Tag Archives: grove

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

Autumn Aspens and Meadows

November 23, 2017 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Autumn aspen groves broken up by meadows along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada

Yes, still more fall color photographs! I’m getting close to the end of this year’s batch, and you are likely to see other subjects a bit more in the near future. Some of you will be happy about that and others will be disappointed. :-) Overall, this turned out to be a pretty good season for Sierra Nevada color, at least in my view. I heard a few people say that it wasn’t that great, but I think that the elements of luck and timing and location make a big difference — and all of those played out well for me this year.

This photograph comes from a place where there are lots of large groves spread across eastern Sierra hillsides. There are many places like this, so the precise location probably isn’t all that important. I happened to be there at just about the peak of the color, and I found an elevated position from which to photograph down into the backlit trees.

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

Fall Color, Eastern Sierra Foothills

November 19, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Colorful aspen groves ascend the foothills in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Indeed, I’m still going through this year’s photographs of fall color and other autumn subjects. It actually turned out to be a very beautiful fall in and around the Sierra Nevada. I suspect that the return to normal (actually above normal) precipitation had a big influence, and the contrast with the previous five drought years was quite large. I managed several trips into the range during the month of October, the prime time for most fall color, visiting the east side and also Yosemite Valley.

The best aspen color came, as it typically would in my experience, about a week and a half into October. The color begins earlier than that at high elevations and among some of the smaller trees, and then it generally works its way downward over a period of perhaps three weeks or so. I made this photograph right in the heart of that period, on a three-day foray that took me to a variety of locations. (I’ve been photographing this subject long enough that if I encounter less than stellar conditions I can usually pick up and quickly move to something better.) This spot is pretty well known and easily visible from US 395. I have photographed it many times, and now I’m either looking for astonishing and rare conditions or else a perspective that is a bit different. This photograph looks down into a group of large trees that are backed by a carpet of smaller trees, at peak color and ascending the hills toward the Sierra crest, all illuminated by very late afternoon light.

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

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

Aspen Groves, Sierra Crest

November 14, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Aspen groves follow the contours of foothills rising toward the Sierra Nevada crest.

Just for fun… a fall color photography in black and white! I have the greatest respect for our photographer predecessors who set about photographing the beauty of fall color with only monochromatic shades to work with. It can be done, but it isn’t quite as straightforward as photographing fall color with today’s capable digital cameras. It is all too easy to let those colorful leaves end up having monochromatic tones that aren’t that much different from the same trees in the green season! Light helps, as does some selective use of filters — glass filters in the old days and post-processing analogs applied to digital files today.

I made this photograph close to a rather popular fall color photography location, though the exact location isn’t quite in the usual spot. It presented a challenge or two that I won’t describe here. The light was, to use the old euphemism, “interesting” at this point. The late afternoon light was coming in at a low angle and lighting up the trees nicely, but the sky was a bit tricky. Some high clouds were floating over the Sierra crest peaks, and their brightness posed a dynamic range challenge while their shadows fell across the peaks. There are many things I like about this scene — the way the curving forms of the groves lead away and up toward the Sierra crest peak, the long shadows, the alternation of sunlit ridge and darker valleys, and those distant peaks with a bit of autumn snow dusting their summits.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Aspen Color

October 29, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Aspen grove containing colors from green through red and orange to yellow

I have been watching this location for many years, and even this season I had checked it out earlier in the week to see how the color was coming along. During that first check the color was just beginning, and most of the trees were still green, but when we returned just a matter of days later the scene had been transformed, and most of the trees were wildly colorful. The bits of remaining green seemed to be just enough to set off the brighter shades of yellow, orange, and red.

Photographing aspen color depends a lot on the nature of the light at the time of the photograph. Midday light can be harsh, and the subtle qualities of the coloration can be lost. In fact, if the light on the front of the aspen trees they lose virtually all of their color and they can look quite drab and boring. On the other hand, photographing aspens in shadows can let the colors glow, especially after a bit of adjustment to compensate for the blue quality of the shadow light. Additionally, the softer shadow light allows shaded portions of the scene to be more visible. On this morning we planned our time to make sure that we arrived at a series of locations just before the shadows were overwhelmed by the arrival of direct sun. In fact, as I photographed these shadowed trees, the line of sunlight streaming over a nearby peak was only feet behind my camera position.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: grove

Autumn Aspens and Meadows

Fall Color, Eastern Sierra Foothills

Aspen Groves, Sierra Crest

Aspen Color

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