Tag Archives: green

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

Aspens, Ferns, And Boulders

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Aspens, Ferns, And Boulders
Early autumn aspen color with ferns and granite boulders

Aspens, Ferns, And Boulders. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn aspen color with ferns and granite boulders.

My arrival at this well-known Eastern Sierra location was perhaps a few days too early, and the color would not really peak until three or four days later. However, even when there are still a lot of green trees it is possible to find a few that are changing colors — and in some ways the striking fall leaf colors may even seem a bit more so when there are still some green leaves in the scene.

This photograph probably looks fairly static… but it was a very windy day! In fact, moments earlier I had given up photographing in a more exposed location because the winds were so strong! This grove was a bit more sheltered, being at the bottom of a steep, narrow bit of valley. Even so, the aspen leaves are easily moved in slight breezes and I had to wait for just the right moment to find a time when the motion was minimized. There is more going on in this scene than may be immediately visible. In a sense there are four primary components: the vertical lines of the light-colored trunks, the patterns of green and yellow leaves, the golden brown of the ferns, and hiding in the background the darker tones of rocks.

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

Early Aspen Color

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Early Aspen Color
Early autumn season aspens begin to change color

Early Aspen Color. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early autumn season aspens begin to change color.

As fall approaches I always anticipate the color change of aspen trees way in advance of the actual event, and I start watching for early signs more than a month before the color peaks. Way back in August I typically find a few early clues — yellowing corn lilies, drying meadows — and at some point in September I find my first few yellow aspen leaves. The change begins in earnest by the first week of October, and that is when I made this photograph. At this point, the aspen trees seem to move toward a sort of “lime green” color, often with a few interspersed yellow leaves, and in the right light you can convince yourself the fall colors have arrived.

There is a useful lesson about lighting in this photograph, too. Although this scene seems pretty straightforward, there’s more going on with the direction and color of the light than you might first notice. This grove of trees is, indeed, in the shade. The camera is pointing roughly east, a tall ridge rises behind this little grove, and it was still shading the trees hours after sunrise. This provides soft light that fills in shadow details much better than direct sunlight. Look deeper into the grove and beyond and you may notice that the color becomes more blue. Light in shadows is usually quite blue — after all, the main light source is the very blue sky! But the trees in the foreground are not very blue… and there’s a reason. Behind my camera position (if we could turn around and look backwards) was a very large mountain in direct sunlight, and the reflection of that light was strongly diffused and directed straight into the grove, warming the colors and highlighting the front trees.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Window, San Francisco

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Window, San Francisco
A window covered with security bars

Window, San Francisco. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A window covered with security bars.

If this were my window — on this particular street, in this particular position, in this particular city — I suppose that I would install a security system like this, too. (It isn’t exactly a “bad” area, but it is one where many thousands of people walk past daily, and the window is right along the sidewalk.)

But that’s not really why I made the photograph. I thought the gently suffused lighting was attractive, and I liked the combination of colors, shapes, and light and shadow. Aside from whatever intrinsic value or meaning this photograph may (or may not) have, it is another example of the fact that there are things to see everywhere, and that, in my view, photographing them is a useful way to “tune up” your ability to see things that not everyone might notice.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Stream And Meadow

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Stream And Meadow
An alpine stream descends through a boulder-strewn, meadow-filled Sierra Nevada valley

Stream And Meadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An alpine stream descends through a boulder-strewn, meadow-filled Sierra Nevada valley.

One reason I made this photograph is that the scene is so ordinary, believe it or not. In fact, these little landscapes of flowing water, meadow, rocks, and small trees are perhaps my favorite in the Sierra Nevada, found in the region just below timberline where the terrain begins to open up. I’d love to be able to add the sound of this scene to the post, with its characteristic and almost ever-present lullaby of flowing water.

This location was only a few hundred feet from our camp. We stayed in a small valley between two ridges, and just below the truly alpine region of moraines and ridges and peaks. Here several streams converged, draining various higher canyons and lakes, and we were never far from water.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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