Tag Archives: leaves

Submerged Autumn Leaves

A confession: Although these are “submerged autumn leaves,” I photographed them on New Year’s Day. We spent the day in the Central Valley with friends, celebrating the new year and photographing birds and landscape. The location is primarily wetlands terrain, but there are cottonwood trees all around, and their colorful leaves were everywhere.

I stopped here after someone told me that they had spotted a single bird of an interesting and rare sort in an easily accessible spot. I spoke to a fellow who told me the bird had gracioiusly posed on a branch for him for ten minutes before flying away. Of course, it was gone when I got there! As I left I crossed a little bridge right where the bird wasn’t. I looked down into the water and spotted these interesting leaves.


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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Urban Wild, Manhattan

Urban Wild, Manhattan
Tightly packed buildings and large trees, Manhattan.

Urban Wild, Manhattan. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Tightly packed buildings and large trees, Manhattan.

This photograph embodies something about Manhattan that I’ve mentioned before: For such an intensely urban place, there are a lot of examples of the natural world. It isn’t the kind of (ostensibly) “pure” nature that we see in the America West, but I sometimes think that its close juxtaposition with the city environment almost makes it more precious. We have whole forests out here in California, but in Manhattan a single tree can sometimes mean almost as much.

I saw this scene from the High Line Park as we walked its length last November. To those of use used to living with more space around and between us, the closeness of urban abodes along this park is surprising, and it almost seems voyeuristic to take a long look through the trees in someone’s tiny yard.


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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The Lake, Autumn

The Lake, Autumn
Manhattan skyline reflected in the Lake on a hazy November day, Central Park.

The Lake, Autumn. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Manhattan skyline reflected in the Lake on a hazy November day, Central Park.

We went for a walk in Central Park on the first morning of our November visit to Manhattan. We planned to meet up with family later in the day, but we had free time and the park was only a couple of blocks away. Our New-York-resident (grown) “kids” have occasionally wondered why in the world we always visit the city in the dead of (freezing) winter or the (wilting heat and humidity of) summer — they have suggested a spring or fall visit. And they were right. The weather was pleasant and the fall colors were spectacular.

The body of water is “The Lake” — perhaps not the most creative name, but a lovely place just the same. It is surrounded by paths beneath hardwood trees, and those trees were in full autumn color. I made the photograph from a small bridge, placing a few of the towers of Manhattan between the trees so that they would reflect in the surface of the water.


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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Three Autumn Trees, Brick Wall

Three Autumn Trees, Brick Wall
Three white-trunk autumn trees in front of a brick wall at High Line Park, Manhattan.

Three Autumn Trees, Brick Wall. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Three white-trunk autumn trees in front of a brick wall at High Line Park, Manhattan.

On one of the days of our recent New York City trip we took a very long walk. We started at our hotel west of Central Park, roughly around the Natural History Museum, and headed south. Our first goal was the Hudson Yards complex, which we had not visited since it was under construction. Full of energy after a lunch stop there, we decided to keep going. We picked up the High Line Park walkway here and eventually ended up all the way down at the Whitney Museum.

The High Line Park is always fascinating. It is built on the right-of-way of the elevated railway that once ran along this side of Manhattan. I’m not aware of any park quite like it. In places it might be as narrow as a dozen feet wide, but its length makes up for what it lacks in width. Its elevated path takes you between buildings, across busy streets, underneath one hotel, and more. Along the walk there is plentiful vegetation – grasses, flowers, trees. The contrast between the regular form of the dark brick wall and the bright, fluid forms of these autumn tree trunks caught my eye.


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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