Tag Archives: eastern

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

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow

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Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow
A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky.

Long before I understood what I was seeing I had noticed and was intrigued by that band of darker sky just above the horizon during the morning and evening twilight, very close to the time that direct sunlight appears on the highest points. There is something very mysterious about it, and it suggests to me great distances beyond those encompassed by the immediate scene. Eventually I learned what now seems obvious — this is the edge of the shadow of the earth, dropping away in the moments before dawn and rising in the moments following sunset. (To this day, every time I think of this, I recall photographer Gary Crabbe’s “interpretive dance” as he explained this at a talk I attended years ago — one hand extended out and upwards pointing to the shadow, and the other extended at a slight downward angle pointing to the unseen sun. Thanks, Gary!)

I made this photograph from a high point east of the Sierra crest one September. I headed out this way in pre-dawn darkness not sure what I would find. I was pleasantly surprised to find extensive aspen color, even though it was just past mid-September, and then to find an open overlook from which I could take in a large section of the Sierra as dawn arrived.

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 Aspens, Cliff

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Autumn Aspens, Cliff
Autumn aspen trees cling to ledges along the face of a cliff in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Autumn Aspens, Cliff. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees cling to ledges along the face of a cliff in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

The aspens in this photograph have fascinated me for years. Nearby are some relatively large, tall, and straight trees, but for the most part the trees in this scene are small, slender, and sometimes even a bit misshapen. They manage to eke out a living on what appears to be solid rock as they send their roots into narrow cracks.

These trees seem to have, at least in my experience, a fairly short period of maximum color. Or at least that is what I tell myself when looking to explain why I have somehow almost always missed their best color. But it also appears that they change colors earlier than some of the other trees in the area — I made this photograph just past the middle of September, nearly two weeks before the typical start of the more widespread fall color season in the Sierra.

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.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Moonset, Eastern Sierra

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Moonset, Eastern Sierra
The autumn moon sets above the eastern Sierra Nevada crest as dawn light comes to the sky

Moonset, Eastern Sierra. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The autumn moon sets above the eastern Sierra Nevada crest as dawn light comes to the sky.

Late in the season I was between summer backpacking/camping trips and autumn color photography in the Eastern Sierra. The time was mid-September, a couple of weeks before I would typically be looking for fall color out here. I had been camping up near the crest above Lee Vining and poking around in various places looking for photographs — for example, I had spend some time around Mono Lake the previous day. I was in that mental space between summer and fall, and I was using some of my time to do a bit of reconnaissance in preparation for a return a few weeks later.

I got up very early on this morning and in the darkness I headed out to the east of the Sierra, not quite certain where I would end up. Driving along a somewhat lonely two-lane road, I spotted an interesting looking gravel side road heading toward a ridge that I had previously viewed from another angle, noting that there were some aspen trees out that way. On a hunch I turned off, engaged 4WD, and drove out on a road that eventually followed close to the ridge line. I soon came to a thick grove of short aspens and I was quite surprised to see them already (mid September!) nearing peak fall color. Eventually I took a smaller side road and soon came to an overlook, where I got out in the pre-dawn light (quickly realizing that it was really, really cold here!) and set about making some photographs of the groves of aspens and conifer forests leading toward the eastern escarpment of the Sierra with the setting full moon above.

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.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fractured Rock and Lichen

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Fractured Rock and Lichen
Yellow lichen grows on fractured, terraced rocks in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Fractured Rock and Lichen. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Yellow lichen grows on fractured, terraced rocks in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

I had been camped within walking distance of this feature for the better part of a week before I spent time photographing it. Oddly, I had walked right past it as we hiked in to our base camp, and I had apparently not even looked up to see it. It is a long section of granite-like rock that runs along the shoreline of a lake, and because the rocks are high enough the spot retains soft, shaded light well into the morning. While it isn’t a dramatic, iconic sort of location, a closer look revealed lots of intimate details worth photographing.

This section of fractured blocks intrigued me for several reasons. The shapes themselves hint at geological processes about which I can only speculate — lots of linear and crossing fractures that gradually eroded to leave a stair step sort of structure. The rock itself is covered in places with some vividly colorful lichen, and small plants grow in cracks where water is apparently available. The color of the scene is a bit unusual, in that the bluish tones come from reflected sky, which produces a large portion of the illumination here.

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.

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