Bright yellow-gold leaves of autumn Sierra Nevada aspen trees near Sabrina Lake, California.
I visited this small grove on a couple occasions during this weekend of eastern Sierra fall photography. I had primarily stopped to photograph a large nearby grove of very bright and colorful trees, but the arrangement of these tree trunks caught my attention and I spent some time shooting the subject in fading evening light and gentle rain.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
A dense grove of aspens along Dunderberg Road in the eastern Sierra Nevada.
If you passed by this grove along the rough, gravel Dunderberg Road you might not even think to stop – in many ways it seems a lot like many other aspen groves along in this part of the Sierra and along this road. However, I once stopped in this spot the first time I drove this road and for some reason the location has become one of those that draws me back. This time I arrived very late in the afternoon, just as the sun was slipping behind Dunderberg Peak to the west, leaving the trees in shaded early evening light. This section of the grove is remarkable for the thickness of the trees – you might not guess from the photo, but trees are not all that tall. It also is more open than some groves of this size and it isn’t quite as cluttered with non-aspen plants that sometimes make it difficult to find a composition.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Closeup of a group of brown autumn aspen leaves against a background of yellow leaves.
While I like the brilliantly colored yellow, orange, red, lime green, and golden fall aspen leaves, this color isn’t the only thing that appeals to me about these trees. I enjoy photographing their trunks, too – sometimes when most or all of the leaves are gone. I’m also interested in photographing the brown and sometimes black leaves that seem to appear after a freeze. I found this grove along a slope not far from Mammoth Lakes, and I spent some time wandering up a hillside among the trees in the middle of the day. Although this is not typically the best time for photographing the intense aspen colors, by working under a canopy of leaves and by looking for a few backlit leaves I managed to find a few shots that work. This group of brown leaves ended up being almost colorful because light filtering through the overhead trees and leaves created backlight that was a bit softer and diffused that the “normal” midday light.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Snow-dusted peaks of the eastern Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes illuminated by dawn light and reflected in the surface of an Owens Valley alkali lake.
I like to stay flexible when I photograph so even though my original reason for traveling to the eastern Sierra was to photograph fall aspen color, when it seemed that other subjects might be just as interesting I switched gears and headed out into Owens Valley to photograph this high desert region and the morning views from there of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada. I first got this idea the previous morning while driving towards some prospective aspen color before dawn when I saw the outlines of fog over Crowley Lake and other areas of the valley. I ended up shooting along Hot Creek as fog rose from the water and the Sierra crest broke through in the distance. (Photos of that scene will likely appear here later on.) On my way to Hot Creek I passed this lake and decided not to stop since it looked like photography workshop participants were already crowded along one shore.
The next morning I once again thought that I’d start my day out in Owens Valley. This time I went straight to this lake – which I believe is known as “Little Alkali Lake” – and found it completely deserted and the water totally still. It remained that way as I made my way to the far shore and set up before sunrise. In this part of Owens Valley, on cold mornings there are clouds and columns of steam rising all around, coming from the many hot springs that remind one of the volcanic forces hidden just below the surface of this area. Some of the steam sources are visible across the lake in the photograph. Soon the dawn light began to touch the highest peaks and then work its way down toward the rolling hills of the valley floor, reflected in the smooth water of this small lake. This part of the Sierra includes an impressive group of peaks including Mounts Morrison, Baldwin, and Morgan along with McGee Mountain.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
