Tag Archives: fallen

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Rhododendron And Ferns

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Rhododendron And Ferns
A single rhododendron flower, fallen onto a bed or redwood forest ferns

Rhododendron And Ferns. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A single rhododendron flower, fallen onto a bed or redwood forest ferns

On this evening we headed to a place where I knew there would be rhododendrons, a spot on a high bluff above the ocean, where light comes in from the west late in the day. If you are lucky, it is filtered by clouds and provides just enough of a glow to illuminate the dark floor of the redwood forest. If you a doubly lucky, there is no wind, and the plants are still enough for the long exposures necessary in this low light.

Since we already had visited this spot, we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to photograph and where to look for it — and most of our targets were not far from the trailhead. On the way in we walked past many blooming rhododendrons, but we decided we could come back to those a bit later. We crossed a low ridge and descended a bit into a valley. Here we photographed a bit, and then we began to retrace our steps along the trail through ferns and redwoods. I happened to spot this solitary fallen rhododendron blossom. It seemed like it had only recently come to rest on these ferns as the flower was still fresh.

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.

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

Shoreline, Fallen Tree, Autumn Aspens

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Shoreline, Fallen Tree, Autumn Aspens
Beyond a dead tree lying in shoreline grasses, an autumn aspen grove rises up a Sierra Nevada hillside

Shoreline, Fallen Tree, Autumn Aspens. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Beyond a dead tree lying in shoreline grasses, an autumn aspen grove rises up a Sierra Nevada hillside

Trying to find different ways to photograph this well-known subject, here I excluded some of the most characteristic features, included both the near and far shorelines, and placed an old fallen tree in the lower part of the frame. If memory serves, that dead tree has been there for a while, and I may have thought of incorporating it during previous visits. The grassy foreground — with grass growing in the lake — produces its own interesting fall colors as it changes from green to brown.

The grove of brilliantly colored aspens across the lake is, at this point, iconic. Indeed, there are frequently quite a few people photographing here. I arrived at an atypical time of day, and on an afternoon when the clouds may have made the conditions seem unpromising to some. As a result there was hardly anyone else there! The clouds worked to my advantage, as they softened the light coming onto the grove from the left, filling the shadows with a bit more light and avoiding the overly bright highlights that are difficult to deal with in full sun.

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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.
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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, Photographs: Yosemite

Autumn Leaves, Yosemite

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Autumn Leaves, Yosemite
Fallen big leaf maple leaves along a Yosemite Valley trail

Autumn Leaves, Yosemite. Yosemite Valley, California. October 22, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fallen big leaf maple leaves along a Yosemite Valley trail

I suppose it would not truly be autumn without at least one photograph of fallen leaves littering the forest floor! I made this photograph on a walk along the south side of a quiet section of trail in Yosemite Valley where big leaf maple trees grow. Along with black oaks and dogwoods, these trees produce some of the most interesting fall colors in The Valley. The big leaf maples often grow among conifers and in autumn their brilliant yellow leaves contrast with the darker and more somber tones of the other forest trees.

Just before I made this photograph I had been looking for the actual trees, and trying to find some that were separated enough from their surroundings to stand out in a photograph. In this particular location that turned out to be difficult. There were some lovely big leaf maples, but the lighting was a challenge and they often were too interspersed with dense forest. At about that point I thought to look down, and I saw thick piles of the large leaves alongside the trail.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Autumn Leaves, Sandstone

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Autumn Leaves, Sandstone
Autumn leaves lie on the sandstone in a high country creek bed, Zion National Park

Autumn Leaves, Sandstone. Zion National Park, Utah. October 22, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn leaves lie on the sandstone in a high country creek bed, Zion National Park

Every so often I decide to dig back through my older file archives from previous years, and I almost always discover photographs that I had forgotten, that perhaps didn’t resonate at the time, or were part of batches of images that I someone never quite finished reviewing. This is one of those. It comes from a lengthy autumn trip to various places in Zion with a group of friends back in 2012.

I made this photograph in Zion National Park, but it could have been made in uncounted numbers of places in Utah — it has the basic ingredients: patterned and worn sandstone plus leaves. This scene is as I found it, a small vignette of leaves, some in colors matching those of the sandstone and couple yellow enough to stand out from the background.

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.