Tag Archives: fall

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

Late-Season Aspens, Evening

Image October 31, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late-season aspen groves in the early-evening shadow of the Sierra crest.

The light for this photograph was special. I was east of the Sierra crest at an elevation of 8000′ or so. The sun had just dropped below the crest, and the direct sunlight was gone. However, clouds above the peaks were still directly lit by the sun and quite bright. As a result I worked in soft shadow light, but the trees were still gently backlit by those glowing clouds. This gave more directionality to the light than might have otherwise been the case, and this soft backlight enhanced the colors of the trees.

This location is one of the more fascinating and unusual in the range, though it is easy to overlook what makes it so. While the crest rises high to the west, here the terrain is on a boundary between high desert sagebrush country and the start of foliage that is more characteristic of the mountains. I think that the east side location, with its relatively less moisture, has a great effect on this. While I tend to think of aspens as mountain trees — and they often are — here there are many growing in terrain that is more desert-like.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Tall Autumn Aspen Trees

Image October 30, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tall aspen trees with long, white trunks on an Eastern Sierra Nevada hillside.

The large grove of which these trees are a part is one that I’ve photographed for a long time. For the Sierra, it is a very large expanse of aspens, and they rise from a valley up the lower slopes of rock-strewn mountains. Most of then I have photographed them earlier in the season where the more colorful trees are mixed in with trees that are still green. But this time I visited later in October, and virtually the entire hillside was yellow, gold, and red. Note also the tall and straight aspen trunks — many Sierra aspens are much shorter.

I photographed these trees, as I often do, in soft, shaded light. The sun had not risen above the ridge behind them, so there were still fully in shadow — though the sunny edge of that shadow was rapidly approaching as I worked! Photographing aspens in these conditions reveals the difference between our own visual perception and what the camera “sees.” Looking at the scene you would say you saw colorful aspen leaves and white or gray trunks. But a photograph made in these conditions renders the trunks intensely blue. So the photographer faces a quandary for which there are several possible answers. One is to “go with the blue,” with the risk that viewers will be struck by what seems like unnaturally intense blue tones. Another is to shift the yellow/blue balance in post to produce something that better approximates the experience of looking directly at the trees.

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

Basin Mountain, Autumn

Image October 29, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Basin Mountain on an autumn morning, with a bit of fall color.

Unless you look closely, you might not see this as an autumn photograph, but the evidence is there. The most obvious indication is in the canyon that descends from the right of the tall peak, Basin Mountain. Just beneath the lip below the dark canyon you can spot a batch of very colorful aspen trees following the drainage into the valley below. There are some other subtle clues, too. The general golden-brown color of vegetation, including that in the high desert hills in the foreground, is typical of fall. Even more subtle is something in the quality of the light and atmosphere… which is what provoked me to detour to make this photograph.

I’ve long been intrigued by Basin Mountain, which rises to the Sierra Crest west of Bishop, California. From the east, the face of the peak is marked by a striking “basin,” and some interesting old trails switchback across its lower face. I’ve wondered what is in that basin, but I’ve never found the time to go up there. I would not typically make a photograph of such a subject at this time of day — late morning. The east side of the Sierra is often in less-than-lovely light at this time, especially if there is haze. But on this day there was merely enough haze to make things interesting, while higher clouds softened the light. So I detoured away from the start of my homeward drive to follow some backroads to this camera position where I could include the foreground hills and the peak.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New England

Conifers and Hardwoods, Autumn

Image October 28, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A mixed stand of conifers and colorful autumn hardwood trees, New England.

Near the spot where I made this photograph, a carpet of wildly colorful hardwood trees was draped across valleys and ridges. It was quite a sight, but it was also very difficult to photograph it. One of the challenges of photographing in this part of New England comes from the very forest that produces those colors. The darned trees grow so close together and come right up to the edge of roadways, making it very difficult if not impossible to make photographs of longer views from many locations. That was definitely the situation here — lots of colorful trees, but lots of things standing between me and those trees.

It eventually occurred to me to use the blockages as part of the photograph. in this case there were conifer trees growing nearby and among the hardwoods, and once I thought about how I liked the effect of the muted green conifers against the riotous hardwood colors it seemed to make sense to juxtapose the two types of trees in this photograph. If nothing else, this photograph serves as a record of those qualities.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: fall

Late-Season Aspens, Evening

Tall Autumn Aspen Trees

Basin Mountain, Autumn

Conifers and Hardwoods, Autumn

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