Tag Archives: leaves

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Autumn Hillside

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Autumn Hillside
“Autumn Hillside” — A Utah hillside with autum color from aspens and brush.

The range of colors in this photograph reminds me a little bit — but only a little bit — of the widely diverse autumn colors of New England forests. It is a bit subtler, with lots of softer tones, ranging from the marginal coloration of some of the green plants to the ghostly quality of the leafless brush in the foreground.

The location would usually be considered unremarkable. In fact, we ended up here more or less by accident. While driving a better known route through part of Utah I saw a gravel side road and spontaneously decided to see where it led. We started in a beautiful aspen grove, then climbed up and around a large ridge to west-facing slopes, where we found this autumn color.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Autumn Leaf Pile

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“Autumn Leaf Pile” — A pile of autumn leaves beneath urban trees.

I walk a lot. Most days I try for 4 or 5 miles, sometimes more. I always carry a camera — most often I don’t take it out of my small pack. But other times I spot something that interests me, and I’m glad I brought it a long. When I came across these intensely colorful autumn leaves on the ground beneath a copse of trees, I stopped and spent a few minutes photographing.

In my part of the San Francisco Bay Area, the autumn color season comes late, likely due to our gentle climate. We don’t see all that many autumn leaves here in October, and then things get started later in November. It seems that this year things are peaking right around the start of December. (I like to point out that I can make my “fall color season” go on for months, from the first hints of Sierra Nevada autumn color in September, to a few trees that still have leaves on New Year’s Day and beyond.)

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Autumn Trees, Yosemite Valley

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Autumn Trees, Yosemite Valley
“Autumn Trees, Yosemite Valley” — Yosemite Valley trees with colorful autumn foliage.

this spot had some of the best autumn color I encountered on my end-of-October two-day photography visit to Yosemite Valley. In much of the Valley the colors of autumn are subtle — meadows with golden-brown grasses, riverside plants turning yellow, and in some places deciduous trees with fall foliage. But if you look closely you’ll see fall color almost everywhere in this scene, including at the base of the distant cliffs.

This clearing is a bit unusual in Yosemite Valley. Most of the Valley is covered with coniferous forests, and where it is more open it is typically in meadow terrain. Here I think the thinner trees may be due to the very rocky ground, places where the Merced River overflows seasonally.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Aspen Transition

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Aspen Transition
“Aspen Transition” — Autumn aspen trees begin their seasonal color transition in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

The colors of autumn aspen trees are so impressive that you might think that photographing them is simple. But there are challenges, at least not if you want the best possible photographs. The intense fall colors present a challenge to modern digital cameras. Very intense colors,like the yellows, reds, and oranges of these trees, can “blow out” the image if you use a “normal” exposure. The color is very intense, especially if the leaves are in direct sunlight. That’s why I often prefer to photograph these trees in soft, filtered light ore even in shade.

These trees are part of a very large grove on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. In this frame you can see trees at almost every stage of the transition, from green leaves to a few that are almost bare. In this case the combination of the Sierra crest to the west (right) and some scattered clouds served to make the light more gentle.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.