Tag Archives: evening

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

Aspens and Sage Brush, Evening

Leave a comment
Aspens and Sage Brush, Evening
High desert aspen groves on sage-covered eastern Sierra hills

Aspens and Sage Brush, Evening. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 1, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

High desert aspen groves on sage-covered eastern Sierra hills

I’m continuing with one more characteristic eastern Sierra autumn photograph, though perhaps not the most common sort of view of the subject. The photograph does include some small groves of aspen trees in fall colors, but they are dwarfed by the immense scale of the rolling eastern Sierra foothills, covered by high desert sage brush, and cut with valleys containing creeks draining the eastern slopes of the range. I made this photograph in the early evening, just before sunset, as the low angle sun was sweeping across the crest and casting light and shadow almost parallel to the slope of the hills.

We usually look for fall aspen color in country that is higher and/or wetter — often somewhere up one of the great eastern Sierra canyons or perhaps along a ridge near the crest. But aspens grow in many places, some of which are unexpected or even surprising. They grow a good distance from the Sierra itself, sometimes far out in the high desert, and in areas that hardly seem alpine at all. Sometimes these are smaller trees, seeming to get by on less water and perhaps in a harsher climate, but occasionally they manage to form decent sized groves.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Eastern Sierra Ridges

Leave a comment
Eastern Sierra Ridges
A seemingly endless series of ridges rises toward the crest of the Sierra Nevada in early evening light

Eastern Sierra Ridges. Near Mono Lake, California. October 1, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A seemingly endless series of ridges rises toward the crest of the Sierra Nevada in early evening light

The east side of the Sierra Nevada — the “eastern escarpment” — provides an often impressive and quite varied landscape. In places the terrain at the base of the mountains may be in the 4000′ elevation range, which in others the “lowlands” to the east may lie at 8000′ or higher. The mountains may erupt from this lower landscape in a sudden upward burst of granite and cliffs, or they may rise more gradually along mountain valleys that extend well into the range. In places the summit peaks are visible, while in some areas they are hidden behind lower peaks east of the crest. In one spot in the middle of the range the crest is actually lower than peaks to the west.

In this area along the western boundary of Yosemite the Sierra rises somewhat gradually from the high desert sagebrush country. The emptiness of this high desert gives way to a band of coniferous forest and is then replaced by the rugged granite high country. Here the sagebrush highlands rise, ridge upon ridge, toward the peaks of the crest, with the golden colors of early fall becoming muted by atmospheric haze in the distance.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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 Slopes, Evening

Leave a comment
Aspen Slopes, Evening
Back-lit aspens along the base of the eastern Sierra Nevada, evening

Aspen Slopes, Evening. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 1, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Back-lit aspens along the base of the eastern Sierra Nevada, evening

This eastern Sierra slope is filled with scattered groves of aspen trees, and because of its gentle slope upward to the west it catches the late afternoon light beautifully, backlighting the colorful autumn foliage. I photographed it perhaps a week or so before the peak of its autumn color — on the downside that means that some trees are still green, but it also means that no trees are yet completely bare.

This photograph can illustrate a few ideas about photographing such places. First, this is a location that I know very well, a popular and easily accessible location for seeing and photographing fall aspen color. As I’ve returned to it over the years, I have continued to photograph from the usual locations — but I’ve also poked around the area and I’ve found a few less obvious vantage points. That leads me to the second point, namely that it is often a good idea when photographing such things to try to get a little elevation on the subject. For this image I managed to find a spot that was perhaps a few hundred feet higher than the usual vantage points. Not only did this give a bit more separation to the beautiful ridges with their strips of rim light, but it also helped me avoid flare when shooting directly into the late afternoon sun.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Intersection, Montmartre, Dusk

Leave a comment
Intersection, Montmartre, Dusk
An intersection of narrow streets at dusk, Montmartre, Paris

Intersection, Montmartre, Dusk. Paris, France. August 8, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A deserted Montmartre intersection in the evening “blue hour,” Paris

This past August we stayed in Montemartre during our weeklong visit to Paris. We went to many places in Paris, often on foot, but we obviously ended up spending quite of bit of time in Montmartre near our hotel — going out on walks, looking for restaurants, returning from other adventures. This area is more hilly that other parts of Paris, so here the narrow and twisting streets also wind up and down hills in many places.

I’m not certain at the moment where we were headed on this evening, though there is a pretty good chance that it involved food! It might have been on our first night in Paris, when we didn’t yet know our way around the local area and we went out for what amounted to a random walk. I made the photograph during that brief interval between night and day, the “blue hour,” when all areas in shadow are lit by the blue wash of light from the sky. At the moment I made this photograph the light was dimming, just enough that the brightest street lights were beginning to create pools of warmer light.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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