them again, and I mark another season with each return.

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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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: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Reflections

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Aspen Reflections
Autumn aspen trees reflected in an eastrern Sierra Nevada pond.

Aspen Reflections. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees reflected in an eastrern Sierra Nevada pond.

Each year at about this time I ask, “Is it ever too early to start thinking about fall color?” The answer, of course, is no. Autumn is my favorite season for all kinds of reasons — the colors, of course, but also the return of cooler temperatures and “interesting” weather and shorter daylight hours. The period between Labor Day and the arrival of late-autumn snow is my favorite time in the Sierra. There’s nothing as beautiful as a late-September or early-October day in the high country.

As a person who has photographed Eastern Sierra aspens a lot — and who has written a book on the subject — the way I see this subject has evolved over the years. While I’m still impressed by a hillside completely full of colorful trees, I am constantly looking for other ways to photograph this subject. Here I aimed the camera down toward the surface of an Eastern Sierra pond, framing to exclude anything but the brilliant colors of a grove on the other side of the water.

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 | 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.