Tag Archives: forest

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

New Hampshire Forest, Autumn

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New Hampshire Forest, Autumn
“New Hampshire Forest, Autumn” — Multi-colored autumn foliage in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

We paused along the Kancamagus Highway to photograph at this large turnout, a place with a parking lot next to a rocky river, where the opening in the forest above the water let a bit more light into the edge of the forest. Just about every variety of New Hampshire autumn color was present where the forest ended at the river’s edge.

I have noted that there are not a lot of places where a photographer can get a bit of distance on such trees — often the opening for roadways is narrow and there isn’t usually a wide shoulder along the highways. The forest is quite dense, especially by comparison to the mostly-open forests that I’m familiar with in the Sierra Nevada. Within the density there is also tremendous diversity, with many kinds of trees growing closely together and, in the autumn, producing a kaleidoscope of almost all of the fall colors one can imagine.

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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: New England

Autumn Lake, New Hampshire

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Autumn Lake, New Hampshire
“Autumn Lake, New Hampshire” — Autumn colors reflected in a northern New Hampshire lake.

Since this year’s New England visit for fall photography was our first, we decided to combine some sure-bet locations with enough time to go out and explore. Our sure bet was in New Hampshire’s White Mountains region, and it was as spectacular as the descriptions suggested. With the help of good luck and good advice, we managed to be there at exactly the peak of fall color. After our first day visit to an obvious, iconic location, we started to push out the boundaries a bit, turning up various roads that took us elsewhere, and discovering interesting things in the process.

We stopped at this lake during a long, looping drive that took us further north. The tall ridges of the White Mountains aren’t seen here — this is a region of rolling hills that is appealing in a different way. We stopped at this lake because it provided open views and the water came right up to the roadway. Once we got out and went to work we saw more ways to photograph it. In addition to the obvious nearby trees and the reflection of those trees and the sky, the distant hills are also blanketed by autumn 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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Autumn Aspens, Rocky Ledge

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Autumn Aspens, Rocky Ledge
A line of aspen trees, with backlit peak color, on a rocky ledge, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Autumn Aspens, Rocky Ledge. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A line of aspen trees, with backlit peak color, on a rocky ledge, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

These trees defied one of my working assumptions about Eastern Sierra Nevada autumn aspen color, namely that the high-elevation clusters of smaller trees growing in challenging surroundings usually turn and then drop their leaves earlier in the season. I know that’s often true, because I have seen it for myself in many locations. But this year seemed different, and in places where I have seen bare trees before the middle of October there were quite colorful groves this time. This line of trees was up very high in very rocky terrain, yet it managed to produce enough color to glow like flame in the morning back-light.

This wasn’t the only location where I saw this surprising change. I’m pretty familiar with groves along the June Lakes Loop, including some that are well above the loop and only accessible in some relatively difficult ways. I have photographs of those trees from previous years, and they peaked and then dropped leaves early. Yet this year, as I drove that loop on the last day of my visit, at the end of the third week of October, the same trees were producing vibrant gold colors. All of this reminds me that while the trees tend to follow the same general schedule from year to year, each season has its own personality.

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: New England

Autumn Creek

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Autumn Creek
“Autumn Creek” — A rocky creek beneath thinning autumn foliage in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

This is a slightly different perspective on a scene that was also the focus of another photograph I shared in the past few weeks. Both focus on this quiet little New Hampshire creek, a place we came upon serendipitously, after taking a few random turns off of the main highway and driving up a gravel road into the forest. Both photographs — this one and the previous — include the same creek and were made from almost the same camera position. In this one I expanded the field of view a bit and raised the camera to include more of the fall leaves in the canopy.

I often urge folks who ask about the “secret places” they should know about when they visit a new location to instead recognize that in order to understand the place well enough to find those it will take time… and that it isn’t a bad idea to at least start with icons while you keep your eyes peeled for non-iconic spots that appeal to you. That was certainly our approach on this trip, on which we began by photographing in one of the most iconic — and crowded! — regions for New Hampshire fall color. After the first day and a half or so of that, we started to “poke around” a bit, heading up this or that little side road that we noticed and then setting off for more distant places whose names on maps caught our attention.

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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.