Tag Archives: leaves

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

Aspens, Meadow, and Pond

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Aspens, Meadow, and Pond
Aspen trees at the peak of autumn color at the edge of an Eastern Sierra Nevada meadow pond.

Aspens, Meadow, and Pond. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Aspen trees at the peak of autumn color at the edge of an Eastern Sierra Nevada meadow pond.

One of the things that Sierra Nevada aspen photographer are always looking for is leaf color other than the ubiquitous yellow-gold seen on the vast majority of aspens. That color can be quite beautiful, but colors that contrast with it are special. This could be the green of yet-to-change trees, but ideally it is the beautiful red and orange leaves that appear less frequently. In most cases these rarer colors appear among larger numbers of yellow trees, and they can stand out wonderfully against that background.

I photographed these trees near a spot where I often pause to look at early yellow color, but where I usually do not photograph. However, on the visit during the third week of October (later than usual for me) essentially all of the leaves had turned, and I notices some beautiful orange and red trees that I hadn’t seen before. I took a short walk to a slightly elevated camera position and photographed them with a bit of meadow and pond in the foreground.

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: Sierra Nevada

Late-Season Aspens, Evening

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Late-Season Aspens, Evening
Late-season aspen groves in the early-evening shadow of the Sierra crest.

Late-Season Aspens, Evening. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Late-season aspen groves in the early-evening shadow of the Sierra crest.

The light for this photograph was special. I was east of the Sierra crest at an elevation of 8000′ or so. The sun had just dropped below the crest, and the direct sunlight was gone. However, clouds above the peaks were still directly lit by the sun and quite bright. As a result I worked in soft shadow light, but the trees were still gently backlit by those glowing clouds. This gave more directionality to the light than might have otherwise been the case, and this soft backlight enhanced the colors of the trees.

This location is one of the more fascinating and unusual in the range, though it is easy to overlook what makes it so. While the crest rises high to the west, here the terrain is on a boundary between high desert sagebrush country and the start of foliage that is more characteristic of the mountains. I think that the east side location, with its relatively less moisture, has a great effect on this. While I tend to think of aspens as mountain trees — and they often are — here there are many growing in terrain that is more desert-like.

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

Tall Autumn Aspen Trees

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Tall Autumn Aspen Trees
Tall aspen trees with long, white trunks on an Eastern Sierra Nevada hillside.

Tall Autumn Aspen Trees. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Tall aspen trees with long, white trunks on an Eastern Sierra Nevada hillside.

The large grove of which these trees are a part is one that I’ve photographed for a long time. For the Sierra, it is a very large expanse of aspens, and they rise from a valley up the lower slopes of rock-strewn mountains. Most of then I have photographed them earlier in the season where the more colorful trees are mixed in with trees that are still green. But this time I visited later in October, and virtually the entire hillside was yellow, gold, and red. Note also the tall and straight aspen trunks — many Sierra aspens are much shorter.

I photographed these trees, as I often do, in soft, shaded light. The sun had not risen above the ridge behind them, so there were still fully in shadow — though the sunny edge of that shadow was rapidly approaching as I worked! Photographing aspens in these conditions reveals the difference between our own visual perception and what the camera “sees.” Looking at the scene you would say you saw colorful aspen leaves and white or gray trunks. But a photograph made in these conditions renders the trunks intensely blue. So the photographer faces a quandary for which there are several possible answers. One is to “go with the blue,” with the risk that viewers will be struck by what seems like unnaturally intense blue tones. Another is to shift the yellow/blue balance in post to produce something that better approximates the experience of looking directly at the trees.

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

Conifers and Hardwoods, Autumn

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Conifers and Hardwoods, Autumn
A mixed stand of conifers and colorful autumn hardwood trees, New England.

Conifers and Hardwoods, Autumn. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A mixed stand of conifers and colorful autumn hardwood trees, New England.

Near the spot where I made this photograph, a carpet of wildly colorful hardwood trees was draped across valleys and ridges. It was quite a sight, but it was also very difficult to photograph it. One of the challenges of photographing in this part of New England comes from the very forest that produces those colors. The darned trees grow so close together and come right up to the edge of roadways, making it very difficult if not impossible to make photographs of longer views from many locations. That was definitely the situation here — lots of colorful trees, but lots of things standing between me and those trees.

It eventually occurred to me to use the blockages as part of the photograph. in this case there were conifer trees growing nearby and among the hardwoods, and once I thought about how I liked the effect of the muted green conifers against the riotous hardwood colors it seemed to make sense to juxtapose the two types of trees in this photograph. If nothing else, this photograph serves as a record of those qualities.

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.