Tag Archives: fall

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Leaves in Transition – Near Conway Summit

October 11, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Aspen leaves in transition from green to fall hues in the shade of a grove above Conway Summit, Sierra Nevada, California.

This is another of my close-up aspen detail photographs from my one-hour or so shoot in the eastern Sierra near Conway Summit on the last Sunday of September. I took a quick detour to this part of the “east side” after completing a short photographic backpack trip to Cathedral Lakes that weekend.

I’ve photographed this grove before, so I stop every season and see what I can find. This time I think I arrived a few days earlier than usual in the color transition. There were still a lot more leaves on trees in the grove than I’ve seen in the past and a nearby grove was still completely green. (This grove is among the first you encounter as you drive up the road from Highway 395/Conway Summit toward Virginia Lake, right by a dirt road turnoff on the left side.)

As I walked into the lower edge of the grove, I discovered that among leaves that were for the most part either green or yellow, there were a few here that had a wider range of colors – some residual green, yellow, gold, orange, and even verging on red. So, in addition to shooting the larger view of the grove, I decided to use a long lens and work on a few close shots of the leaves that most caught my attention.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Aspen Grove Near Conway Summit

October 10, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Newly fallen leaves litter the ground among softly lit trunks of aspen trees in a grove near Conway Summit in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California.

During my one hour (!) of fall aspen photography in the eastern Sierra on Sunday, I spent most of the time in one small grove of trees up the road to Virginia Lake from highway 395 at Conway Summit just north of Lee Vining. If you leave 395 and head up the road to Virginia Lakes, this is the first grove you encounter on your left – not far up the road and at a point where a small dirt road heads off from the main paved road.

I’ve photographed this grove before, but frequently I’ve arrived a bit after the peak. If anything, on this visit I was possibly a few days early. There were still a good number of green leaves in the grove, and across the road another large grove was completely green. However, here there were some great colors ranging from green to red and orange and yellow. I wandered up the hill through the grove and came to this spot where the ground was relatively clear but partially littered with fallen leaves, and a clear view of the many interesting shapes of the tree trunks was available.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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

News

Plans Change

October 9, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

I had originally intended to hit the road this afternoon for points east of the Sierra crest for another round of aspen color (and other subjects) photography… but I changed my mind within the past 48 hours or so. Why? Several reasons, actually:

Folks who are currently in the eastern Sierra and whose reports I follow are saying that the aspen color situation is still a bit difficult this season. As I expected, the highest groves are mostly devoid of leaves at this point and, oddly, many of the lower level groves have not shown signs of great color yet either. I’m not at all certain that another drive up there today would gain me better opportunities than I had during the past few weeks.
With that in mind, the idea of another 600-800+ miles of driving is a bit less attractive (to put it mildly!) than it might otherwise be.
I want to find some time to more thoroughly go over the aspen and other photographs that I’ve made during the past few weeks – so far I’ve only had a chance to “pick off” the most obvious keepers, and I know there are others there that require a closer look.
I want to make some prints this weekend!
I want to attend a concert this weekend at which the orchestra (of which my wife is a member) performs a few favorite pieces.

So, with all of this to consider, I’m going to put far less mileage on my car this weekend – though I may just make up for it the following week!

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Leaves Near Conway Summit

October 9, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Aspen leaves take on fall colors in the middle of a grove near Conway Summit, California.

This is more or less my first autumn aspen color photograph of the 2009 season. Near the end of September I was in the Sierra for a few days, mostly to backpack into Cathedral Lakes for a bit of photography – but after emerging from that trip I had just enough time for a quick trip over Tioga Pass to the “east side” near Lee Vining and then around Conway Summit and Virginia Lake.

In the past I’ve found that the aspens up high on the road to Virginia Lake seem to change fairly early, and they have often lost their leaves even while trees elsewhere are still in good condition. With that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to try to make an early trip up this road. As you start up the Virginia Lake Road from Conway Summit you soon begin to pass some fairly large groves of aspen trees. The first grove, along the right side of the road, was still almost completely green. However, just up the road from here and on the left side is another grove at the turn-off for a gravel road – and this grove was in great shape. Many of the leaves had turned golden, and a few had turned hues of red and orange. At the same time there were still quite a few green leaves and only a few leaves had fallen.

As the sun dropped closer to the high ridge of the Sierra crest above Virginia Lake, the east side of this grove began to fall into shade – which can be the best of conditions for photographing the intense colors of these leaves.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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