Tag Archives: forest

Dense Autumn Foliage

Dense Autumn Foliage
“Dense Autumn Foliage” — Intensely colorful New England autumn foliage., New Hampshire.

My favorite season is just days away, with the autumnal equinox arriving this weekend. Although I have yet to see much of it myself, I know that the first fall foliage is starting to show up here in California — and I hope to be in the field photographing it again soon! Meanwhile I’ll start the ball rolling with some photographs from the East Coast. I’ve had these in my archive for some time and only got around to working them up this week. This one comes from New Hampshire.

Two years ago we (finally!) made it to New England for its famous fall color display. For years, almost every time I shared Sierra Nevada fall color photographs someone would say, “But you should see New England!” I love the Sierra version of autumn, which just as beautiful, if less flamboyant — but I have to admit that the amazing oceans of color on the East Coast are spectacular, too.


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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Farm, Clearing Fog

Farm, Clearing Fog
“Farm, Clearing Fog” — Soft morning sunlight comes to a small mountain farm as fog clears.

On this summer morning I headed over the mountains for the coast, planning to drive north from Santa Cruz and photograph foggy coastal scenes. However, it turned out that there was too much fog for what I had in mind, so I had to recalibrate. There are many lonely little roads that run inland from the Pacific Coast Highway, and I decided at random to explore one of them. I headed up a small valley, crossed some hills, and eventually wound through a narrow valley whose bottomlands held this small farm.

Today a lot of agriculture takes place on large corporate farms, especially here in California where the Central Valley is filled with those gigantic agribusiness operations . But if you poke around a bit off the grid, there are still these little farms in quiet little places. I pulled over and quietly watched the morning sun start to break through the thinning fog.


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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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Scottish Forest, Soft Light

Scottish Forest, Soft Light
“Scottish Forest, Soft Light” — Soft light under thin overcast illuminates Scottish forest on the Great Glen Way.

This sort of terrain was far from typical during our trek along Scotland’s Great Glen Way this past May. We did walk through a lot of forests, but many of them were extremely dense and dark — that sort of forest you might describe as “impenetrable.” We did see moss like this in places, which is not surprise given the Scottish weather. But this sort of green, open forest was a bit of a rarity.

In any case, this open forest was also a surprise when we encountered it. At the start of the day’s hike we had climbed up from flatlands and into open highland terrain with expansive views and a lot of wind! From there we descended back into trees and then traversed along a ridge paralleling Loch Ness. Here the thick trees blocked any open views. But shortly after our lunch stop we came upon this magical, light-filled section of open forest.


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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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Big Sur Haze

Big Sur Haze
“Big Sur Haze” — Summer haze along rugged Big Sur coastline, California.

I drove down the Big Sur Coast on this mid-August morning, traveling as far as the point where the road is currently closed for landslide repair. A bit north of that I pulled out at a popular overlook where I have photographed before — there is a great view down the coast and past a series of big ridges descending to the water. I almost didn’t photograph, but as I looked at the scene I became interested in smaller sections of the larger view.

Typically when I have photographed here I have worked in vertical portrait mode so that I could include the more distant curve of the coast and an interesting “natural bridge” on some rocks to the right. I’ve often trued to exclude the foreground trees, but this time I thought that they might make a good foil to the haze-muted forms and textures of the more distant coastline at the upper right.


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.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | PostEmail

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.