Tag Archives: fallen

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

Autumn Oak Leaves, Streambed Rock

November 28, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn oak leaves on stratified streambed rocks, Zion National Park

This is one of those photographs that is not what I was looking for when I made it. We had dropped into a narrow near-slot canyon in the Zion high country, and my thoughts were on photographing the sandy bed of the little canyon along with the steep and sculpted rock and the light reflecting onto them from the narrow strip of skylight above, or perhaps looking for branches against red sandstone. So as I walked up this little canyon and sort of but not quite saw those things I was becoming just a little bit frustrated photographically – the light was colored the way I had hoped, there were footprints in the sand from those who had hiked here before me, and the colorful branches of fall leaves were few and far between and often in places where I could not see a photograph. (Though, as always, I enjoyed the sensations of walking through such a place.)

As often happens, what I really needed to do was let go of my preconceptions about what I thought should be there and instead look around to see what really was there. As soon as I did this I began to look away from the larger-scale elements of the place and see some of the smaller things and how they might make photographs – a few leaves sitting on rock, some remaining ripples in the sand, and so forth. This bit of rock was sitting a foot or two higher than the stream bed and off to one side under some overhanging plants. Unlike most of the rock there, it was strongly stratified and it had a bit of a yellow cast in places. And a few of the yellowish/tan oak leaves were sitting on its surface.

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

Autumn Detritus, Zion National Park

November 20, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Oak leaves and other autumn material on a rocky streambed in Zion National Park

This mixture of autumn debris was lying on a low shelf near the bottom of a narrow canyon wash in the high country of Zion National Park. We had descended into this wash to look for autumn colors, mostly the red maples and perhaps some cottonwood or box elder trees. It had not been long since the last rain, given the evidence of flow patterns in the sand and occasional wet spots in deeper sections.

The gambel oak trees are quickly becoming a favorite of mine in this area of the Southwest. They are found all over the place and vary from small, bush-like plants to decent sized trees. When fall comes they can put on a quite varied show. Some leaves simply turn the rich brown/tan that you see on some of the leaves in this photograph. Others turn yellow and some take on very bright red colors, especially when the light comes through the leaves from behind. (A photograph from a small canyon in Capitol Reef that I’ll post later shows a more gaudy side of these leaves.) Here the leaves had fallen onto a low sandstone bench just above the stream bed, and the reddish rocks compliment the other autumn colors of this intimate scene.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Black Aspen Leaves, Frost

October 15, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Blackened aspen leaves in frost following an early fall snowfall, eastern Sierra Nevada

This is a photograph from last year’s (2011) aspen color season in the eastern Sierra Nevada range of California. It was a bit on an unusual season, though in the end it turned out to be one that provided quite a lot of aspen beauty of various sorts. Because that autumn followed the second of two winters with greater-than-normal precipitation in the Sierra, there was a lot of lush and healthy plant growth of all sorts, and even as the end of the summer season arrived there was a lot of greenery about. Then, just as the color season started near the beginning of October, a series of three winter-like storms traversed the range and dropped a foot or more of early season snow. While some snow isn’t unusual at this time of year, a sequence of three storms and that amount of snowfall are unusual. All of the trans-Sierra passes closed for several days.

I came across Tioga Pass on the day that it reopened, and then headed south to the prime aspen-hunting grounds above Bishop, California. The next morning I decided to head up to the North Lake area, and I found the gravel road still snow-covered. I drove on up carefully, and it appeared that I might have been among the very first to try the road after the snow. Needless to say, the storms had a big effect on the aspen leaves! Many of the “ripest” and most colorful leaves had fallen, leaving the trees a bit more bare than usual at this time. And, perhaps due to the cold, rather than turning red and orange and golden-yellow, quite a few leaves went straight to black. Now I’m as attracted to the wildly colorful aspen leaves as anyone, but I’m also intrigued by somewhat unusual conditions, so I found some of the blackened leaves to be interesting, too. In the early hours I found this cluster, no doubt blown down and piled together during the storm, sitting on top of the snow bank and covered with crystalline frost from the previous night.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Thinking Aloud

Fallen Begonia Blossom

September 3, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A fallen begonia blossom on a bench at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.

On a recent trip to the northern California coast around Mendocino, we spent the better part of a day wandering around at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg. If you ever visit this part of California, you will quickly discover that there are lots of flowers there, both wildflowers and cultivated varieties – they seem to like the cooler, moister, foggier climate. The Botanical Gardens is surprisingly large and comprehensive for a private facility in a somewhat out-of-the-way location. It covers many acres, stretching from the coast highway all the way to the edge of bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and it includes a wide range of plant types, not all of which are what you would expect here.

This was our first visit to the Gardens, so we sort of explored rather than trying to necessarily see everything. Not far from the entrance is the structure of the Mauer Display Garden, where begonias were blooming. The flowers and the intensity of their colors were quite amazing. At one point I believe I remarked that I had never seen anything quite as intensely orange as some of the flowers. At one point I looked away from the main displays of living plants and happened to notice this very colorful blossom that had fallen onto the corner of a bench. While the color probably seems unbelievable, it really was this intense. (Photographing these flowers proved to be a great reminder of the exposure challenges we face when using DSLRs to shoot subjects that are intense in one of the three color channels. In some photographs, the red channel was perhaps three to four stops brighter than the other channels!)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: fallen

Autumn Oak Leaves, Streambed Rock

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Autumn Detritus, Zion National Park

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Black Aspen Leaves, Frost

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Fallen Begonia Blossom

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

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