Tag Archives: grove

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

Aspen Leaves, Autumn Color

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Aspen Leaves, Autumn Color
Eastern Sierra Nevada aspen leaves at their peak of fall color.

Aspen Leaves, Autumn Color. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Eastern Sierra Nevada aspen leaves at their peak of fall color.

Most of the time I tend to treat aspen trees as part of the larger landscape, perhaps with a grove or a few trees as the subject, or even including some trees of a larger scene. But every so often I get the urge to wander inside a grove and photograph individual leaves up close. I spent an hour or so doing just that at an Eastern Sierra grove that was full of leaves spanning the full spectrum of aspen color, from green through yellow and orange to red.

I photographed the subjects in this series using a handheld camera and a macro lens. (Typically I would use a tripod and put a zoom lens on the camera.) By shooting handheld I was able to explore a wide range of composition spontaneously. That is useful with this subject since even very small changes in camera position can produce entirely different juxtapositions of foreground leaves and the beautiful blur of background color and light.

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

Aspen Cascade

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Aspen Cascade
Autumn aspen trees spill down a small valley in the Eastern Sierran Nevada.

Aspen Cascade. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees spill down a small valley in the Eastern Sierran Nevada.

There is no escaping the fact that this is an iconic Eastern Sierra fall color subject. Heck, even Apple used it for one of their operating systems! It was a bit of a surprise to me that I ended up here on this year’s abbreviated fall color expedition. I had initially planned to photograph much farther north and perhaps even to the east of the Sierra. However, those plans were derailed after I crossed the Sierra crest via Sonora Pass and dropped into the worst wildfire smoke I think I have experienced. I headed south, thinking it might get clearer as I drove, but it actually got worse. Coming into Lee Vining I could barely make out the near shoreline of Mono Lake in the noxious murk. So I decided that I would just continue south until the air improved.

It wasn’t until Bishop, California that it became tolerable, though it was smoky even there. So I headed into the the Sierra from there and ended up in the drainage in which this is one of the three major forks. I mostly photographed other things, and even when I went here the first time I spent most of my time of photographs of individual aspen leaves. When I returned to my camp after sunset a huge and thick cloud of wildfire smoke descended. I almost packed up and left, but I decided I would see what it looked like in the morning. It was still smoky when I woke up, though some light was getting through, so I chose the sure bet and went to this place. This curving grove of aspens winding its way down a shallow gully to the shore of a lake is a remarkable thing, with quite a lot of color variation from top to bottom.

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

Red and Yellow Aspen Leaves

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Red and Yellow Aspen Leaves
Autumn aspen leaves in yellow and red, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Red and Yellow Aspen Leaves. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen leaves in yellow and red, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Although it is hard to quantify such things, this Eastern Sierra fall color season seemed to produce better colors than I have seen in some time. Overall the colors were good, but two characteristics stood out. In many years I see a significant number of trees whose leaves simply turn dark brown or black and fall off — but I saw virtually no examples of that this year. But the most impressive feature this year seemed to be the large number of trees with red or orange colors. We always look for those, but they don’t necessarily show up in large numbers every year.

After photographing the large landscape at an iconic location I found a lovely grove full of leaves of every color from green through red, orange, and gold. I put a macro lens on a camera and wandered among the trees, looking for compositions that mostly consisted of a few leaves, often with some interesting color or light in the background.

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.

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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

Autumn Lake, Dawn, Eastern Sierra

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“Autumn Lake, Dawn, Eastern Sierra” — Dawn light comes to an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake surrounded by autumn aspen trees and reflecting distant peaks.

Yes, this is a bit of an iconic spot, but with good reason. And this year the colors around this Eastern Sierra Nevada lake were exceptional. I first photographed here before it became the often over-busy place it is today, so I’ve seen the color transition here many times. It has been about a decade since I saw colors like what I found this year. The most striking thing this year was the abundance of red and orange colors, something we don’t see every time.

The circumstances of this photograph were a bit complex. I was camped nearby the night before, and at sunset a thick cloud of suffocating wildfire smoke descended from the Sierra crest. I almost packed up and left, but then I decided to at least stick around for the night and see what the morning might bring. It was still smoky in the morning though not quite as bad as the previous night. Figuring that the smoke would be even worse farther to the north, I decided to head to this nearby lake. The smoke muted the light quite a bit, but because the smoke is not consistently thick there were moments when it thinned and more directional light appeared. I decided to simply set up in one spot and patiently wait for those momentary changes in illumination.

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.

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