“Aspens, Late Afternoon” — Autumn light slants across colorful groves of aspen trees, Eastern Sierra.
This photograph comes from a rather accessible location in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, a place where aspens appear on what is essentially high desert terrain rising toward the crest of the range. There are large groves of aspens here, but the trick is the lighting — the best light, backlight coming over the Sierra, arrives late in the day and only lasts a short time. Consequently timing is everything — arriving when the colors are at their best and being there and ready to photograph when that light hits.
“Aspens and Distant Mountains” — Groves of autumn aspens on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada.
The late-day light on autumn aspens is a fleeting thing, especially here along the east slope of the Sierra Nevada where peaks tower to the west. Over the years I have become familiar with the rhythms of this particular spot. I know that the best light happens during the half hour (or less) before the sun drops behind those peaks. So I arrive a bit early, pack a long lens, and prepare for a half hour or so of intense photography.
“Dunderberg Meadows” — Autumn aspen stretch across the landscape beneath Eastern Sierra Nevada peaks.
Transition zones in the mountains fascinate me — places where one sort of landscape runs into another. In this photograph from the Eastern Sierra Nevada, aspens extend across high desert sagebrush terrain and right into the lowest conifer forests. The demarcation between sagebrush and forest is fairly sudden, but the aspens live in both.
Decades ago my entire notion of the Sierra Nevada revolved around the forest and alpine zones. For that reason, and because I usually approached the range via its gentle west slope, I did not know about this high desert terrain. It is possible that the first time I encountered this zone was when exiting on the east side after a long walk in the high country — and it was a shock to me.
“East Side Canyon, Autumn” — An east-side Sierra canyon with autumn cottonwood and aspen trees below snow-dusted slopes.
Well, I thought that I had shared the last of this fall’s Sierra Nevada aspen photographs. But then I took another look at my raw files and decided that a few more were worth working up. This is one of a set of four in that group. It features one of the steep canyons that rise along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra. There is a row of cottonwood trees in the foreground and larger groves of autumn aspens far up the canyon.
You can’t tell from the photograph, but it was almost impossible to make pictures here doe to high winds. I had parked along a rough gravel road and was alternately making photographs and cowering behind my vehicle as gusts swept through. Between that wind storm and the snow that came in a few days later it was a tricky year for aspen photography in the Sierra.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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