Tag Archives: green

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

Aspens and Conifers

October 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fall color before sunrise in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

I had visited this place a few days earlier on a separate visit, and at that time the colors were still not fully developed. At that time I wasn’t sure I would be back, since I have photographed this area quite a few times in the past, and I figured that my subsequent visit might take me to different areas of the Sierra. However, I’m an opportunist and I often make decisions about where I’ll go and what I’ll photograph quite close to the last minute, responding to circumstances and conditions. And on this morning, a visit to this spot looked promising.

Each year the color change patterns are a bit different. A spot that might be green one year on a particular date may be in full color during another year, or it might simply lose its leaves without changing. While things tend to happen at fairly similar times each year — with some exceptions — the state of the trees at those points in time can vary. For example, I have come to this spot at about this time and found the lower portion of the grove almost devoid of leaves, likely in the aftermath of cold and wind. This time the color still looked good, thought I could tell that at the lower edges it wasn’t going to last a lot longer. I as also intrigued by the somewhat unusual band of green trees still found in the bottom of the ascending gully.

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

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

Peak Aspen Color

October 16, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An eastern Sierra Nevada aspen grove at the peak of fall color

I regard fall aspen photography as, to a great extent, an exercise in timing. One element of this is, of course, to simply be in the right place at times of peak color. Aspen color is rarely static, and from day to day it changes. Just a few days earlier I had been in this same spot and most of the trees were still green. (I made a mental note on that earlier visit to come back in a few days when I suspected that the colors might be more developed.) The time of day is also critical since light variations play a huge role in the ways the colors appear. Early and late in the day, when the trees are still in shadow but perhaps lit by open sky and reflections from surrounding mountains, the soft light can produce rather saturated colors and fill the shadows with light. When backlit, the same groves might be so bright that it is sometimes difficult to figure out the idea exposure. And when the groves are front lit the colors can be greatly diminished.

Before we came to this spot we had started our day by photographing in a rather different area a few miles away. We worked those subjects for perhaps an hour and a half, and at that point I remembered my idea of visiting this other location, the one where I made this photograph, before the direct sunlight arrived. So off we went, down one canyon and then up another, to arrive at this spot where I knew colorful aspen trees would spread up the hillside in the shade. The colors were quite incredible. Most of the hillside was in full color — a lot of golden/yellow, but also shades of orange and red. Here and there a few trees where still green, and for this composition I decided to place one of those clusters of green trees in almost the center of a frame otherwise filled with wild colors.

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

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

River Of Aspens

October 14, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A river of autumn aspen trees descends a valley and turns around a side hill

I made this photograph during a brief visit to a familiar place, one that I probably have photographed from time to time over a period of about a decade. It is interesting to think about how my relationship to the location has changed over the years. The first time I visited, it held an almost mythical attraction, with several features that are iconic enough that at least three views of the location are quite well-known. But back then the number of photographers going here was a fraction of what it is today when sometimes it feels like the “east side” is virtually over-run by photographers in the fall. I suppose that this allowed me to mostly get past those standard views and simply regard this location as simply one among many beautiful spots in the general area.

Yet, certain features still have the potential to produce especially memorable conditions. This “river of aspens,” snaking down a shallow canyon and around an outcropping before ending at the shore of a lake, is one of these features. The colors can vary quite a bit during the season and between successive seasons. I’ve arrived to find it almost completely green… or to find that almost all of the leaves had already fallen. I’ve been chased away by snow and wind. This year the situation was, again, somewhat different from what I’ve seen in the past. The colors were mostly intense when I arrived, yet they ranged from green through almost bare trees. Rather than trying to take in the entire view, I constrained my framing and worked for a composition that might draw attention to the fluid curve of the grove as it nears its end at the shoreline of the lake.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Nevada

Dormant and Alive

October 5, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dormant and live trees form patterns against a cliff face, Great Basin National Park

On my first visit to Nevada’s Great Basin National Park near the end of September, my initial impression was that the “big features” of the park that probably draw the most visitors are two: The Lehman Caves near the entrance and visitor center and the high, alpine area close to Wheeler Peak, the highest point in the park and the second tallest in the state of Nevada. I did not visit the caves, but I did spend a fair amount of time high up near the peaks, photographing and hiking to the alpine lakes and the bristlecone pine groves. (My one regret is that I started out a bit too late on the bristlecone pine visit, and I didn’t have enough time to cover the additional two miles up to and back from the Wheeler Glacier.)

Eventually, as typically happens, I had made my acquaintance with the iconic subjects in the park, and I started to feel the familiar impulse to look around a bit for things that might not be so obvious or immediately impressive. The first foray was up a gravel road past some less developed campgrounds, where I came across at section of low cliff running alongside a gravel road and stream bed. The autumn colors were just beginning to arrive here, so I got out and wandered a bit, looking for juxtapositions of rock and tree. This little vignette attracted my attention, and I was fascinated by the pairing of a living tree full of leaves (albeit just about to turn colors and drop) and the nearby bare, white branches holding only dead leaves, with both set off from the rock behind them.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: green

Aspens and Conifers

Peak Aspen Color

River Of Aspens

Dormant and Alive

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