Tag Archives: forest

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

Tall Aspens, Fall Color

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Tall Aspens, Fall Color
“Tall Aspens, Fall Color” — A large grove of big aspen trees with autumn color, on an Eastern Sierra Nevada hillside.

This is a type of autumn aspen photograph that I think of as a “wall of color.” Here there are more of the tall and straight trees than we see in many places in the Sierra, and the entire grove is at or near its fall peak. It helps that I had a somewhat elevated vantage point to make the photograph, part of what lets me fill the frame with color.

To look at this photograph you might imagine a scene almost like New England fall colors. However, while such colors there can go on for miles and cover successive mountains (hills, really) and valleys, in the Sierra the color is more concentrated. Groves, many of which are small, can stand out brilliantly against the predominant background of dark conifer trees or rocks or sagebrush.

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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, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning, Forest at Meadow’s Edge

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Morning, Forest at Meadow's Edge
“Morning, Forest at Meadow’s Edge” — Three generations of lodgepole pine forest at the edge of a Sierra Nevada meadow.

From the time I first visited Tuolumne Meadows (decades ago, as a child) I remember hearing that the meadows were being gradually overtaken by the forests. (I later learned that the story is not quite that simple.) This stuck with me, and I’ve always been intrigued by the boundaries between meadow and forest. This photograph shows three age groupings of pines next to this meadow — the three big and old trees left of center, a dense stand of younger tall trees at the right, and a thick line of “baby trees” extending from the left edge beyond the three big trees.

This was a special morning at Tuolumne. It was the first day of July, in a year when the campground would not open for another month. Park entrance restrictions further limited the number of visitors. I camped just outside the park and was able to enter before dawn. I had the landscape almost entirely to myself as the sun rose and light fog cleared from the meadow.

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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, Photographs: Yosemite

Autumn Forest, Yosemite Valley

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Auturm Forest, Yosemite Valley
“Autumn Forest, Yosemite Valley” — Autumn color from black oak and big leaf maple trees among the conifers, Yosemite Valley.

This is another of those dense vegetation photographs that I like. I enjoy the challenge of looking at these complex scenes long enough to find order in their complexity and near-chaos. Here that meant setting up a good distance back from the scene and photographing with a very long lens, moving around to find just the right relationships among the elements.

There are two special things about this specific spot in Yosemite Valley. The first has to do with light. Since areas along the base of the southern cliffs tend to remain in the shadows for many hours, I go here to find soft shadow light. But even better, El Capitan is across the Valley from this spot, and it reflects the daytime sun into these trees, giving a directional quality to the light. There’s one more interesting thing about this spot: a road runs fight in front of it, so one must compose carefully to leave it out and then wait for any cars to pass!

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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, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest With Autumn Leaves

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Forest With Autumn Leaves
“Forest With Autumn Leaves” — Autumn leaves on black oak and big leaf maple trees add color to a Yosemite Valley forest.

I enjoy the challenge of trying to make compositions out of very busy, complex scenes. There are plenty of such scenes in typical forest settings, where the amount of detail can be overwhelming, and it can take me a while to find something that works. Often I wander through such places just looking and using a framing card to check photograph potential. At some point, things fall into place.

I already knew of this spot where reflections from a cliff across Yosemite Valley send soft light into the forest and especially to the tall trees at the right. On the last day of October, autumn leaves were sprinkled throughout the scene, too. This feels like a quintessential autumn photograph of the Valley. It is not generally a place of vast forests of color — more common are conifer forests interrupted by intense color from scattered deciduous trees.

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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.