Tag Archives: kancamagus

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New England

New Hampshire Leaves

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New Hampshire Leaves
A patch of autumn leaves along the Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire

New Hampshire Leaves. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A patch of autumn leaves along the Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire

While it may seem that autumn is almost over, the autumn photography season isn’t bound by the calendar. I can find subjects in the Sierra that suggest autumn to me as early as the end of August, and it isn’t unusual to find some autumn red, gold, brown, and orange colors in parts of California all the way into January. All of this is by way of explaining that I’m not done with the autumn photographs yet!

This photograph comes from our October visit to New Hampshire, where we photographed New England fall color for the first time. After years of listening to fellow photographers rhapsodize about autumn in his region, we were overdue for a visit. I made this photograph… next to a parking lot! We had stopped to make some photographs of the larger landscape, but the soft light on the leaves caught my attention. This small vignette suggests the wildly diverse colors of the autumn leaves in this region.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New England, Photographs: Panorama

White Mountains Panorama

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White Mountains Panorama
Peak autumn color along New Hampshire’s Kancamagus Highway.

White Mountains Panorama. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Peak autumn color along New Hampshire’s Kancamagus Highway.

This is not my typical photograph — and in more than one way. I have already written that this year marked our first photography of the famous New England fall color, but another difference is probably less apparent. This is an iPhone photograph! I’ve been carrying various iPhones for years, but I rarely use them photographically for anything more than quick snaps and record shots. But we recently upgraded to the iPhone 14, and on this trip I decided to see what I could do with the thing. Its ability to make quick — and quite decent — panoramas, even in some challenging lighting conditions, is remarkable.

Aside from that technical issue, this photograph also exemplifies some of what makes East Coast fall color experience so different from the Sierra Nevada color that I have photographed for years. Most obviously, entire forests are almost exclusively hardwood trees, their color stretches almost unbroken across miles of terrain, and the colors are so varied. I’m still processing the experience and thinking about the relative attractions of this kind of autumn photography compared to kinds that are more familiar from my years in the Sierra.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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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: New England

New Hampshire Forest, Autumn

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New Hampshire Forest, Autumn
Multi-colored autumn foliage in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

New Hampshire Forest, Autumn. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Multi-colored autumn foliage in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

We paused along the Kancamagus Highway to photograph at this large turnout, a place with a parking lot next to a rocky river, where the opening in the forest above the water let a bit more light into the edge of the forest. Just about every variety of New Hampshire autumn color was present where the forest ended at the river’s edge.

I have noted that there are not a lot of places where a photographer can get a bit of distance on such trees — often the opening for roadways is narrow and there isn’t usually a wide shoulder along the highways. The forest is quite dense, especially by comparison to the mostly-open forests that I’m familiar with in the Sierra Nevada. Within the density there is also tremendous diversity, with many kinds of trees growing closely together and, in the autumn, producing a kaleidoscope of almost all of the fall colors one can imagine.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | 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.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New England

Autumn Morning, White Mountains #2

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Autumn Morning, White Mountains #2
Colorful autumn forest in morning light, White Mountains, New Hampshire.

Autumn Morning, White Mountains #2. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Colorful autumn forest in morning light, White Mountains, New Hampshire.

This photograph gets the “#2” designation since I previously posted a landscape-orientation photograph of roughly the same scene. One of challenges of photographing fall color in New Hampshire (and much of New England, for that matter) is that it can be a challenge to find open views of the terrain. In many places the roads don’t have a lot of places to pull over, and the forest often comes right to the edge of the road, blocking the views. So when I found a more open location I took advantage of it. I visited this spot more than once, and on the second try I think I got the better light and color.

This photograph illustrates differences between fall color in this region and the Eastern Sierra color that I’ve photographed for years. It would be almost impossible to find a California location with so much color extending for such great distances. (And keep in mind that this is just a small slice of what was visible from this location.) The color here also varies a lot from tree to tree, though the result is that it can produce a somewhat undifferentiated effect in long views. I found it challenging to locate compositions in photographs that focused entirely on this color. Here I separated the upper and lower portions of the frame, and then found some leading lines in the distant gully and the contrast between the yellow trees and the shadow on the left side.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | 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.