Tag Archives: eastern

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Eastside Dawn

June 26, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light on the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada near Long Valley

I regard myself as a bit of a sunrise connoisseur, having arisen well before dawn on many, many mornings — almost every morning, actually — and often gone out to observe and photograph at first light. Trust me, I do understand how hard it is to get out of a warm bed (or warm sleeping bag) in darkness, dress, and head out into the still-dark world. But if you can start to make it a habit there is a good chance that you’ll become addicted — and what better kind of addiction is there than to need to see the first light?

I photographed this on an autumn morning when I headed out into the valley to the east of the escarpment of the Sierra. It was, as it usually is in mid-October, very cold when we arrived. But it was also very quiet and still, and steam was rising from nearby springs and creeks as the sky began to listen and the first light touched the peaks of the Sierra. It worked its way down the face of the range, across fluted alpine faces, into deep mountain valleys, and eventually to the rounded, tree-covered hills at the foot of the range.

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

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

Autumn Aspen Grove

June 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An eastern Sierra Nevada aspen grove beginning to change colors

How about a bit of fall color on this early summer morning? Every summer I begin to think about fall. There are wonderful things about summer — schedules, warmth, easier access to mountains, and more — but I prefer autumn. It is partially something as mundane as my preference for cooler temperatures, but it is also that I like times of obvious transition and times when nature has a slightly sharper edge. I’ll enjoy this summer, but I’m sure that every aspen tree I see in the Sierra in the next few months will make me look forward to autumn.

This aspen color vignette is a small scene from a much larger grove that runs up a hillside in the eastern Sierra Nevada. I prefer to photograph it early and late in the day when the surrounding peaks cast shadows across the trees, both softening the light and opening up the shadows a bit. Among the larger grove are many small scenes where straight trunks (not the norm in the Sierra) are visible among the leaves. On this very early October day most of the grove was still green, but the seasonal change was beginning with some of the smaller trees.

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

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

Aspen Trees, Valley

January 7, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A grove of autumn aspen trees follows the path of a Sierra Nevada valley

I’ve had this one sitting on my virtual desktop for some time now, and I suppose it is time to share it! Some who photograph a lot in the eastern Sierra may know the location, though the specifics are probably not all that important. Here, as in other locations on the “East Side,” a river of aspen trees runs down a shallow water-course that drops from a ridge to a lake through sage brush country.

The photograph was made a bit earlier than usual for this location, in this fifth (and, as I write this, hopefully final?) year of California’s recent great five-year drought. This has affected the entire state, including the patterns of fall color along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra, where (to make a long story short) some trees have changed much earlier than usual and others have died. This familiar spot changed early, and I was fortunate to be there on this date when I would usually not be looking to photograph aspen color.

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

Eastern Sierra From Afar

December 9, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The pre-dawn eastern Sierra Nevada viewed from an aspen-covered ridge far to the east

This may be the final photograph in this series. (But you never know!) On a mid-September day, when autumn aspen color was just beginning to show in the Sierra and the nearby ranges to the east, I arose early and headed off to a place that I had wondered about on an earlier visit. On that previous trip I had also done a bit of wandering out the east of the crest, by chance deciding to turn off of a paved road near the top of a pass, and then following gravel tracks out along a high ridge. I suspected there were aspens here, but I didn’t realize how many, and I made a mental note to come back here in the fall.

So this was my return. Arriving before sunrise I wasn’t quite sure what I would find. I knew there was a panoramic view back toward the eastern Sierra and I knew there were aspens. I also knew of a couple of likely place to stop. As I arrived near the location of the photograph it was still rather dark and very cold, so I went for something I knew and I looked for a very short spur road through the trees to a viewpoint I had visited earlier. I got out and set up camera gear in the pre-dawn cold — my first really cold morning of the season — and waited for light. As it arrived I could see that the color transition was much farther along than I expected, and I was able to frame a composition that included a few of the most colorful trees, the mountain of aspens beyond, the Sierra in the far distance, and the first pink light of the new day above.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: eastern

Eastside Dawn

Autumn Aspen Grove

Aspen Trees, Valley

Eastern Sierra From Afar

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