Tag Archives: gold

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Aspens in Transition

November 2, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Aspen forest in autumn color transition near Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

During the several days we spent in the Cedar Breaks area (with forays out to further surrounding destinations and back) I was looking for high elevation aspen color, which had, for the most part, passed its prime before we arrived. Many of the higher elevation aspen trees were bare of leaves, though a few sparse delicate leaves remained and in places there were a few trees here and there that somehow managed to retain all of their golden leaves. The rolling terrain of the National Monument along the thru-road, which I traveled several times, was not turning out to be a great spot to find the color I was looking for.

One morning, returning from Cedar Breaks to Brian Head, I saw the gravel road to Brian Head Peak (or Mountain?) and headed up there, to find an expansive 360-degree panorama visible from the summit of the 11,000+ peak. From this high vantage point I was able to spot where those colorful trees had been hiding out on the other side of the ridge west of Brian Head! I could also see that there were some ways to get back into that area, so on the final morning of our visit to this area I found another small gravel road, crossed that ridge, and was able to see vast groves of aspens beyond. While this photograph doesn’t quite show those trees, it does include an interesting feature of this area, the mixed conifer and aspen forest with very tall aspen trees reaching as high or higher than the conifers. Here there were a few brilliantly colorful clumps of aspens left among the other trees, with interesting texture provided by the many bare trunks – and all of this seems a bit more visible due to the soft, diffused light from the high, thin overcast.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Utah

Aspen Color Explosion

October 24, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

An almost unbelievable explosion of aspen color in the mountains east of Cedar City, Utah

This impresses me as just about the most ridiculous, over-the-top, unbelievable explosion of aspen color that I’ve ever seen. I visited Utah during the first part of October this year, and I encountered what must be almost peak fall aspen color during the first week of the month in the southwestern part of the state not far from Cedar City and Zion National Park. By the time I arrived the trees at the highest elevations had lost many of their leave, however the show from trees and somewhat lower elevations more than made up for this.

While there were colorful trees everywhere, this particular group seemed unrivaled for the sheet variety of colors packed together in one small area. The specific spot isn’t all that important and, frankly, in many ways the location was otherwise not necessarily the most wonderful example of Utah wilderness. (There were homes not too far away.) We came upon this scene while driving a back-road not far from Cedar City – we were basically just driving around looking for color and hoping we would find some. (Actually, it was hard to avoid seeing aspen color!) While some leaves had fallen from the lower portions of a few of these trees, the color variation was amazing – ranging from yellow-gold through orange and right on to red, with a few still-green leaves thrown in for good measure.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove Below South Lake

October 23, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A dense aspen grove in full fall color near South Lake in the Bishop Creek drainage

I have been returning to this little group of trees for several years now. There are many like it throughout the eastern Sierra, but somehow this group has come to seem like “mine” and I shoot it every fall. There is nothing obviously special about it – it is not some sort of landmark location, and you would easily pass right by it if you happened to be there and look in a different direction. It is up a somewhat obscure little dirt road that goes no where in particular.

At the right moment in the fall season the grove turns completely golden-yellow with the exception of some years when it seems to hold a bit of orange or red, if I recall correctly. I like to arrive in the early evening just as the sun is about to dip behind a nearby ridge and bring soft, shadowed light to this spot. This year I had thought that I might be too early, since I would more typically shoot there perhaps a full week into the month of October, but this has been an early season for aspen color in the Sierra and in a number of other areas of the west as well.

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

First Light, Sabrina Basin Aspens

October 22, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light traverses groves of golden autumn aspen trees, Sabrina Basin

There is a particular spot in the Sabrina Basin from which I can look down into a deeper portion of the valley where the sunlight does not hit the trees until hours after sunrise. When photographing in this area I almost have a ritual I follow: begin just before dawn at a higher location and shoot in the very first morning light, explore this higher area for an hour or more as the light builds, then leave and begin the descent back into that valley – first photographing it from above as the sun begins to top a tall ridge to the east and its shadow moves across the groves of trees in the bottom of the valley, and then working within the valley-bottom groves.

This photograph was made during those moments when the sun first began to rise over that high ridge, and the sun/shadow line began its traverse of the aspen groves that line the bottom of the canyon. Here the light had reached the first trees closet to me and was just beginning to work its way back toward the further groves that were still in deep shadow.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: gold

Aspens in Transition

Aspen Color Explosion

Aspen Grove Below South Lake

First Light, Sabrina Basin Aspens

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