Tag Archives: eastern

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

Cottonwood and Aspen, Autumn, Eastern Sierra

November 6, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fall colors come to cottonwood and aspen groves in McGee Canyon

From the valley east of the Sierra the upper reaches of this canyon are not hard to see, though the bottom of the canyon and its entrance point are not so obvious. Pulling off on US 395 some distance from the canyon, a road rises up the alluvial hills at the base of the Sierra and traverses across toward an old lateral moraine. Rounding this hill, the tree-lined creek draining the canyon comes into view and a gentle through sage brush country passes a campground and a pack station before reaching the end of the road and trailhead.

This canyon rises quickly, and from the cottonwood lowlands one can hike into subalpine country in a short time, and it isn’t much further to get to backcountry lakes that seem to sit at the base of the Sierra crest. I paused along the road in the sage brush zone to make this photograph. Fall cottonwood trees are in the foreground, and further up the U-shaped canyon aspen trees have turned yellow. The remnants of an early autumn storm are seen, too, in the dusting of snow high up the rocky slopes at the head of the canyon.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Receding Ridges, Rain

November 5, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A squall moves across hills near the base of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada

This photograph belongs to a portion of my work that I think of as minimalist landscapes. They often focus on landscapes that are largely hidden or in which some elements are obscured. Not all involve mist, clouds, fog, and rain, but quite a few do. In many of them I am trying to work with a kind of light that is very special to me, where the atmosphere itself becomes luminous, perhaps when filled with haze or fog or dust and lit from behind, producing a kind of glowing effect that can be so bright that it is hard to look into.

On this day I had, or so I thought, finished my autumn photography on this trip, and I was in my “heading home” mode. I had driven down from the mountains, where I had photographed in rain and incoming light snow earlier in the morning, stopped in a town along US 395 for coffee and something to eat, then gotten into my vehicle to hit the road. Not 15 minutes north of town I came to a familiar spot where I often stop to admire the view and sometimes photograph. I pulled over and went a ways up a side road and watched the landscape disappear behind rain and clouds as a squall moved through. I set up under the rear door of my vehicle so that I could have some shelter from the rain, and I began looking for places in the landscape where there was just enough detail to suggest its form but no more than necessary. (Trivia fact: This is a color photograph!)

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

Inside the Grove

November 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Among the trees of an Eastern Sierra aspen grove, autumn

Late in the afternoon on this day of Eastern Sierra fall aspen color photography I found myself in a familiar place, where a small lateral road, narrow and gravel, roughly parallels are larger paved road. I like to pull off the main road here and slowly drive the short distance up canyon on the gravel road, stopping along the way to view and photograph the variety of aspen trees that grow here. It is especially nice late in the day when the sun drops behind high peaks, leaving soft, shadowed light.

I pulled into a familiar pull-out along this road, at a spot where I have photographed in the past and where there is a little grove of small trees. None of the trees seems to be as tall as twenty feet, but they grow very closely together — so closely that it is actually difficult to walk among them. The spot is often quiet — personal rather than iconic — especially late on an autumn day, and I sometimes simply pause quietly here for a while. On other occasions, like this one, I make photographs. I decided that I would put on a very wide-angle lens and then walk in among the trees, photographing them very close up and trying to capture some of the feeling of being inside such a dense little grove.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fall Foliage in Transition, Eastern Sierra

November 2, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fall color comes to cottonwood and aspen trees in McGee Canyon, Eastern Sierra Nevada

This is a favorite east side Sierra Nevada canyon. Like so many of these canyons, it spills out into the Valley east of the sharp eastern front of the range, with evidence of ancient glaciation in the form of lateral moraines. It quickly twists and turns and rises toward the monumental peaks of the Sierra crest, quickly transitioning from essentially desert country to alpine terrain in a matter of a relatively few miles. This particular canyon doesn’t necessarily look like much from the valley, as its lower reaches are obscured by the moraine ridges near its base. But as soon as you cross those low hills and enter the main canyon, its steep walls and stupendous scale become obvious.

In the fall the lower canyon is full of cottonwood trees turning golden, while higher up the canyon aspens change color a bit earlier. Several years ago I backpacked into this canyon in September, the only time I’ve done so, and I passed through some of the earliest color I’ve seen in the Eastern Sierra. This was another early color year, largely as a result of California’s four-year drought. On this visit there was a bit of relief from the incessant heat and dryness as weather fronts passed through, and a bit of snow is visible along the higher faces.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: eastern

Cottonwood and Aspen, Autumn, Eastern Sierra

Receding Ridges, Rain

Inside the Grove

Fall Foliage in Transition, Eastern Sierra

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