Tag Archives: forest

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, Boulders

October 26, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A grove of autumn aspen trees among large boulders, Bishop Creek, California.

There is something special and perhaps hard to define about the light inside an aspen grove as the leaves change color in the autumn. It is a visually complex place in many ways – various colorful leaves are overhead, more leaves are dropping constantly to the ground, the ground itself is littered with layers of leaves ranging from brand now and colorful to old and black, other materials such as rocks and grasses and brush may grow between the trees, and the interlocking branches of the closely spaced trees can make progress difficult to nearly impossible. And every grove seems to have its own unique personality. Some will be full of tall and straight trees, and may allow more light in. Others may consist of trees barely taller than a person, and thin-truck trees may be packed closely together. Some have been affected by difficult soil or heavy snow and are full of bent and twisted trees.

This grove is almost within a small campground in the south fork of Bishop Creek. I have shot in this area in the past since a nearby section of the grove often seems to suddenly drop masses of colorful leaves very quickly, so it can be a good place to shoot leaves on the ground. This time, though, I wandered in a different direction and ended up in this area where smallish and seemingly stunted trees grew among large rocks and boulders. The challenge was to try to find a composition in this very busy scene. The first challenge is finding a spot that is open enough to show an expanse of the grove, followed by then moving the camera – sometimes by fractions on an inch – to try to come up with some reasonable alignment of trees and boulders, all the while trying to avoid letting the overly bright sky end up in the frame.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.

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.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Thicket, Bishop Creek

October 21, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Bright yellow autumn leaves festoon a dense aspen thicket along Bishop Creek near South Lake, California.

At the right point during the aspen season there are so many potential photographic “targets” that it can be almost overwhelming. In this general area along the south fork or Bishop Creek, there were many stands of aspens that were at or just past their color peak. I knew of this row of trees that follows the course of the stream and which is accessible by way of a short gravel road that takes off from the main road – I had photographed them in slightly less interesting conditions last year. This particular little loop road has a number of potential aspen subjects, but this year when I arrived it seemed like the most interesting trees were in this spot near where the side road starts.

I’m intrigued by densely packed trees, so dense that the white trunks, yellow leaves, and the various sized branches can grow together and almost completely fill the space within the grove. This little thicket seemed about as close to exactly what I was looking for as anything else I saw along those lines this year. By shooting at an angle across the line of trees, the light hit their trunks from the left side of the frame, and the depth of the grove was accentuated just a bit. With so much detail to work with it can be a bit hard to find a composition that isn’t overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail, so here I looked for a section of the grove where the closely spaced white trunks gave some shape and direction to the scene.

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

Aspen Trees, Conway Summit, Fall

October 18, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 7 Comments

Aspen trees in peak color at Conway Summit along highway 395 in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

I isolated this small bit of near-psychedelic color from the extensive aspen groves at Conway Summit, along highway 395 just north of Lee Vining and Mono Lake along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada range. When I visited the grove this past weekend the colors seemed to be essentially at their peak with alternating rows of red, orange, gold, and even a few lime green trees marching up the slopes toward the Dunderberg area high above.

If you hit it at the right moment, the aspen color at this location is second to none, and a bonus for many is that it is so accessible, being right alongside the highway. Brilliant colors can occur on both sides of the summit, but those on the north side seem to me to be more varied, and it is a bit easier and safer to find a place to stop alongside the road.

The lighting during my visit was “interesting” – which often means good but with some challenges. From my point of view, the best light at Conway Summit, at least when it comes to photographing aspen color, occurs fairly late in the afternoon when the sun gets low in the sky and can backlight the groves of trees. However, because of the backdrop of Sierra Nevada peaks the interval of good light can be short – and it is distinctly before actual sunset. The “interesting” element during this visit was that clouds were building over the crest. This produces some spectacular sky conditions at times, but it also cast shadows across the trees that dulled the colors and lowered contrast. Now a bit of this can be a good thing, and too much backlight can be a bit difficult to handle. By scoping out perhaps three of four possible compositions from my position, I could wait until the “good light” hit one or another of them, swing the camera around in that direction, and work quickly while the light lasted. For this detail shot of a colorful section of the aspen groves just below my position I had what can perhaps be the very best light for such subjects – a bit of directional light from behind filtered through clouds.

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Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Trail Junction, Redwood Forest and Ferns

October 10, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A bed of ferns grows at a trail junction under deep redwood forest cover at Muir Woods National Monument.

This photograph was made in the late winter of 2009, during that time of the year when the redwood forest is still very wet and cool, but when flowers are blooming and spring is clearly on the way. The location is along the very popular (and often quite busy) main trail along the creek through the central part of the park. No doubt I had to wait a bit for the combination of these beams of light and no other visitors on the trail!

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