Tag Archives: foliage

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

Lean To The Left

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Lean To The Left
“Lean To The Left” — A conjunction of aspen groves, one with left-leaning small trees and red foliage and the other with large trees with yellow leaves.

My camera position may have a little something to do with the “lean” of the tree trunks in the middle of the frame, but they really were leaning significantly to the left. While our idealized aspen trees are tall and straight, the reality in the Sierra Nevada is often different. There are many groves of very small trees, and many others end up twisted and stunted after being pushed and broken by winter snows and winds.

This grove is huge, stretching from its wide, flat base far up mountain slopes toward a ridge high above. Here the color division — reddish versus yellow — marks the point at which the trees begin to ascend that slope. It is one of the sharpest divisions I know of between trees of different colors.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

Yellow And Green Aspens

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Yellow And Green Aspens
“Yellow And Green Aspens” — A row of small yellow and green aspen trees in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This unassuming row of small aspens is in the high desert along the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. In this terrain, it is common to find small groves of aspen trees in sagebrush country, often along a stream course or other source of water. Because I first encountered aspens many years ago on high country backpacking trips, I used to think the three were trees of the subalpine zone, but they are actually quite common in other places in the Sierra.

These trees illustrate another important point about Sierra Nevada Fall color — and fall color just about anywhere for that matter. Certain specific spots get designated as “the best,” the places you really must see. It is true that at least some of them to have special features and characteristics, but eventually I learned that there are beautiful little groves all over the Sierra, often in places where you might not think to look for them.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Nature

Red Tulip

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Red Tulip
“Red Tulip” — A red tulip blossom opens.

I have to confess to a degree of ignorance about flowers. Many people (including my wife, photographer Patricia Emerson Mitchel) can walk into a garden and name every flower. I recognize flowers by shape, size, color, and season, but I’ve never been able (or willing?) to learn all of their names. So this was just a “very intense red flower” (and a big one, too) until I looked at the buds and realized that it was a tulip. I think…

The color of this flower was amazing. The red was the most intense I think I’ve seen in a flower. As a photographer, that sounds an alert about a technical issue — blowing out the red channel in the digital capture. It also makes me concerned about how accurately the color can be reproduced in a photograph, as some of the very bright and intense colors don’t map perfectly to the digital color space. Having said all of that, this is just about how I recall the flower.

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.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Travel

Die Alte Brücke, Heidelberg

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Die Alte Brücke, Heidelberg
“Die Alte Brücke, Heidelberg” — The old bridge across the Neckar River leads to Heidelberg Altstadt.

As I have written previously, Heidelberg is our “home away from home” when we travel to Europe. We almost always end up there for at least a few days, and on our late 2024 visit we used it as our home base for essentially three weeks. Patty’s brother and sister-in-law live there and graciously host us. So by now we are somewhat familiar with parts of the city, including the Altstadt (“old town”) area.

I made this simple little photograph as we walked through hills above the Neckar River on the Philosophenweg footpath. Although the weather felt like winter (at least to us Californians!), there were still colorful autumn leaves on many of the trees. “Die Alte Brücke” (the old bridge) is visible beyond the trees in the center of the frame, and after we descended from the hills we crossed it into the town.

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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